On Sun, 25 May 2003 23:34:56 +0200, philip@pch.home.cs.vu.nl (Philip Homburg) wrote:

>In article <3ed0e032.3438140@newsstand.cit.cornell.edu>,

>Neuman - Ruether <d_ruether@hotmail.com> wrote:

>>On Sun, 25 May 2003 12:46:33 +0200, philip@pch.home.cs.vu.nl

>>(Philip Homburg) wrote:

>>>Personally, I find focusing a video camera much harder than a decent

>>>(manual focus) SLR.

>>Often true, unless you have one of the better video-camera

>>finders. These can be used to focus wide-angles fairly

>>easily

>I don't understand the reference to wide-angles. Focusing at the wide

>range of the zoom is easier because the depth-of-field is larger.

But the depth of *focus* is smaller - getting good focus

accuracy with a VF image is more difficult with WAs due to

their greater DOF... ('course, DOF can often cover errors,

if not too bad...;-).

>In low-light tele situations where f/1.8 and 9dB gain is barely enough,

>focusing can be quite tricky.

Yes, of course (though my Sony VX2000 video camera handles

this pretty well...;-)

>>>If you rely completely on the AF system, you can use an EVF for framing,

>>>but what's the point.

>>Having something a lot better than an unshielded tiny rear

>>LCD screen for judging exposure and color-balance, as I

>>pointed out in the parts of the post that you removed.

>Maybe the concept of an unshielded rear LCD screen needs to be revisited.

Yes - turning it into a good LCD eyepiece VF with the

addition of a shroud and magnifier would help...;-)

>With some user interface research it is likely that basic luminance

>results the can displayed in the LCD display that is part of an optical

>VF.

Yes, but it isn't - and using it would be less intuitive

than viewing a responsive LCD image of the photo...

>I don't have much experience with judging color balance on an LCD

>screen. I guess, I would try to treat color balance as an RGB luminance

>problem and fix the image during post-processing.

This is necessary if you have no "clue" about the image

exposure and color-balance from a normal optical SLR

viewing system - but a good LCD with good VF optics and

good light-blocking can give you a MUCH better preview of

the final image (and with practice, you can predict from

this image the likely color balance and highlight/shadow

characteristics in the final image, and do it quickly

and intuitively...).

>>This has reduced my failure rate with this camera to close

>>to zero, since I have a good preview of the image as I take

>>it, and just after (for checking framing, exposure, and

>>WB...). If you rely on the AF system, what's the point of

>>using an optical VF system...? ;-)

>Framing? I guess that trying to track any object with 4 Hz refresh of the

>VF image will be quite tricky.

Yes, but shooting hand-held moving objects at 1/4 second

is a relatively rare event - and, BTW, the Sony has a nifty

work-around for this: in locations where you will use

flash as the main light and it is too dark to frame

easily, the camera switches to infrared-mode and switches

on IR-emitting LEDs for framing/focus (and a laser pattern

for AF), then switches back automatically to normal color

mode when the picture is taken...

Cute, huh? ;-)

And possible only with an electronic finder...