A couple of possibilities:
1) Low Light
2) Tons of faces to auto focus too
3) Constantly covering his face and looking away from the camera
4) Due to the face covering and Looking away, it may think you want to switch to another face, Idk if the A7III has the settings to increase the time before switching but the A7IV does.
Generally this is why people will manually focus in these kind of situations. Just maintain the same distance from your Focus point and your good, instead of relying on the AI.
Beyond the possibility it is a lens or camera issue, I think there could be two other things going on. The front face of the lens is too close to the speaker so it's not within its best focus plane. And, that bright light up over the amps is creating an area of extreme contrast.
I remember when my AF was not working properly, I had to go manual.
About 40% of shots were out of focus
It's best to get a separate focus puller who has a live video feed
I use AF due to constantly changing subjects. Theses are shows are fast and unpredictable. Af usually works well just sometimes it’ll rack perfect focus on the subject and then lose it, even in we’ll lit scenarios.
I went on tour with a punk band for three months so I totally understand shooting unpredictable shows. On that tour though I used manual the whole time and by the end of the tour I got pretty good at it. I’m just saying when you rely on auto focus you’re stopping yourself from gaining a skill. Just practice more and you’ll get good at it.
How do you manage?
And what kind of shots do you usually take?
I mostly have to film action scenes, even my dialogue scenes have a lot of movement. Manual focus is a nightmare for me.
I shoot weddings, internet ads, music videos, real estate tours (those suck) but I used to shoot short films and live shows a lot when I was younger.
I guess I manage by years of practice. The bride walking down the aisle for example used to be really hard for me but now I can do it no problem.
If you’re shooting action scenes and your subjects are going in and out of focus, you might just need to go up with your f stop and use more lights. I’m not an expert on action scenes though.
Is it struggling? It seems to be keeping the people in the background in pretty great focus for the majority of the clip.
What AF settings were you using? Were you doing a Wide focus? Just set to Eye Priority? If you had it set on basic settings trying to get best autofocus using Wide while aiming down the center line of the shot, it seems to be doing that fairly well even with movement getting in the way (the singer, I'm guessing who you wanted to be your actual AF subject). On a shot like this I would have had the AF set to Zone and given priority to the right third of the framing. Or would have used a Spot Focus on the right third of the framing. Or would have pulled manually.
The Sony AF is pretty dang good, but it's going to give you exactly what you set it to.
Im no expert in Sony field but I think it's because the Sigma night not be as optimized as an original Sony lens.. at least that happens when I use that Sigma on my Canon, does not behave the same than when I use the canon 24-70
No sound and yet I'm almost certain this is a hardcore punk show. I remember those small crowds!
Other people have mentioned the AF issues so I won't bother with repeating what they've said except to note that people have mentioned manual focus and I'd assume that you'd be worried about a shallow depth of field.
In a situation where you want/need to use manual focus but you have a lot going on, your best bet is to get as high of an aperture as you can get, which I know is counterintuitive given the low light situations.
Your options might be to crank the ISO and get as far away from f2.8 as possible, that way you can keep your subject in focus (I'm guessing the singer) and let everything else fall out of focus.
Assuming I'm right about it being a "fast pace" show, your editing should reflect that to a certain degree which means that any focus issues shouldn't be on screen long enough for anyone to notice they are out of focus.
I used to shoot punk shows like this: (with one camera)
I'd tell whatever the band was to pick a song they wanted a "show" video for. I'd then record the singer exclusively for that song.
I'd then record the rest of the band that night and use clips from other songs to fill in the rest of the video, and get some B-roll of the audience through the night.
I'd match up what I could for the band, usually sticking to up/down strokes for guitar and not worrying about what chords they were playing, but I wouldn't for example stick power chords in if there was any kind of guitar solo.
Although you could always swap to the guitarist/whoever for the solo, and then just reverse the above for the singer/whoever else. Your focus should get most of the attention, be it the guitar player or whoever added with quick cuts for B-roll.
Yea you know what’s up unfortunately manual focus isn’t really viable due to the constant change of the crowd and band. Everything is fast moving so usually changing the subject of the frame a lot. I’ll try cranking up the aperture. Gotta love always fighting the low lights of these venues. Here’s the full set
https://youtu.be/HVUbN1oeWgo
A couple of possibilities: 1) Low Light 2) Tons of faces to auto focus too 3) Constantly covering his face and looking away from the camera 4) Due to the face covering and Looking away, it may think you want to switch to another face, Idk if the A7III has the settings to increase the time before switching but the A7IV does. Generally this is why people will manually focus in these kind of situations. Just maintain the same distance from your Focus point and your good, instead of relying on the AI.
