Rumour: Lumix S5 replacement with phase detect autofocus...

Also the Lumix G 12-35 f2.8 lens was annouced with a Leica DG upgrade this week. This is clearly again a "kit zoom" for the upper end packages. It was one of the kit zooms back in the GH3 and GH4 days. Before the switch to the 12-60 f2.8-4 for GH5 and GH6. I guess there will be a new m43 camera announcement soon also with this as a kit lens. Hopefully also with that new phase detect autofocus which is rumoured after the december press junket in Japan. CES in january 2023 og CP+ show late february.

It doesn't work with an external monitor connected: I'm in AFS and a single press of the AF Lock button should focuses the subject and lock the focus.

I press the button, I see AFL on the display but the camera doesn't focuses. I shut off the external monitor or I disconnect the hdmi cable and everything works again.

The strange thing is that the setting I normally use for macro (AF-Lock: AF-ON) works perfectly. I found several post on the net. It's not the cable and not the monitor. Do you know if a workaround exists? I have the latest fw.

P.S. I forgot to say I'm a underwater videographer, so the camera is inside an uw housing hence no magical Jedi tricks as touch screen AF or manual focus for WA shots.

I love to see a better video auto focus system. DFD has already removed the first wrong direction start of the focus pull, but I like to address the second wrong direction autofocus pull, the "focus confirmation" rack at the end of the auto focus pull.

I'm not an engineer but I like to understand what is happening what, how, where, when and why.

At this moment the Auto Focus system for video looks the same as for stills. And for stills it works fast and well, accept in continuous high when it has a hard time keeping up with fast action. For video (akin to a very high number of stills) the AF is way to slow, and the focus confirmation pull is very distracting and jarring.

If DFD is able to measure the blur amount, and therefore can measure how far the subject is, the I think a reprogramming of the focus system can help to get rid of that jarring focus confirmation refocus.

I can think of this focusing system:

Focus pull situation:

1) DFD measures the amount of blurr, 2) compares it to the current focus distance, 3) estimates subject distance, 4) smoothly starts racking focus, 5) measures amount of blur half way racking focus, 6) checks the blur shift amount of the first and second measurement, outputs second focus target distance, 7) at the last part of the focus rack the focus speed eases off to arrive at the second estimated focus distance.

Continuous AF situations:

1) DFD measures the amount of blurr, 2) compares it to the current focus distance, 3) estimates subject distance, 4) smoothly starts racking focus, 5) measures amount of blur half way racking focus, 6) checks the blur shift amount and compares it to the first measurement, calculates subject movement, 7) rack focus to second focus target distance, 8) checks the blur shift amount and compares it to the previous measurement, calculates subject movement, 9) repeat 7 and 8 until no blur.

10) If subject leaves the frame maintain the current focus distance for x time before starting with 1 on the new subject in the assigned focus area.

Maybe DFD blur measurements are hard & slow, so having measurements while the camera is auto racking focus is harder to do, but I prefer a slower focus much over racking past the focus and racking back in video.

As a compromise DFD could be used to make a 1 time focus distance estimate, the focus racks smoothly (s curve) to the estimated distance, and stops (without racking past the estimate focus distance AND racking back). This would be good enough for a G85, and the more processing heavy higher DFD sample rate for the high end GH5. I must admit this all hinges on DFD accuracy in measuring the blur and estimating the subject distance.

What do you people think? Love to learn how the current contrast and DFD actually works. Love to hear your suggestions of how to improve AF.

Price of brand new adapter : 270€ ( not including import taxes)

My price 190€ with free shipping all EU.

Adam

Also I'd love some input from others on colours and noise ... This was shot using a cinelike D mode with everything set to 0 and edited in Prem Pro 2014 , If memory serves I was on 800 ASA which is high but I expected better results for the noise ... The "black" bars are not the same black as the black surrounding them on my monitor... I output the clip using the factory preset for Vimeo which presumably is RGB as opposed to 709, so surely the black bars should match the black on my screen?? (the bars are a shade lighter)

Aside from the focus issue I'd be very grateful for comments / advice / guidance on noise especially in the blacks which are always a bit crappy ..

Thanks

Alan