Best Focusing Techniques for Filming Action Sports With Sony A7rii?

[kylemaggy]

I recently purchased a used a7rii from a friend and I am interested in starting to shoot some video in addition to stills. I'm trying to wrap my head around what would be the best focusing technique to film an athlete in continuous motion such as a surfer or skater, i.e., both a moving subject and a panning camera.


- Is there a "hands off" autofocus mode where the camera will continue to try to focus on a certain area while recording? I've heard that some people use face detection, but what if faces are not visible?
- Or while recording and in AF-C do you/can you hold down the shutter button halfway the entire time while recording in order to track the subject?
- Should I just attempt to pull focus manually?
- With the example of the surfer, what is the best way to keep the surfer in focus since he is both moving towards the side of the frame and closer to the camera? 


Any suggestions/setting recommendations would be much appreciated!

[Golem]

Given reasonable DoF, MF is always the most reliable.

It may not always be as near-perfect as AF when AF is

able to handle the situation, but it's waaaaay ahead of

AF in situations where AF could just "lose it" !

  

I find AF for video disadvantaged cuz it hasta focus at

the working aperture while AF for still photos does its

job at the fully open maximum aperture.

[bloodyheart]

everything about sony a7rii 

[Asmundma]

I have both the A7s2 and A7r2. You can use autofocus most of the time - at least I do. Its totally wrong that it don't work. 

Of course you need to get used to the tool, both for autofocus and manual focusing. 

[Disambiguous42]

Dave Dugdale has a good tutorial on shooting high school volleyball video with an a7RII and a 70-200 f4.  There are some good tips there for camera settings.  He's also a great resource for all things a7RII.

 

http://www.learningvideo.com/tips-for-shooting-volleyball/