Please could you help a camera illiterate mum? with a FZ48..

[Suzy S]

My names Suzy,
i'm from London in the UK and I have a Panasonic FZ48 camera and if possible I would like a little help..
I am making casting tapes using the movie mode with this camera and my problem is that when I am zooming from a full body or three quarter length body to a head and shoulder the camera is loosing focus. It does regain it again but the loosing focus is very noticeable. I have to continuous auto focus on and sometimes my subjects are moving but I am not sure what else to do? I am also using a blue back drop in an area well lit with photographic lights.
This might be irrelevant but i am also using 16GB Class 4 HD video memory card…..
I am I being really silly and missing something really obvious?
thank you
Suzy

[Rorschach]

Hi Suzy,

You're not being silly.

Most camera lenses use varifocal lenses so you will lose focus when the focal length changes i.e. when you zoom in and out. The camera's processor is probably not quick enough to autofocus quickly enough to make the loss of focus imperceptible.

I'm not hugely familiar with the FZ48 but if it has a manual mode for video recording, can you make your aperture smaller to get a deeper depth of field while bringing down your shutter speed? You may still lose focus when zooming in and out but it might not be as big a loss so the correction may be quicker.

[oldCarlos]

Does the MF (manual focus) work in Movie Mode?

[oldCarlos]

From Gordon's review; (which may help) http://www.cameralabs.com/reviews/Panas ... FZ47_FZ48/

`It's particularly impressive to film with the camera set to Intelligent Auto and watch the face detection kick-in when a person is recognised, before then switching back to a multi-area AF system, continuously autofocusing all the time; and if you see the focus drift out, a discreet half-press of the shutter release can normally bring it back in a moment without any fuss.`

[Suzy S]

Dear Rorschach

thank you for your quick response and for explaining so well whats happening… I couldn't exactly find a manual focus setting but I did find an exposure mode setting that you could set to
Program AE
Aperture -priority
Shutter - priority
Manual exposure

would setting one of these possible help?

thanks Suzy

[Suzy S]

Hi Old Carlos,

Thanks for the quote from Gordon's review, which i did read but must have missed this bit, I real like a fish out of water!

I have just tried filming in IA mode and had my daughter dodging around in front of me as I zoomed in and it does seem to be a little better, so I will try this mode when I next have the lighting etc set up for the casting tape sessions.

I don't suppose you would happen to know also if the ISO sensitivity should be on auto or a number at all?

thanks so much
Suzy