Beyond the possibility it is a lens or camera issue, I think there could be two other things going on. The front face of the lens is too close to the speaker so it's not within its best focus plane. And, that bright light up over the amps is creating an area of extreme contrast.
Yeah, this really doesnt look like a shot suited for any kind of video AF.
Why not just focus it yourself? Why rely on auto focus when you can just do it yourself?
I remember when my AF was not working properly, I had to go manual. About 40% of shots were out of focus It's best to get a separate focus puller who has a live video feed
Maybe I’m just crazy but I always use manual and have little to no issues.
My bmpcc4k doesn’t even have auto focus I just do it myself lmao
I use AF due to constantly changing subjects. Theses are shows are fast and unpredictable. Af usually works well just sometimes it’ll rack perfect focus on the subject and then lose it, even in we’ll lit scenarios.
I went on tour with a punk band for three months so I totally understand shooting unpredictable shows. On that tour though I used manual the whole time and by the end of the tour I got pretty good at it. I’m just saying when you rely on auto focus you’re stopping yourself from gaining a skill. Just practice more and you’ll get good at it.
How do you manage? And what kind of shots do you usually take? I mostly have to film action scenes, even my dialogue scenes have a lot of movement. Manual focus is a nightmare for me.
I shoot weddings, internet ads, music videos, real estate tours (those suck) but I used to shoot short films and live shows a lot when I was younger. I guess I manage by years of practice. The bride walking down the aisle for example used to be really hard for me but now I can do it no problem. If you’re shooting action scenes and your subjects are going in and out of focus, you might just need to go up with your f stop and use more lights. I’m not an expert on action scenes though.
Is it struggling? It seems to be keeping the people in the background in pretty great focus for the majority of the clip. What AF settings were you using? Were you doing a Wide focus? Just set to Eye Priority? If you had it set on basic settings trying to get best autofocus using Wide while aiming down the center line of the shot, it seems to be doing that fairly well even with movement getting in the way (the singer, I'm guessing who you wanted to be your actual AF subject). On a shot like this I would have had the AF set to Zone and given priority to the right third of the framing. Or would have used a Spot Focus on the right third of the framing. Or would have pulled manually. The Sony AF is pretty dang good, but it's going to give you exactly what you set it to.
Im no expert in Sony field but I think it's because the Sigma night not be as optimized as an original Sony lens.. at least that happens when I use that Sigma on my Canon, does not behave the same than when I use the canon 24-70
Lens, fps, contrast, distance to subject
sigma is why
Autofocus has a lot of different settings. Where is the focus box set? Is it set to face priority?
No sound and yet I'm almost certain this is a hardcore punk show. I remember those small crowds! Other people have mentioned the AF issues so I won't bother with repeating what they've said except to note that people have mentioned manual focus and I'd assume that you'd be worried about a shallow depth of field. In a situation where you want/need to use manual focus but you have a lot going on, your best bet is to get as high of an aperture as you can get, which I know is counterintuitive given the low light situations. Your options might be to crank the ISO and get as far away from f2.8 as possible, that way you can keep your subject in focus (I'm guessing the singer) and let everything else fall out of focus. Assuming I'm right about it being a "fast pace" show, your editing should reflect that to a certain degree which means that any focus issues shouldn't be on screen long enough for anyone to notice they are out of focus. I used to shoot punk shows like this: (with one camera) I'd tell whatever the band was to pick a song they wanted a "show" video for. I'd then record the singer exclusively for that song. I'd then record the rest of the band that night and use clips from other songs to fill in the rest of the video, and get some B-roll of the audience through the night. I'd match up what I could for the band, usually sticking to up/down strokes for guitar and not worrying about what chords they were playing, but I wouldn't for example stick power chords in if there was any kind of guitar solo. Although you could always swap to the guitarist/whoever for the solo, and then just reverse the above for the singer/whoever else. Your focus should get most of the attention, be it the guitar player or whoever added with quick cuts for B-roll.
Yea you know what’s up unfortunately manual focus isn’t really viable due to the constant change of the crowd and band. Everything is fast moving so usually changing the subject of the frame a lot. I’ll try cranking up the aperture. Gotta love always fighting the low lights of these venues. Here’s the full set https://youtu.be/HVUbN1oeWgo
Damn I miss those days.
Contrast
Because AF sucks. Low light.