UPDATE: There is a new version of this video: • 3 Ways to Maximize Per... This is an excerpt from chapter 14 of Doug Jensen's 7-hour "Sony PXW-Z280 and PXW-Z190 Master Class" video. vimeo.com/2979...
@Doug Jensen, You're a lifesaver. I thought it was me. A couple of things I'd add that helped me out, in addition to the great instructions you have. 1. Make sure your camera is in Base Settings > Shooting Mode > SDR. I was in HDR > HLG2 and that made the process less effective. When I switched to SDR, it was better. 2. Use a back focus chart that isn't too tight. The first one I downloaded and printed was so tight that my camera struggled when it was setting focus at the wide angle. I made one that had more space at the open end. This was more effective for me. I think a larger chart would have helped too but my printer is only so big. Thank you again.
Great instructions and really required for this camera . Unfortunately there is no such test pattern card here in Belgium to be found .Any suggestions for alterantives would be very nice . Thank you
Thank you for the compliments. If you do a Google search for back focus charts you can find printable PDFs. But it doesn't need to be an official chart or special pattern. Anything with high contrast lines will usually work fine, such as a poster, sign, etc. You could even convert a PDF bakc focus chart to JPG and display it on a big screen TV so it is bigger than what you could print. Just an idea.
@@DougJensenVortexMedia Thank you , Doug , I thought those not being fine enough , but did find proper ones now and displays super fine on the 65 inch 4K Sony oled . Thank you again !
Hi Doug, thanks for the guidance! There is one more thing that puzzles me in my Sony PWX Z 280 camera - Ive watched many reviews and some of them refer to a possibility for this camera to mark a certain face for the auto focus. So the square focuses always on the specific person's face, no matter how the person moves. But in my camera I can't find any option to mark a specific face! There is only 2 options for auto focus - face only/face priority. Could someone please help me to figure it out in the menu? thanks a lot!
Hi Liza, this topic is covered in my 6-hour Z280 master class. vimeo.com/ondemand/z280 This is what I say about this subject, in the video: "Whenever faces are detected, a gray face detection frames is displayed around each face, and the camera will automatically determine which one should be given priority. When a frame changes to white, that means focus has been established on that face. The orange line is just a simple cursor that can be moved with the camera’s joystick. It does not necessarily indicate anything special about whatever frame is above it. One risk with Face Detect is that the camera may change the priority frame on it's own at anytime -- as it senses changes in the scene. That may not be what you want if one person is more important than the other. For example, if you're shooting the CEO of your company or following a political candidate around you probably want the focus to stay locked on them even if someone else become s more dominant in the shot. So, you can tell it to memorize an individual’s face, and it will then give that face priority over all the others anytime it sees that face in the frame. That is called “registering a face”. To register a face, move the cursor over that person’s face, and then press in on, the joystick. Notice that there’s now a double frame around that face, and there’s a new icon to indicate that we’ve registered a face. To un-register a face I just press the joystick again." I hope that answers your question.
Loved the Master Class on Z280 Thank you. Can you provide insight on what, how, where to get a sony wireless mic kit of the newer UWP-D series that has 2 transmitters, 1 duel channel receiver, and one sony hot shoe for it. I've been bambooooozled calling into the B and H's and Adoramas and others. No luck for me.
Hi Stephen, the last time I checked (January 2021) the single channel D26 kit is the only official bundle Sony offers. But with that said, you can easily create your own dual-channel package by mixing and matching any combination you want of UTX-B40 body packs, UTX-P40 plug-on transmitters, or UTX-M40 microphones (they have built-in transmitters) -- with a URX-P03D receiver. So gotta make your own bundle, just as I have for my Z280 and FX6.
