Adam Wilt on Focusing Red

[Paul Harrill]

This article by Adam Wilt on the PVC website is worth a read by anyone with a Red. It's not glowing, but it is very fair and its criticism is constructive.

http://provideocoalition.com/index.php/awilt/story/random_red_revelations/

In particular I valued hearing Wilt's take on focusing with Red:

"As I mentioned above and in my test report, neither the RED LCD nor the 720p monitoring output showed fine enough detail to focus critically, even with image magnification engaged. Shooting with RED monitoring is like shooting with most under-$10,000 HD camcorders, using coarse LCDs and EVFs that only hint at what you’re actually shooting. Unfortunately, the 35mm-sized Mysterium sensor offers much shallower depth of field than a 1/3” or 1/2” handycam, so critical focus is much more, um, critical."

AND

"Finally, we can always hope that a future build of RED ONE firmware will include a higher degree of magnification in its image-enlargements mode, for when critical focusing is required."

I've felt these things for some time; it's nice to hear them from someone else, particularly someone of Wilt's experience.

[David Battistella]

I find there are a host of user definable tools like Monochrome monitoring with edge highlighting for one, that tells ou where the most in focus pixels are in the frame.

knowing what the sharpest pixels are is a pretty precise way of determining what is in focus.

The Red is offing a whole new set of tools that we need to get used to, learn and trust.

All that said a 1:1 magnification would be great, but it's still a 720P monitor.

WHat is the "absolute resolution" of teh red LCD?

David

[David Battistella]

On this point:

"Once we had collimated the camera, and verified the setting with both Ultra Primes and the Optimo, the RED 18-50 could no longer be focused at far distances when zoomed wide: it looked like I needed to turn the focus ring another five or so degrees past its end-stop to get things in focus."

I have heard that the actual RED lens needs the mount shimmed to match the optimos and Ultra primes.

David

[Darren Orange]

Okay...Really guys this is simple. It MUST be treated like film! Simple as that, Minus the whole needing film thing. The camera is by desgin meant to replace a film camera. Yes you can not look though the lens, but you have focus assist also.

[Chris Burket]

Sounds like the mount on their 18-50 needed to be shimmed.

As the the focusing troubles... I can understand wanting a 1:1 image for focus, but judging exact focus on the day for ANY camera is very difficult. Even if your shooting with a modern 35mm camera with perfect viewing optics, there are still other things to consider like the operators eyesight. Some are 20:10, some are 20:100. But just because an operator doesn't have great eyesight doesn't make him a bad operator. And the first AC can't judge the focus off the video tap. With HD cameras with native 1920x1080 outputs, focus is still difficult to judge off small monitors. There are always compromises.

In the end it comes down to the experience of the operator and 1st AC to be able to get sharp focus. This involves communication between 1st AC and operator, the 2nd AC, sometimes actors... Proper flange focal distance and a properly collimated lens are critical as well, but there really isn't a perfect system out there, even if you can look directly through the lens.

[Mark Toia]

I think he may be a bit of an amateur at it. or has shot a lot of 2/3 inche video at f5.6, Not 35mm at F1.3 as much.
Or maybe he has not tuned his focal plane.

I've shot miles of footage with the RED on many jobs, Haven't had any problems with focus at all, And we shoot at f1.3 a lot.

EVF seems to be the fastest best way for us. BY EYE.

Practice makes perfect

[Brigham Edgar]

Proper flange focal distance and a properly collimated lens are critical as well

Very true, unfortunately found our 18-50mm was indeed 'out' and is back at RED HQ. As well, combining this with the back focus mechanism on the RED being not an absolute this is where he may have become unstuck. This happened to me personally that the backfocus mechanism was not done up tightly enough and slipped at some point when setting up for a shoot. Combining both on the RED LCD looked sharp but when taken to 1:1 was obvious.

In short, EVF...YES PLEASE, 1:1 zoom option...YES PLEASE. Oh yes, and a correct lens, and being 100% confident in your back focus being locked off securely enough as not to budge after being set. (Tighten each screw a little by little back and forth till there is no more give, all the time watching your reference monitor like a hawk) But since then, nothing but joy! As the saying goes ' A lesson learnt'

[Mike Prevette]

I'm not saying he's wrong about things, he just writes about things like they are a big failure or a product flaw, when in fact they are just part of the process. Last time I checked AC's weren't accurately setting a 435's flange depth via a video tap. If he thinks it's hard to set the flange depth on a Red, he's obviously ever polished shims for a Aaton.

It's unfortunate because he and Art are all over CML, and their website is trafficked by a lot of people that won't bother researching the facts behind his opinions.

[shashbugu]

I have a lot of respect for Adam wilt, but truly thats a very odd article. Many film cameras including the pana millineum Xl have minor back focus problems, there are many tricks to the focus pulling profession, like using a glossy colored clapper stick in front of your subjects, the glare or refraction sets the tone for lens light convergence from tape to camera, this is the quickest accurate way to kill three birds, light, focus and color rendition with one lens.

[Evin Grant]

It takes some getting used to but I can eye focus with the EVF pretty well now. Especially at T2.8 and below. It may be harder to hit than when it's more stopped down but it's easier to see if your in or out. But without a doubt when things tart moving you're lost without a real 1st AC who knows what it means to pull 35mm.