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This $12 iPhone app gives you remote focus and LiDAR autofocus on your Blackmagic cameras

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No matter what camera you use, the ability to focus remotely is a wonderful thing. And if you’re filming yourself, it can often be invaluable. I’ve spoken about it before in the Weebill 2 Pro Plus Kit review. And while I tend to avoid it when shooting video, I’m not to big to admit that there are times when autofocus can also make your life drastically easier.

Autofocus is a feature notably lacking from Blackmagic cameras, but this iPhone app gives it back to you using your iPhone’s LiDAR sensor to determine the distance to the subject and telling your camera to focus to it. And, yeah, you get regular remote focus pull features, too. It looks like the app’s been out for quite a while, but has kept itself below the radar (their Facebook page only has 5 followers). YouTuber Michael Tobin discovered it, though, and has made a video showing how it works.

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Nikon Z9 is the first Z camera to get DSLR-like focus speeds with adapted F mount AF-S lenses

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When Nikon started shifting over from the screw-drive autofocus system of their regular F mount AF lenses to their AF-S system they started adding autofocus motors inside the lens itself. One of the key selling points at the time was that no matter which camera you were using, the lens would always rack from minimum to maximum focus at the same speed as the motor was in the lens itself.

Along comes Z mount with adapted F mount lenses and this didn’t hold true anymore, with them generally spinning slower (albeit achieving similar overall results due to the more advanced AF system). Not anymore, though. According to this video from photographer Dariusz Breś, Nikon seems to have gotten AF-S lenses spinning just as fast on the Nikon Z9 as they did with their DSLRs.

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Canon Australia issues recall on Canon EOS R5c bodies due to autofocus problems

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Canon Australia has issued a recall for early shipments of the video-centric Canon EOS R5c mirrorless cinema camera. According to the recall, this is due to a manufacturing defect in the autofocus system whereby the camera will excessively hunt to find focus in movie mode. Canon Australia does say that this only affects “selected units of the EOS R5 C digital cinema camera”.

They say that only “a very small number of units” are affected by the issue and that the recall is specifically for those who received their units on or before March 21st, 2022. So, it sounds like it’s just a very small batch and apparently, a batch that only made it to Australia which has the problem as far as we can tell. Canon Australia is asking that affected customers return their cameras to be replaced with a new one.

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Don’t use our new lens technology if you have a pacemaker says Nikon

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Nikon has warned that people should avoid using their new auto-focus system in their latest mirrorless lenses if they have a pacemaker fitted.

The lenses affected by this include the new $14,000 400mm f/2.8 TC VR S lens for mirrorless cameras, and it’s all down to the way the new autofocus system works.

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TTArtisan announces its first autofocus lens for five full-frame and APS-C cameras

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TTArtisan, famous for its inexpensive manual focus lenses has decided to go autofocus, and they’ve done it in quite a big way coming to five different camera systems at once. Announced today, TTartisan AF 32mm f/2.8 is a full-frame autofocus lens, although a couple of the new mounts are for APS-C cameras.

In full-frame flavours, the new lens will be coming in all three of the major mirrorless camera mounts. That means Sony E, Nikon Z and Canon RF. Yes, they’re going where other 3rd party lens manufacturers fear to tread. On the APS-C side of things, it’ll be available for Fuji X mount and, strangely, Canon EF-M for the dying EOS-M system.

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This is how Canon shooters got autofocus 40 years ago and it still works today

Canon might have the edge in autofocus today, with dual-pixel AF (and quad-pixel rumoured to be on the way… eventually) and possibly even beating out Sony’s Eye AF face detection. They’re even bringing back the Eye Controlled Autofocus System for the EOS R3. But back in the early 80s, autofocus wasn’t something you really heard much about… From any brand.

In fact, the first SLR with autofocus wasn’t released until 1985. But that doesn’t mean autofocus wasn’t available. Canon actually made autofocus lenses for their FD mount cameras. They weren’t cheap and they weren’t particularly common but they did exist, as this video from Kai Wong demonstrates. And it still works on today’s mirrorless cameras.

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This hilarious musical parody describes Panasonic autofocus pretty accurately

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As somebody who owns five Panasonic cameras specifically for shooting video, I’ve learned to never rely on the autofocus from any of them and just go manual focus pretty much full time. It’s a lesson that many Panasonic video shooters learn quite early on. For some reason, Panasonic just really never seems to bring it home when it comes to video autofocus. Even with their newer full-frame S models.

It’s something that Kasey at Camera Conspiracies has definitely noticed, and spoken about at length across multiple videos. And now he’s attempted to quantify the situation in this beautifully hilarious song. Perhaps not surprisingly, it’s called “The Panasonic Autofocus Song” and it’s interspersed with clips where Panasonic’s autofocus absolutely fails to do its job.

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Rumour: Panasonic actually going to give the GH6 Phase Detect autofocus

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Well, this is a bit of a surprise if true. Panasonic has long shunned other autofocus systems in favour of its proprietary “Depth from defocus” system used in its Micro Four Thirds cameras. And while Panasonic might be happy with it, many Panasonic users are not. But now it seems like Panasonic might actually be changing their tune if the above video is to be believed.

It was posted by Film Studi-O-taku Hi, based in Japan who says that the “magical camera company fairies” (which could mean he’s protecting his source or it could be completely made up) got word to him that the GH6 will include standard phase-detect autofocus.

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Manual vs Auto vs Back Button focus – Which should you use for landscapes?

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I see people banging on about Back Button Focus in Facebook groups almost every day, extolling the virtues and benefits it offers for portrait photography. And, well, I just don’t get it, I really don’t. I’ve tried it several times and it often turns out to be more of a hindrance than a help. But when it comes to landscape photography, back button focus actually makes a lot of sense.

In this video, Mads Peter Iversen walks us through manual focus, regular autofocus and back button focusing and how each works for landscape photography. He explains how each method works and how you can use each of them while talking about the advantages and disadvantages of all three methods.

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Watch: Video tests to see if the Nikon Z6 II Eye AF really that much better than the Z6

Some of the biggest complaints about the Nikon Z6 have been addressed with Nikon’s new Z6 II. It now has dual card slots for redundancy and its continuous shooting speed has been bumped up from 12fps to 14fps. But one somewhat embarrassing setback of the Z6, even after the firmware updates, was its Eye Autofocus abilities.

Manny Ortiz has had his hands on a pre-production model Z6 II for a little while, and he wanted to put it to the test to see if the Eye AF issues, particularly in low light situations have finally been resolved. And, well, it looks like they might have been.

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