I've heard good things and bad things about both, but I'm a little confused as to which one is more effective. You obviously have more control with MF then with AF, but with AF you have less control but faster focus when shooting a scene, making shooting time faster.
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Manual Focus vs. Auto Focus - Which One Is Better?
- Thread starter Intuitive Films
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I guess it could depend on what you are filming. For a narrative style filming, definitely manual focus. Because as your characters move around in a scene, the camera can start to hunt for focus. Not a very desirable effect for your film.
AF makes shooting time faster? really? i doubt that very much, so if your subject moves, surely you moving the focus keeping subject in focus saves time? where as autofocus you need to have a focus point im assuming which you would either have to have said subject on that point or it would focus on something else entirely? (havent tested autofocus video mode on my dslr)
stick with manual, if you go for a professional job and you ask for the auto focus settings.. you might get laughed at.
stick with manual, if you go for a professional job and you ask for the auto focus settings.. you might get laughed at.
I like to have control over focus. It bothers me when a camera wants to focus on a tree in the background rather than the actor right in front of me.
I talked to a guy who showed me some shorts of his and the actors were always in focus so I asked him who was his focus puller, since I was interested. He said that he didn't have any and used the autofocus the whole time. Could it be that some cameras just have a smarter autofocus, because not once did the camera go out of focus on an actor, and they were doing a lot of walking and moving around.
It was a Sony something. It was a camcorder but more with more advanced manual controls than most typical ones. And he said the lenses were interchangeable but I don't know which lenses would go on there.
It was open at f1.8 in some dark locations he told me, but it was a lot deeper DOF then the f1.8 you get on DSLR prime lenses by comparison.
It was open at f1.8 in some dark locations he told me, but it was a lot deeper DOF then the f1.8 you get on DSLR prime lenses by comparison.
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Sorry. I can't remember the name of the camera, as that was a few months ago. But their should be other cameras out their like his that have a smarter autofocus or whatever it was it had, that didn't make the need for pulling focus.
H44, The reason your friend's shots had everything in focus was because he had a small sensor camcorder that inherently has deeper DOF anyway.
Autofocus is not a solution to anything. The way autofocus works (in a nutshell) is the camera constantly sends out an infrared beam to what's in front of it, makes a decision on what it thinks you'd like to be in focus based on what's in the frame, calculates the distance to that object and sets the focus to that distance. It happens quite quickly so you don't notice it doing so.
Autofocus is hit and miss at best. The computer is doing all the decision-making, so if you want something else in focus, or a focus pull or anything along those lines, you're SOL.
As well, the computer is easily confused. It has no idea what's actually in your frame, so it makes decisions based on how bright something is and then how big something is. If there are objects of equal 'importance' or that the camera determines are of equal importance to be focussed on, or alternately no objects of importance that the camera can determine are important enough to focus on, the camera just gets confused and shifts focus back and forth between the objects, as if questioning you which one to focus on, yet not giving you an ability to choose one.
Manual focus is almost always better. The only time it's not is when you have a small handycam and the 'manual focus' consists of hitting + & - buttons to gradually throw focus nearer or farther.
Autofocus is not a solution to anything. The way autofocus works (in a nutshell) is the camera constantly sends out an infrared beam to what's in front of it, makes a decision on what it thinks you'd like to be in focus based on what's in the frame, calculates the distance to that object and sets the focus to that distance. It happens quite quickly so you don't notice it doing so.
Autofocus is hit and miss at best. The computer is doing all the decision-making, so if you want something else in focus, or a focus pull or anything along those lines, you're SOL.
As well, the computer is easily confused. It has no idea what's actually in your frame, so it makes decisions based on how bright something is and then how big something is. If there are objects of equal 'importance' or that the camera determines are of equal importance to be focussed on, or alternately no objects of importance that the camera can determine are important enough to focus on, the camera just gets confused and shifts focus back and forth between the objects, as if questioning you which one to focus on, yet not giving you an ability to choose one.
Manual focus is almost always better. The only time it's not is when you have a small handycam and the 'manual focus' consists of hitting + & - buttons to gradually throw focus nearer or farther.
I have quite a few auto-focus horror stories. The fewer decisions the camera makes, the better for me. I'm just curious about the camera.
Manual focus. Perhaps one day autofocus technology will reach the stage where it will know exactly what you want the focus on at all times and track it even if it moves. It has not yet. If it has, I don't know about it. Manual focus.
Manual focus.
Auto focus sux.
Sure auto focus is fine if you're stupid and lazy, and don't mind shots where the camera's little computer brain is trying to figure out A) "Oh, sh!t! Something just moved in my field of vision! I need to recalibrate and move the little motor... just... NOPE! Too far... gotta go back a li... NOPE! Not that far... jussssss... THERE! That's good. Oh, sh!t! The subject just moved again!", or B) "Do you want me to focus on the big thing three feet away on the left third or the thing staright in front of me in the middle third nine feet away?"
Screw that.
Manual focus = consistant focused DoF shots.
Learn 'em. Fire 'em and forget them.
Knowing, not guessing.
Auto focus sux.
Sure auto focus is fine if you're stupid and lazy, and don't mind shots where the camera's little computer brain is trying to figure out A) "Oh, sh!t! Something just moved in my field of vision! I need to recalibrate and move the little motor... just... NOPE! Too far... gotta go back a li... NOPE! Not that far... jussssss... THERE! That's good. Oh, sh!t! The subject just moved again!", or B) "Do you want me to focus on the big thing three feet away on the left third or the thing staright in front of me in the middle third nine feet away?"
Screw that.
Manual focus = consistant focused DoF shots.
Learn 'em. Fire 'em and forget them.
Knowing, not guessing.
This was so funny but so true!
I've operated a Sony (think Z1 or similar) which had like an auto focus assist. As in it would try to focus but if you touched the focus ring you would immediately be in control of the focus and wouldn't try anything until something dramatic changed. This was especially convenient for live events, but for narrative films I would generally use manual
