Focusing for 4K.

[JD Holloway]

There has been talk about the potential problems of using HD LCD/viewfinders for critical focus of 4K media.

That being said, "Crossing the Line" seem to have got the job done using, frankly, an inferior product to REDs viewfinder.

"They had no viewfinders, so we used 8" Marshall monitors, which we strapped onto the cameras" - see review thread "Meeting Boris & Natasha"

While I never saw the projected film at NAB (sad) clearly it hit-the-mark.

Any thoughts?

[Jaime Vallés]

They are pros. I guess it boils down to that. Practice, practice, practice. I know when I shoot footage sometime next year, I'll want an experienced focus puller doing their thing.

[Martin Drew]

They would have set the focus based on measuring with a tape and not by eye with a monitor. The Marshall monitors would just have been used for framing.

M

[David Mullen ASC]

Focus pullers working on a film camera don't have the advantage of looking through the lens anyway most of the time, so whether an LCD monitor was used or not wasn't really going to be an issue for that crew - that was more of an operator issue.

Focus in filmmaking is done in many ways, even in film -- if you have a zoom lens on, it's common to zoom in and get a quick eye-focus, for example, even if it's just a double-check for what was tape-measured. There is never going to be one single method for getting focus, pulling focus, etc.

[Joe Aurili]

It would be real nice if, when the camera is used with a red lens, the camera would display the minimum, center and maximum in focus distance, with the focus ring at the current position. I believe this is quite possible, since the lens can provide feedback. Then to get perfect focus I can just measure out the target subject with a tape, and then adjust the focus ring to hit in that distance range. Is that practical?

[Jarred Land]

the monitors used where just for framing, and as a comfort monitor to make sure they where at least in the ballpark, at which point They used Preston remotes to hit the marks they made with a tape measure.

Again.. trained professionals.

[Jens Jakob Thorsen]

the monitors used where just for framing, and as a comfort monitor to make sure they where at least in the ballpark, at which point They used Preston remotes to hit the marks they made with a tape measure.

Again.. trained professionals.
Or most probably with a laser measurer that most of my worldclass pullers use nowadays....

JJ

[Steve Gibby]

Stuart English's announcement a short while ago, of specific features for the Magic Focus Assist, should be of specific interest to the posters on this thread:

http://www.reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?t=1886&page=10
(Check his post #94)