Poobah's Video on Youtube
Brian's September launch video is up on youtube -- watched it about an hour ago. Now, he has a camera that does everything but make coffee (actualy, it might make coffee, I haven't checked the model); but somehow, it cannot turn off autofocus. There's no way to lock the sucker on "infinity"? You're shooting in daylight, stopped down, and for the most part, you're trying to focus on small objects 100's of feet away, but the camera keeps trying to focus on dirt on the lens.
A million years ago, I used Super-8 film. I almost always set focus to "infinity" because stopping down meant depth of field was good pretty much from 5 feet out to infinity, and never had a problem.
I'm not sure why modern cameras want to blurr half the video. I see that Rocket Vlogs guy on youtube as well and sometimes his autofocus goes beserk too. There has got to be a way to turn that "feature" off.
Yeah, it's a problem. My Canon camera has autofocus and stabilizing on/off switches on the lenses. I've used it in all configurations, still and video. I find the autofocus is a nightmare in videos, but it's not quite as annoying for stills. About all you miss is the high in the sky stuff on cloudless days. Hard to follow a fast rocket too, especially in video where you can't use through the lens eye piece, only the screen, which isn't bright enough in sunlight (with fast movers). So I shoot about 95% stills only.
Auto-focus is a godsend. Much of yesterday's focusing issues may have been due to pointing it into the sun as often as I did. Stop shooting rockets into the sun! 😉
Seriously, most auto-focus systems start from 0 distance to find its focus. Pointing the camera at a clear blue sky confuses that. It'd be wonderful to have a way to switch the scheme so that it would start from ∞. There's also a need to have something to bring into focus. A mosquito at 1000ft just doesn't cut it for a focus target.
Perhaps I just don't understand modern digital cameras. I used to work with film, and I know you can set the focus to "infinity", and if you're shooting in daylight, depth of field is 5-feet from the lens to infinity totally in focus. You should never have to touch the lens, even when zooming into something, since the object (the rocket) is 500 feet in the air when you zoom. But that said, I've never used a modern digital video camera. Call me an old fuddy-duddy, but I liked working with the old wind-up 16mm Bolex. Super-8 was pretty good too, but hard to edit the film because the size was so small. 16mm was just right.
You want a decent DSLR camera that does both stills and video. You can change the lenses like you're used to doing. Much of the settings and terminology are what you're used to with film. They can do a whole lot more than film, and you don't have to fool with buying film or developing. And post production work is nearly limitless on your computer. The camera body is fairly reasonably priced these days. The lenses can be pricy for the good stuff. That's the same as with film too. I use Canon, but Nikon is good too. Whenever you're ready, jump in. You won't regret it.
Awesome video!!! Glad to be in CENJARS!!!
Quote from Brian C. on September 5, 2023, 10:45 amPerhaps I just don't understand modern digital cameras. I used to work with film, and I know you can set the focus to "infinity", and if you're shooting in daylight, depth of field is 5-feet from the lens to infinity totally in focus. You should never have to touch the lens, even when zooming into something, since the object (the rocket) is 500 feet in the air when you zoom. But that said, I've never used a modern digital video camera. Call me an old fuddy-duddy, but I liked working with the old wind-up 16mm Bolex. Super-8 was pretty good too, but hard to edit the film because the size was so small. 16mm was just right.
My wife and I still have most of our film cameras we've used. The last 35mm film camera was the Canon Elan 7e. Paid a pretty penny for that one in its day but then, digital got good enough that we made the foray first with the Canon 20Ds and we haven't looked back. We still have our Mamiya 645Pro outfit which shoots medium format on 120/220 film. We've got the backs for 120 film, 220 film and a polaroid. We'd looked at getting the digital back for the Mamiya years ago and it was $28K. The price is now down to around $7K used! Mamiya 40MP Leaf.
Photography, however, is significantly different from videography. With a camera, one can adjust its aperture and shutter speed and focus; then, once satisfied, release the shutter. If you're adjusting all that while doing video (filming) you'd be recording all those changes. I've worked with several professional photography and filming crews here in the states and abroad when doing concerts. They have some very fine and expensive video equipment, but they live and die on automatics of aperture, shutter and focus because things change too quickly on a concert stage unless you're filming some boring "shoe-gazer" musicians or it's a heavy death-metal gig where lighting techs only possess red gels. Gawd, I loathe the red gel!
First photo is some of our kit circa 2003. I called this photo "ummagumma." For those that are Pink Floyd fans, you'll get the parallel.
The second was a fanzine magazine centerfold. Photo is Steve Hogarth, singer of the band Marillion (Aylesbury, UK) at a gig in Port Zelande, NL.
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