fair enough, af could be useful, but i find people make too big a deal of it for "big sensor video". i mean, seriously, we're talking cinematography here, this is no longer "home video, crappy quality, blow all the candles now boby, smile to the camera, got it, can eat the cake now". as far as i understand, you either need to leave the focus alone for a given scene, or have a very good cine-cam operator who can actually "follow focus" smoothly, etc. if they can make af that can trully be controlled, be predictable, read your mind, etc, okay, fine, but meanwhile, come on, video on "big" sensors, this is cinematography, this used to be the stuff of holywood, forget the damn af and enjoy it, it's here (if you're a cinematographer, if not just ignore it). Same goes for audio: these are gimmicks, if you want proper audio, get a proper audio recorder, the camera is for image, the integrated audio is useful only for "quick ones", help syncing, etc.
i can't help wondering if people who are _really_ bothered by lack of af during video or sound quality wouldn't be better off getting one of those (overal very nicely designed) "family" video digicams, either memory based or the great sony magnetic tape ones. they seem to be the perfect tool for such purpose.
hell, one shouldn't even change exposure during a "take" as far as i understand, if serious about cinematography, that's why cinema shots look breathtaking, while the digicam ones are just "nice" (ah, it was adjusting the exposure there, right, got it now, oops, focusing,, allright, we're baaack) -- of course, with the dinamic range on those tiny sensors, you wouldn't see anything while sweeping 20degrees on a sunny day, so exposure must be adjusted, but this is the point of using these big chunky sensors instead.. (high dinamic range, color depth, "holywood here i come" on an affordabel budget)
nokia lumia is a different animal altogether: it's designed for casual use, for documenting stuff with "what you have in your pocket", so it must do a decent job with what it packs, otherwise there would be no point. But if you intend to shoot video with a dslr (so cinema-style), you better be prepared, have the equipment you need, have a proper plan in place (what you will shoot when), and a few assistants to help if possible.
anyway, rant over :), of course "things could be better" etc, i'm just saying some things don't matter as much. if they want to do something really nifty, raw video is the trick imho (see blackmagicdesign ;) ), prolly not easy due to pipeline requirements, or maybe not?
wait, this is the rumors section.
completely unreliable sources that i completely trust from inside the outside or thereabouts non-specified strategic location lead me to believe all claims about the new k-3 featuring raw video, and writing it to two cards at once for speed are blatant lies and "they" have never ever leaked such a detailed spec so "you should not even know it exists!" (quite angry here). understandably, i politely excused myself (life and limb first, sorry). make of it what you will.