Panasonic AG-DVX200 focus issues

[dcoatney]

Has anyone else experienced focus problems with the AG-DVX200? I have experienced 2 major issues that I never experienced with its predecessor (the 100a) or any other camera.

1) It won't focus on closeups of food... literally ever. Under any lighting, I can't get it to focus.

2) The manual focus acts similar to an auto focus. I have never seen another camera do this, but at certain times the focus will shift in and out as if it's trying to focus on the light. While it's not terribly uncommon on auto, there's no earthly reason the focus should be adjusting itself once I set it to manual.

[october262]

here's a brief PDF on the auto focus - https://pro-av.panasonic.net/en/dvx4k/pdf/ag-dvx200_tech_brief_vol5_en.pdf
and see this thread here - http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?347049-Auto-focus-problem

[dcoatney]

Thank you, october262. This explains how to adjust the sensitivity of auto focus, which should help. Unfortunately, I'm still trying to figure out why manual focus acts like auto focus.

[jagabo]

I'm still trying to figure out why manual focus acts like auto focus.

Is the lighting constant? If not, did you lock the aperture? If the aperture is changing the depth of field will change, especially with close up shots.

[dcoatney]

Even with constant lighting and the aperture locked, it will still attempt to autofocus when it is set on manual. With that said, it's 'more likely' to have these issues in the morning and early evening. I've turned my focus sensitivity all the way down so hopefully that will help.

In the process of exploring my focus settings, I also discovered the Macro Focus option and turned it on... my test object finally came into focus. So that solves issue #1.