I’ve been considering this camera for awhile now. Been totally spooked about all the negative reviews. My question is how often does this (back focus adjust) need to be done? Thanks for this video btw
I had to adjust the back focus on my Z280 the day I bought it, but I have never had to adjust the back focus again and that was September 2018. 14 months ago. Hundreds of hours and miles have been put on the camera since then with no trouble at all. Also, I spent the entire month of September in Fiji working on a TV show called Eco Challenge for Mark Burnett (the company that produces Survivor, Shark Tank, etc). Eco Challenge is billed as the "World's Toughest Race". 700+ crew and $35 million budget. My job was to setup, match, and oversee about 60 cameras and train the operators who had never used most of the cameras before. We had a total of eighteen Z280s. They were put through hell on a 400 mile adventure race through jungles, mountains, rivers, ocean, etc. Only one camera out of the eighteen Z280s needed a backfocus adjustment at the end of the shoot. And that camera was damaged beyond repair. And none of the cameras needed a back focus adjustment when I checked them prior to the race. The Z280 is a rugged camera.
@@DougJensenVortexMedia strange thing happened this week to my back focus on my 280. Back focus looked great except the very widest setting. Just a hair short of wide it jumps out of focus.../? Never saw that before. Did the FB adjust and I think fixed it. However there was no reason for it since it was not dropped and does not get used alot...???
@@emavideo Sometimes it is hard to pinpoint why the back focus my have become out of adjustment, but fortunately the fix is simple. I still have only had to adust mine the first day I got the camera in October 2018 and it has been perfect since then. But I do check it occassionally to be sure. Along with Black Balancing it is just part of my normal routine every few weeks.
I'm trying this on a Sony FS5ii, any suggestions? I'm kind of at my wits end. I shoot in manual, so I zoom in, set my focus and pull out and the shot goes soft.
hi can help me ? I factory reset and all reset the cam z190 And my cam become Full MF , can’t auto focus , even I switch the button to auto Screen forever show Full MF How can I set to AF?
Hi Stanley, I explain all of my recommended settings in my training video. It's too complicated to describe here in a post. But I will say that the Z190 is not a very good camera in low-light so I recommend having some lighting if the wedding is indoors. vimeo.com/ondemand/z280
Which someone would explain how to increase specific colors in the Matrix. For example looking at my vectorscope what colors give me a brigter yellow or a lighter magenta. This R-G, G-b stuff is very confusing.
@@DougJensenVortexMedia I did pay to watch that Doug. It was great. I even took notes! But I did not see anything there that would explain how to adjust with a vector scope to get more of a corect single color. FOr example, I have had my yellow or magenta off and its hard to know which of the matrix settings will get me an adjusted magenta without distroying the other colors. There needs to be a formula like "what matrix setting or combination will give me a correct Magenta.... etc. I have been using a Macbeth color check card to try to get the color settings for the 280 and my EX1R closely matched. I have them in the ball park but I have spent hours on it.
@@emavideo Hi Ed, normally those sort of color adjustment are only necessary if you want to match two cameras -- which goes beyond the scope of my video. In normal single-camera shooting there is really no need for such precision or make tiny adjustment to the color. However, with that said, if you do want to get that detailed with your camera's color adjustments then you will need two things: 1) A genuine dedicated vectorscope from a company like Leader or Tektronix. I own an a Leader LV5330 and can tell you it is excellent. 2) You will also need a DSC Chroma duMonde chart. The matrix menus of Sony cameras (and other brands) are designed to be adjusted using a Chroma du Monde chart and a vectorscope. Having both of those tools and knowing how to use them properly is absolutely mandatory if you are going to make adjustments to those menus while trying to match cameras. You cannot do it correctly with a Macbeth chart. And even if you have those tools, a perfect match between the Z280 and EX1R might not ever be possible. They are two different cameras separated by 10 years of development and I think a perfect match may be impossible. If you have gotten them in the ball park you might need to be happy with that.
I'm sorry to hear about the trouble. Are you sure the problem is with back focus? You may want to watch this other video to rule out diffraction problems first. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-U_JSeBvpkKo.html If you're sure that you really have back focus problem then you will have to send the camera in for service because there are no back focus adjustments on the Z190.
