DSC-P200 - Movie Mode - Focussing Problems

[TommyAtkins]

When I shoot movies I find that there is a tendency for the movie to go in and out of focus as as objects move closer or further away. The results range from brief, irritating blurring to the movie clip becoming essentially unusable. A few questions occur to me.

1) Is this something that is unavoidable or could I do anything to improve things?

2) By objects moving close and nearer, I'm not just talking about someone sprinting directly towards or away from me. Even if they're moving across my line of sight, I find focussing problems if they are only weaving away from and towards me by moderate amounts. Is the camera really that poor? I don't recall similar problems with my old Ricoh Caplio G3.

3) My impression is that the problem is worse when I use zoom. Is that correct?

[JPW2020]

:confused: I had a DSC s40 where the movie mode had the same problem.I think it is a common problem with some digicams not just Sony.I now have a Panasonic TZ1 which can be prone to this though not as often.It is manageable. It tends to hunt for autofocus at max.telephoto so perhaps that does make it worse.Try and avoid movies at max.zoom and see if that helps.Dont think there's any cure.

[TommyAtkins]

Thanks for the reply. At least I know it's not just me with this problem!

One thing does occur to me. I visited the major digital camera review sites before I bought the camera and I don't recall anyone mentioning the problem. I assume that this is because it's a still camera first and only a video camera by a very long second.