Is there a D-SLR (including the new Nikon and Canon 60D) that can take video with continuous autofocus? On cameras that don't support that feature, is it possible to autofocus by pressing a button while shooting a video?
I'm looking into a getting a new DSLR and the video feature is quite important to me. Wondering if the existing cameras are worth the investment or if I should wait a bit more...
The Sony Alpha A55 is a new ILC (SLD, actually) camera that can do this.
I recently purchased a 7D (with the intent of using its movie capability as well). I will share my experience.
Like the 5DMkII, the 7D allows you to autofocus during shooting by pressing the shutter button/AF button. As che suggests in his answer for the 5D, the results are poor if you do this during your live shoot and I would definitely not recommend it.
My focusing workflow: before I start recording, I use autofocus to focus on the target area, and then whilst filming I use manual ring focus. I found that using the ring focus in this way was much easier than I thought and it also gives far more control over what you can do.
My old video camera was a far cheaper auto focusing one. Often I wanted to be able to have full control over the focus, either because it would do it wrong or I wanted to do something more creative. Now I can, and I am not sure I have much desire for full time auto focus for most of the stuff I am shooting...
The new Nikon DSLRs (D3100 and D7000) support that feature.
As for non-DSLRs, the new Sony SLTs (A33 and A55) and the micro-4/3 models (Panasonic GH1 and newly announced GH2).
You should check out Canon's new EOS-M. It does continuous autofocus and has the added bonus that you can re-use your canon lenses on it.
I believe the Nikon D7000 supports autofocus in movie mode, beyond that most that I'm aware of are manual focus.
Canon EOS 5D Mark II allows you to autofocus when shooting video, but the results are quite ugly.
The new Sony a57, a65 and a77 all have super fast autofocus in video. works very well. They also have a very easy manual focus feature that is called peaking mode (I beleive?) that will light up what ever spot is in focus at that time. And you can select a red, white or black color. very cool!
The Canon T4i has continuous autofocus during movie record as well.
Actually, for a more comprehensive and up-to-date list, I'd recommend checking out snapsort, which will list all cameras matching a certain feature. In our case: The best recent DSLRs that can focus continuously while recording movies
This question is kind of old, but it doesn't look like anyone's mentioned the recently released Canon 70D.
The Canon 70D has a new type of AF built into the imaging sensor ("Dual-Pixel CMOS AF"), so can do phase-detect focusing while recording (or in Live View). While many other cameras can do contrast-based focusing (even during recording), this is a big step-up in speed for the DSLR-video market.
Unless using an off-camera microphone, you'll probably also want to combine it with STM (or maybe some USM) lenses, which specifically reduce the amount of noise generated by the AF mechanism. They're designed for continual AF adjustments without jolting as they start/stop focusing (which was not important in the design of older single-shot AF motors).
Nikon D3100,3200,5100 and 5200 : these all have the auto focus feature when shooting video...its an awesome feature
