On 11 Jun 2001 15:27:23 GMT, larry@aol.comDELThis (Larry) wrote:

>I am a very happy owner of a VX2K, but had a question regarding the autofocus.
>The AF on my rig seems pretty lame, especially when compared to AF on my still
>(normal and digital) and other AF video cameras. The VX2K seems to hunt a
>little more than I like and/or focuses on the background if the subject does
>not fill the frame.
>
>I tend to use manual focus, so this is more of a hassle when I feel lazy. ;-)
>
>Is there a spot/center weighted type setting for focus, like some SLRs have?

Unless you always shoot very low contrast, very
small subjects in very poor light with wide-angle,
I would not expect the above... I have two VX-2000s,
and they are notable for their ability to lock onto
the appropriate area for focus and not hunt unless
conditions are REALLY extreme (dark wall with little
texture, in dim light...;-). Even with fast motion,
or something passing through the frame area, the
AF response is slow and tends to stay with what
was aimed at, and virtually never "hunts".
Compared with most (well, ALL) other camcorders,
the VX-2000 AF is great (and so good, I have stopped
using MF with it). BTW, AF requirements are different
for still cameras and video cameras - still cameras
need to AF (and "re-AF", or "hunt") quickly, but
this looks bad in motion-video (better is a slow
"hand-focus" like shift, that stops and doesn't
easily change once subject focus is reached).
With the greater DOF in video, exact focus is less
important than with stills (with a WA on, you can
just about "set and forget" the focus, so AF is
relatively easy...). If your VX-2000 hunts a lot
in bright light, and misses a subject that occupies
a reasonably large part of the center of the frame,
I would suspect a defect...