D7000 Active Focus for Video?

[MrSleepin]

so far, i have noticed that when in video capture mode, the only way to actively focus, is to hold the shutter button halfway down...

so i got to reading about it in the manual, and it mentions the use of AF-S lenses being superior. i sold my 18-55 and 55-200 with my d80, and the only AF lenses i have right now are my nikkor 50mm 1.8, sigma 15mm 2.8 and nikkor 60mm 2.8 micro. none of which are af-s. but before i buy another af-s lens, looking into getting the 18-200mm @$600+, i wanted to make sure that active auto focus will work with that lens.

i have also noticed that the focus is really noisy in videos. is that because the motor being used is built in the camera? or are even the af-s lenses going to be noisy in videos?

 

[TheFantasticG]

The noise hasn't bothered me... but the AF in the video mode really isn't that great. It's been more frustrating for me than anything. Usually faster to manually dial it in.

 

[zamanakhan]

i think the noise is pretty annoying, i dont understand what you mean by active autofocus. All lenses will work the same weather they are AF or AFS (not manual.) The AF lenses will just have ALOT more noise.

Try this, when in live view click the info button until you get to the movie mode, you'll know you are in movie mode when the top and bottom are grey, it tells you how much time you have to record in the top right hand corner what setting it is and such. In this mode press down the AF selector button on the front bottom left of the camera, the AF on the top middle should light up yellow, turn the front command dial to subject tracking. Select a subject by bringing it into the wite square and press ok.

This is subject tracking mode and it will autofocus on that subject actively. There are diffrent modes as well, in the other two modes, you tell it where to autofocus and press down the shutter half way to autofocus. This works with both AF and AFS.

In my opinion the autofocusing for video is rancid, just learn to manual focus you will get MUCH MUCH better results, best lenses for video are actually full manual lenses that have apeture rings and weighting manual focusing. hope that helps

 

[MrSleepin]

most of my video will be done with my Rokinon 8mm (manual focus) since i will mostly use it for skateboarding videos.

as for your directions, thank you! i noticed the "subject tracking" in the manual last night, but didn't really know there was a faster way to choose it! took me a second to figure out there was in fact a button there! very cool!

have you guys used it with an AF-S lens?