Tracking Focus

B

bwaysteve

What would be the best focus method to use on a glidecam.I have tried to shoot with a 24mm at about F8 and keep focus at about 6ft. following a person.I have also used my 18-200 (which is a little heavy) on auto focus.
The auto focus "hunts" very little at 18mm (not really noticable) but the lens is too heavy for me to hold very long.
I would prefer shooting with a wide prime.(D7000 is camera)
Just wondered if anyone could offer their technique for focus while tracking.
 
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Adjust your focus to 6', tie your self to the subject with a 6' piece of string and never let the string slack ;) Or, get a remote control focus thingy and hire a 2nd AC to pull focus for you. I'm sure what you're trying to shoot for is possible, but very difficult... I would recommend you stop down so you have a nice long DoF, run a bit wide and let physics do your focussing for you... just stay near the same distance to your subject.
 
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iso

So if I shoot at f11 at 6 ft. constant and my exposure indoors is say f2 @ iso320 50th sec constant,won't bumping up to say iso 1250 reduce quality seriously.I may be getting anal about high iso but my background is large format and low iso for best quality.What do you do in this scenario?
 
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your question was about focus, not exposure.
If you play with that calculator you'll see that simply moving your focal point two feet further away will put your subject at the HYPER FOCAL (best possible focus for the f8 fstop) At 6 feet your just a smidge to close on the focus to benefit from the physics of the thing.. you can still do it.. practice practice practice..

exposure is it own science. Everything else (iso) being equal; If you NEED to stop down to f11 to get the deep depth of field to simplify your focus needs, then you need to increase the amount of light getting into the lens. Like Knightly said, its physics. You make the science work for you.

you must find balance in the force.

In this scenario, if it was me, And I HAD to have the glidecam shot, then I would widen the shot a bit more AND add more light. Lots and lots of light. Id try and keep something in the foreground, that is OUT OF FOCUS so I get that nice "selective focus feel" without compromising my subjects focus..
 
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