FX6: Touch-Tracking Auto-Focus Demo with 200-600mm + 2.0x converter

[DougJensen]

There's no question in my mind that the FX6 offers the best auto-focus capability of any video camera ever made by any manufacturer.  But you can't just take the camera out of the box and use the default settings.

I was on my way home last Sunday afternoon from another shoot when I noticed quite a few people riding Jet Skis on a local river. So, I took the opportunity to experiment with shooting some 4K high-speed action footage (120 fps) without ever touching the manual focus ring on my 200-600mm lens and 2.0x teleconverter, which is equivalent to a 1200mm lens). Everything in this video was shot over a period of about 45 minutes without ever using manual focus. I would just tap on the camera's LCD to tell it where I wanted to focus and then the camera would take over. Sometimes the camera would even automatically switch over to Face Detect auto-focus when people became prominent in the frame. I think the AF did an amazing job and it rarely missed. BTW, I've cut these clips short just to make a more interesting highlights video, but almost all of the clips run for 15-20 seconds . . . with perfect focus.

In case you're interested in learning about my FX6 auto-focus settings and techniques, I've posted a video I produced last spring after firmware 2.0 was released. 

Camera: Sony FX6

Lens: Sony 200-600mm with 2.0 teleconverter

Tripod: Sachtler Aktiv8 head and Flowtech75 legs

Codec: 4K XAVC-I @ 23.98

Slow-motion:  S&Q MOtion @ 120 fps

Shooting Mode:  S-LOG3

Grading: DaVinci Resolve

 

 

[IamOakley]

Pretty impressive considering all the waves and water spewing in every direction to distract auto-focus with. Thanks Doug, super useful to get your settings insight.

[Danny_Schmidt]

Hey Doug --

I've been super impressed with the AF capabilities as well, especially for wildlife.  Thanks for putting this video together that lines out the settings so well.