This weekend, we went to the top of Smith Tower’s to get a view of Seattle and its surroundings from its observation deck. I brought my Blackmagic Pocket Camera with me, and was able to capture this short video. Since the observation deck is surrounded by bars, I had to reach around the bars with the camera to get the views, then stabilize the footage slightly in post. This is one of the advantages of having a camera this small – you can capture high-quality images in situations you would never otherwise be able to.
One of my beefs with this footage is that the focus peaking on the camera often led me astray. When you’re in harsh sunlight, the small screen on the Blackmagic is all you can rely on for getting correct focus/exposure because the image on the screen is basically impossible to see clearly. Several times the focus peaking led me to believe my shots were in focus, especially since I was already closed down to f/8 to even f/22 on occasion. But when I look at the footage above, several of the shots are clearly soft and out of focus.
Aside from that, I hope the video captures the beauty of Seattle on a rare, bright sunny day.