Pulling focus with 70-200mm?

Soon my new(or used) 70-200 f/4 arrives.

In june, I´m filming a cycle race, street race. And I´m already thinking of how I want to shoot it. And this is one of my scenarios:

I´m stationed in a ditch with my tripod. Far up ahead there´s a turn where the riders will come out several times(the track goes round and round) so I have several attempts.
I want to start shooting at 200mm(preferable f4), follow the riders zooming out to 70mm as a focus. Is this even possible? Handling both zoom and focus?

So many factors at play here.

What camera body are you shooting with?
How are you monitoring the video?
Does the viewfinder have peaking or focus assist?
If you're shooting during a sunny day your chances of shooting at F4 will be minimal.
More like F16 if you don't put ND filters in front of the lens or shoot at a high shutter speed.
If you do manage to get the lens wide open you will need a LOT of practice to try and zoom and rack focus simultaneously.

I shoot with a 5D MkII with a 24-105mm F4 lens, one of the hardest cameras to track focus with. But using an EVF with peaking and because focus is less critical during the day I rarely have any trouble with it.

Seanus wrote: So many factors at play here.

What camera body are you shooting with?
How are you monitoring the video?
Does the viewfinder have peaking or focus assist?
If you're shooting during a sunny day your chances of shooting at F4 will be minimal.
More like F16 if you don't put ND filters in front of the lens or shoot at a high shutter speed.
If you do manage to get the lens wide open you will need a LOT of practice to try and zoom and rack focus simultaneously.

I shoot with a 5D MkII with a 24-105mm F4 lens, one of the hardest cameras to track focus with. But using an EVF with peaking and because focus is less critical during the day I rarely have any trouble with it.

I´m shooting with 5Dmk3.
I´m monitoring the video from the lcd-screen.
Don´t actually know what peaking or focus assist is, so please help me out.

I have a ND-filter, so there´s not going to be a problem shooting at F4.
I know, I need a lot of practice! But I´m thankful for every tips, helps and tools to make it easier - or not so difficult.

Ok so when you say the LCD screen are you using a loop?
If its just looking at the screen itself then tracking focus will be nearly impossible I reckon.
Certainly for my old eyes it is. I use SmallHD's DP4 EVF which has peaking and focus assist.

www.smallhd.com/products/dp4-evf/

Essential for tracking focus on a large sensor camera like the 5D.

No, I don´t have a loop. I´m all new to this, so I´m just gaining experience and equipment.

The DP4 EVF was expensive. Is there any other loops that give me peaking and focus assist? And why do I need a external LCD?
What is peaking?

I looked at the specs for the DP4 EVF. What is viewing distance and viewing size?

I can also see that I get battery bracket with the 599,- version. But does it come with batteries, or do I have to buy it separately?

Hey,

He means a loupe (I think its one of the things I advised you to get, along with a variable ND filter in another thread). Basically filming outdoors is impossible without a loupe (its simply a small plastic device that attaches to the back of the camera and makes the lcd screen into a sort of viewfinder (it cuts out the glare from the sun, and slightly magnifies the image). It is not an electronic device though, so it has no focus assist, peaking or anything like that. A loupe is considerably cheaper than an external monitor.

The 5Dmk3 has no inbuilt focus assist or peaking; this is something that is fairly standard on prosumer videocameras (not on dslr's). Some external monitors will give you these functions.

If you have a Follow Focus then you could conceivably premark some focus points to sections of the road in advance; that would be the most surefire way of hitting focus.

But really, for sports you probably just want to film at f22 and try to get everything in focus and forget about the shallow depth of field.

Beg your pardon. Yes I meant "loupe" it will be essential to film out doors.
I also have a Hoodman loupe that I use for when I run and gun. I've glued it onto a bracket so it fixes to the back of the camera.

I remember you advised me to get a loupe. I was looking at some, but I couldn´t decide, so I went for a Tiffen ND filter instead.
You have any loupe to recommend?

I haven´t tried shooting sport with DOF, so I really don´t know the difference - besides the one I have in my head. I just like the bokeh.

Since I´m shooting outdoors, and chances for rain is likely, what kind of rain cover do you recommend?
www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/891383-RE...stic_rain_cover.html
Good enough?

Any thoughts?

Don't know about rain covers. Don't shoot in the rain with my DSLR.

For advice on a loupe got to Planet 5D and see what's recommended there.

Well I have a Portabrace (with raincover) for my big shoulder camera and I have used it in the rain without any problems. If you are able to film with an assistant then a big golf umbrella is the best solution - the assistant just holds the big umbrella over you & him and the camera.

With regards to a loupe. Most of them work these days by magnets. So You attach a metal bracket to your camera (the bracket has very strong 3M sticky tape on one side) around the lcd. Then you hang the loupe around your neck, and when you want to view the lcd you pop it on the frame and its held together by magnets on the loupe. It works quite well, but the metal bracket looks quite ugly, and while I was willing to do this to the T3i, I was less happy about the thought of sticking the bracket on the 5Dmk3 as it might affect the resale value.

So this is the solution I found, and it works quite well:

www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home...Q=&sku=860349&is=REG

Basically you slide of the original viewfinder cover, and slide on this new viewfinder protecter, which also protects the lcd screen.

Then onto this lcd screen protector I attached the metal bracket, allowing me to put this loupe on:

www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home...Q=&sku=887720&is=REG

Nice one!

I´ll go for you solutions! Very neat

Do I have to buy the metal bracket with 3M tape separately, or does it come with the loupe?

3M tape is already on the bracket, its a really easy set up.

Good! Ordering those products!

Thanks!