Pocket Camera Autofocus doesn't work

The place for questions about shooting with Blackmagic Cameras.
  • Author
  • Message
Offline

Gregmerfy

  • Posts: 2
  • Joined: Tue Feb 13, 2018 9:16 pm
  • Real Name: Greg Murphy

Pocket Camera Autofocus doesn't work

PostThu Feb 22, 2018 2:12 am

All compatible autofocus lenses do not work on my BMPC. They are blurry and unresponsive to anything done in settings. Has anyone had this issue? Any suggestions for what I might try?
Offline

Denny Smith

  • Posts: 13131
  • Joined: Thu Aug 01, 2013 4:19 pm
  • Location: USA, Northern Calif.

Re: Pocket Camera Autofocus doesn't work

PostThu Feb 22, 2018 7:31 pm

The auto focus works, but how well depends on the lens. The less expensive kit lenses do not fair well, while the more expensive “pro” lenses like the Panny Leica series work best. That said, the Pocket is No a continuous auto focus. It is a Push to focus only and you need to hold the focus button down until the lens focus is set correctly (image looks sharp).

It only works with Olympus and Panasonic Native auto MFT lenses, not the manual SLR Magic, Voightlander, or other adapted lenses. I will work with EF lenses, when used with the Metabones Pocket/EF Speed Booster, but not the Nikon SB.
Cheers
Denny Smith
SHA Productions
Offline

Brad Hurley

  • Posts: 2045
  • Joined: Wed Jan 17, 2018 7:42 pm
  • Location: Montréal

Re: Pocket Camera Autofocus doesn't work

PostThu Feb 22, 2018 8:40 pm

I had a similar problem with my BMPCC, which I bought new in January. It turned out to be defective: the camera and lens were not communicating.

I think the test for this is to see whether you have the same problem with iris: push the iris button and if nothing happens then you may have the same problem I did: a faulty connector in the camera.

Another thing that can cause this is if the lens isn't seated properly/fully in the MFT mount. Be sure to turn it until you hear it click into place. I thought that was my problem at first, but verified that it wasn't, and I took my pocket camera back to the store where we tried 3 or 4 other autofocus lenses (Panasonic and Olympus MFT lenses) and none of them worked either (iris or focus).

They sent the camera back to Blackmagic for repair or replacement. Edited to add: I received the repaired camera just now and it's functioning perfectly. According to the repair documentation, they replaced the sensor and cable.
Resolve 18 Studio, Mac Pro 3.0 GHz 8-core, 32 gigs RAM, dual AMD D700 GPU.
Audio I/O: Sound Devices USBPre-2

Return to Cinematography

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: Instadrom and 79 guests