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Just starting to get comfortable with the menus and buttons of my new Z280, practicing a bit every day so that I can change settings “by feel” in a darker theater or reception venue, places where I film frequently. It was a short learning curve for me having come from the EX1 to the EX1R to the PXW X200, and now to the Z280. The overall menu layout and the user buttons on the left side of the camera felt very familiar to me.
The features of the camera that I enjoy most, and the primary reasons why I purchased this camera are the AUTO ELECTRONIC ND filter, the f1.9 LOW LIGHT CAPABILITY, DIGITAL EXTENDER and FACIAL RECOGNITION AUTO FOCUS.
AUTO ELECTRONIC ND FILTER: It’s pretty amazing to be able to manually vary the ND filter density while holding constant an f1.9 wide-open aperature, or having the camera automatically vary it for me. Be aware that for the auto electronic ND Filter to work, you must set the ND filter switch to one of the 3 available positions. This function will not work in the “clear” position.
By setting the ND filter switch to position 1, 2, or 3, flipping the ND variable/preset switch to variable and setting the ND menu setting to manual, rotating the ND filter wheel changes the density of the ND filter in a range of 1/4 to 1/128 without changing the f-stop. As expected, depth of field can be manually increased or decreased by varying the density of the ND filter, particularly with a wide open aperature. (f1.9)
By selecting the “auto” ND menu setting the Z280 adjusts the ND filter density automatically, depending on the amount of light entering the lens. Your manually set f-stop still remains constant.
Moving the camera, for example, from a darker image on my patio to the bright sky, the camera will adjust the ND filter appropriately from 1/4 to 1/128 automatically. If the sky is still too bright at 1/128, you can further alter the exposure by rotating the iris ring until the image looks good to you.
Because I use the electronic ND frequently, changing back and forth from manual to auto, I found it convenient to assign this function to a user preset button.
FACIAL RECOGNITION: I took my Z280 out for its debut performance to film a show at a local theater, anxious to try out the facial recognition focus feature. I have a user preset button assigned to change the settings of this feature quickly. Available settings are AF off, face priority AF and face only AF. According to the user manual the face priority AF, when it finds a face, focuses on that face. When the face is no longer detectable, auto focus mode is engaged. If there are multiple faces detected the Z280 will select another face automatically if its first target is no longer detected. The process is seamless and very accurate. I filmed the entire show using this feature and it worked flawlessly. Not a single scene was out of focus.
In “face only AF” the accuracy of focusing is equally fast and accurate, but when the face is no longer detected, focus is lost; it doesn’t automatically switch to auto focus, exactly as explained in the manual.