Greetings all,
I feel really silly having to ask this, as it seems like something that should be incredibly obvious... but I'm having trouble and I can't find anyone else discussing it on the internet.
While in photo or video mode, tapping on the screen will cause the iPhone to try and focus on what you tapped, and it will adjust the exposure settings to ensure optimal exposure, too. If you're in photo mode, this focus and exposure adjustment will disappear if you point the iPhone at something radically different; at that point, it returns to auto-focusing and auto-exposure metering. You can tap again, but unless you held your finger down to initiate the AEL/AFL lock, you're back to auto-focusing.
My problem is that the same behavior isn't occurring in video. Once I tap on the screen while recording a video I need to keep tapping the screen to re-focus as the scene changes, or stop recording and re-start recording in order to regain autofocus. AEL/AFL lock is not active, and activating and then deactivating it doesn't make a difference. It's a problem because sometimes I accidentally tap the screen (particularly when trying to hit that tiny "2x" to change which lens is active on my iPhone 7 Plus), and then I'm stuck manually directing focus or having to stop and quickly restart the video.
So, there it is: how the heck do you disengage a manual focus and resume autofocus while taking video?
I feel really silly having to ask this, as it seems like something that should be incredibly obvious... but I'm having trouble and I can't find anyone else discussing it on the internet.
While in photo or video mode, tapping on the screen will cause the iPhone to try and focus on what you tapped, and it will adjust the exposure settings to ensure optimal exposure, too. If you're in photo mode, this focus and exposure adjustment will disappear if you point the iPhone at something radically different; at that point, it returns to auto-focusing and auto-exposure metering. You can tap again, but unless you held your finger down to initiate the AEL/AFL lock, you're back to auto-focusing.
My problem is that the same behavior isn't occurring in video. Once I tap on the screen while recording a video I need to keep tapping the screen to re-focus as the scene changes, or stop recording and re-start recording in order to regain autofocus. AEL/AFL lock is not active, and activating and then deactivating it doesn't make a difference. It's a problem because sometimes I accidentally tap the screen (particularly when trying to hit that tiny "2x" to change which lens is active on my iPhone 7 Plus), and then I'm stuck manually directing focus or having to stop and quickly restart the video.
So, there it is: how the heck do you disengage a manual focus and resume autofocus while taking video?