Comments

rs170a wrote on 3/9/2011, 1:21 PM
I use this camera regularly to shoot plays and graduation ceremonies in a professional theatre as well as grade school gyms and never had a focus problem.
I always bring along a 9" JVC field monitor to help me as the viewfinder is often in an awkward position for viewing.
The camera is generally set to f 4.0 and no gain is applied.

Have you cleaned the lens lately?
Have you checked the back focus?

Mike
farss wrote on 3/9/2011, 1:34 PM
Yes, I used ours once in a theatre.
Focus was major problem because the back focus was WAY off, don't be a blithering idiot like I was and assume it is OK. The nature of the way the stage was lit made it difficult to impossible to check focus out wide so I relied on the zoom in focus, zoom out trick. The on camera monitor showed only tiny spots of light from the lit performers scattered over a featureless stage. You need a decent sized external monitor with this camera if shooting something on a stage in my opinion AND make 101% certain BF is spot on.


Low light performance is not stellar on this camera either, it can be quite noisy too as you've noted. By later standards not the greatest SD camera. It took great pictures when it had enough light and was a nice change from the look of the PD150 / PD250 that were our staple back then.

That show was the last time our 500 was used, we sold it for peanuts a few weeks later.

Bob.
tunesmith1801 wrote on 3/9/2011, 1:46 PM
I have tried to set the back focus but like you said I am having trouble when it is zoomed out. I can not determine if it is in focus or not, it is more of a guess. Is there another method I can use to try and help this>

I like this camera very much outdoors, indoors not so much. I do run firewire from the camera to my laptop and capture using Vegas, at least I have a larger screen to view.
rs170a wrote on 3/9/2011, 3:17 PM
tunesmith1801, beg or borrow a good high resolution video monitor.
I'm not talking about a regular TV but something that you'll (hopefully) find at a good post house.
You should be able to rent one if you have a decent rental place in your area.
The 15" JVC CRT monitors in my edit suites would be perfect for this purpose as they are 750 line monitors.
Feed the monitor from the BNC jack at the front of the camera (closest to the lens) as the one at the back can have display markings on it and you don't want that.
Next, print the focus pattern found at http://www.rondexter.com/professional/equipment/focus_pattern.htm.
The bigger the page you can print it on, the easier it will be.
Then follow the steps at http://www.mediacollege.com/video/camera/focus/back-focus.html or http://www.videouniversity.com/articles/adjusting-the-back-focus-of-a-lens.

Mike
tunesmith1801 wrote on 3/9/2011, 6:27 PM
Thank you Mike!!
rs170a wrote on 3/9/2011, 7:10 PM
Good luck and let us know if you get your focus issues sorted out.

Mike