Urgent -Out of Focus footage

Hello,

Would greatly appreciate help with this.

I have some out of focus footage that I shot on a DSLR, I set the frame,
zoomed in, focused, zoomed out, re-set the frame, then recorded.

To my horror, when I looked at the footage on my computer afterwards,
my subject is pretty soft. I can't understand why this happened, it must
have unfocussed on the way out ( it was my first time using the camera but
camera and lens were set to manual focus)?

I wonder if there are any 3rd party plug ins that could help with this?

I'm going to need something stronger than the built in sharpening tools in most NLEs

UPDATE - OK, from what I understand I think the lens wasn't "parfocal" and that's why it wouldn't
hold focus, I was going off the small lcd and that is why things looked focused.

i don't think you're in luck, sorry.

(although i'd be glad to hear otherwise)


nick

I think the cameraman is still available, so a re-shoot is the best bet.

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Joe Riggs
UPDATE - OK, from what I understand I think the lens wasn't "parfocal" and that's why it wouldn't
hold focus, I was going off the small lcd and that is why things looked focused.

But you focused the zoomed-in image on that same small display. If you could judge sharpness then you could also judge it when zoomed-out. Like all of us, you trusted the zoom to "hold focus" while zooming-out and you didn't closely examine the final shot on the small display.

Your lens surely is parfocal by design. It holds focus on its intended focal plane. You have a mounting problem: a bad adapter, or someone has fiddled with either the lens or the camera. This old article explains the optics and suggests guerrilla methods for righting them.

Dennis Couzin
Berlin, Germany

Quote
"I think the cameraman is still available"

Haha, I was treating it like the old 3 chip cameras and Dcouzin
breaks down the science on why that doesn't work.

Thankfully, the shoot involved only one subject and we were able to re-shoot
right then and there, and this time in crystal clear focus!