Thanks for the videos that you make they are really helpful... I set the focus for an interview lets say 1.2 meters and when i zoom out the persons face will get out of focus and the objects behind will be focus so i keep it zoomed out and set the focus to 0.8 and the persons face will be almost focus... and for the wide shots when i set the focus for the farthest object lets say 120 meters and when i zoom out the focus will be on 80 meters or less... and i always set my aperture to the lowest
@@mohamadosho1687 Are you sure the macro focus mode is turned off? You should check to be sure. Also, you could do factory reset of the camera to see if that fixes it. If none of that works,, then your camera may need servicing.
. Great video thanks! but i muss really say about something about this camera: the rocker zoom on this 8000 euro camera ist really really bad, very hard to work with it, . very hard to get clean smooth zooms, the speed changes with a minimal pushing from very slow to very fast. very hard to really control it and it ist fully unreilable . I own some of the pmw 200. 300 since years and is a world of diference. why is the big brother of suche a great cameras so bad on the rocker zoom? i was very disapointed when i ve realized how horrible is the zoom rocker... what a shame, because all othe functions are great, but fur some one like me doing news and coverage journalismus is fully unreilable, if you uses the zoom a a part of the style of recording you will have a bin problem and a pain i the ass...shame on you sony
@@DougJensenVortexMedia at the beginnig i was very glad when i forst got the camera ,configuring the camera, to be able to send my first test file on g4 directly to the tv customer server, so many assings butons, a 34 zomm on full hd, etc etc... and then the bad awakening, when i whent to the field do record the first material...could not belive it was working properly, so i didt count with that, so i ve returned it back as a defect gear...i ve drove to hamburg to the next store to check the demo camera there..... the same problem...just incredible that sony got such a great piece of gear, being fully destroyed by such a horrible zoom.. A reailable and smooth zoom ist such a big important part of a camera not just for someone who ist making news a coverages, is almost a kind of submission to acept this malfunctioning zoom and to live with it. I havent and will not take it ;) i d wished would be a way to fix it... really a shame and a clearly incompetent and sloppy job from sony on this zoom rocker ...
@@locochono77777 In my opinion, the poor zoom servo is not a big deal and is just a small disappointment. Zooming "live" during a shot is something I rarely ever want to do and it is something I hardly ever see on TV any more. Zooming is kind of an old fashioned shooting style. I prefer to use the lens as a "variable prime". I choose my focal length for a shot, shoot it, stop recording, and then use the zoom (if necessary) to frame a new shot. It would be very rare for me to zoom during a shot with the Z280 or any other camera. Zooming totally destroys the cinematic look that I am trying to achieve. Of course when shooting a classroom, an event on stage, or single-camera sports the zoom is more important but I have gotten pretty good at controlling the zoom speed and getting smooth starts and stops most of the time. I'm not saying you need to shoot the same way I'm just offering another perspective that the smoothness of the zoom performance is not a huge deal for some people. I assume you have adjusted the menu settings that control the zoom?
@@DougJensenVortexMedia i would not say is old fashioned to use the zoom as a dramaturgical element to intensifying for example an interview in live situations or recordings for the later tv programs. For example , Going from medium close up, to a close up in a interview will ad a lot o dramatic an intensity in what the interviewed person is saying, and not just in a interview, but in many other elements being filmed . i been working mostly in europe since 20 years, and to use the zoom as a very important elemet belogns to the daily business. smooth Zooming in increase the dramatic in all elements of the filming (if they are smooth of course) and zooming out from medium close to wide shot for example offers alot ot of the scenic resolution. I am just talking about my area, news and any kind of coverages. doing documetaries you need to use the zoom many times and right away focusing to follow the subject without making breaks. i know that for other productions zoom is not important so as the way you use it. Fact is the zoom quality of this camera does not fits in the quality of the whole pxw z280. And yes my friend i could not change too much on the menu, the handle zoom was very adustable on the menu but the rocker not at all. I am asking if maybe some other thechnicians would be able to fix it a little bit. So i can be motivatet to work with it ;) Many greetings!
@@locochono77777 Great post! I like it that you have pushed back with some excellent examples where zooming still has a place. Although these days I tend to shoot a little wider in 4K and use keyframes in post to zoom exactly right at the moment that I want it. Smooth as butter and perfect timing every time. But nevertheless, I agree that it would be nice to have better zoom control.
