The Move Towards Motion – Fully Focused

Of course there’s no threat just at the moment to the careers of the top exponents in this field, but those that could be taking more than a passing interest in this development would be the smaller run-‘ngun type operations who would normally have been carrying out their own focus pulling in any case. The likes of Canon have also been very bullish about the AF qualities of their latest camera and lens launches and, on paper at least, the suggestion is that AF’s time might well have arrived, for smaller productions at least.

A camera such as the EOS R5, for example, boasts Dual Pixel CMOS AF II, which features 5940 AF selectable positions covering virtually 100% of the frame. This means that fast moving subjects, even those with an unpredictable line of travel, are being kept sharp, while the likes of face/eye detection, for both humans and animals, is delivering great results, even when the intention is to work with a shallow depth of field. Canon is also promising impressive pull-focus transitions in all video modes, while the more filmmaking-centric EOS R5C offers better performance still.

With Nikon’s mirrorless flagship Z 9 similarly coming packed with specs that promise incredible video AF performance, is the time now right for professional filmmakers to take a chance on technology, or will old school manual focusing still ultimately win the day if it’s absolutely crucial that your footage doesn’t go soft in the middle of a crucial scene?