I have two new old lenses, a 135mm and a 200mm (f3.5 and f4 respectively). They are old manual focus lenses that are razor sharp even wide open. Love them both and my EF 50mm f1.8 is seeing much less use.
HOWEVER
I find I need a lot of guesswork, luck and patience to get the focus just right. What looks ok through the viewfinder and the preview screen is often just a bit OOF once imported. When focusing there is always a big band between focusing too near and focusing too far, where through the viewfinder the focus appears correct. Should I always be aiming for the middle of that band, will that always be where the focus is sharpest?
I plan on getting a split image focus thingy, since I love the old manual lenses I have now and will probably invest in more, but in the meantime anyone have tips, tricks and hacks for getting manual focus right?
i am by no means an expert, and i mostly only use manual focus for macro... what i do is leave both eyes open, and look only at the one thing i want to be 100% sure is tack sharp...
one problem i find with a very narrow dof (and bearing in mind that i'm working with macro) is that breathing can result in me moving just enough to take the bit out of focus...
anyhoo... now sure that is in any way helpful... hopefully someone who really knows their stuff will respond and i will read the response so i can figure out how to do this better!
Digital cameras with AF just don't have good focus screens for manual focus like the old film cameras did. You can buy one - I'd suggest it if you're going to do a lot of manual focus.
Most cameras have a focus lock indicator in the viewfinder, and with most cameras, that light will light up (usually green) when focus is achieved, even when focusing manually. So try a single centre focus point and see if the light goes on.
Try to find something contrasty, like an edge - much easier to see when that's in focus.
And yes, I think the middle of that band is where you want to aim. If you err, err towards focusing a bit too near, rather than far, becuase DOF will give you more slack further away than it will if you focus a bit too far out.
@bradleynovak Agreed, where possible, this is the way to do it.
I've got so much happier with my landscape shots since I started doing this -- even in good light, it's surprising how often the autofocus gets close, but not quite right. And like @alpeedee, I find attempting to manually focus through the viewfinder an exercise in disappointment!
Just my experience, but I found that manual focus takes practice. I got that practice shooting macro first, and that enabled me to manually focus with other lenses and under normal conditions. If I'm not certain I'm going to get the focus right I'll use a smaller aperture, so that there's less problem if I do miss the focus.
My camera has an indicator when it thinks things are in focus. I always use the center point and recompose, but when dof is an issue that can be a problem as swaying a bit can throw your focus off (something to be mindful of). Otherwise, I kept staring intently through the viewfinder while I slowly focused, trying to see what it looked like when the camera's indicator beeped.
A macro or a telephoto lens is easier to see the focus than with a wide angle. A fast lens is easier because its brighter - my kit lens was just about impossible for me to manually focus. After some practice, I discovered that I was pretty accurate and have never bothered with a split image focusing screen like Katz Eye or others - just use the screen that came with the camera. Not all cameras have viewfinders that make that possible (thought one of the Sony DSLR camera's viewfinder was so small, there was no way I could manually focus. Don't remember now which one that was).
One last thing - if your camera has a dioper adjustment on the viewfinder, make sure it's adjusted to your eyes (and that you don't need new glasses). Once I couldn't figure out how come my pictures were so off when they looked right in the viewfinder - I had accidentally knocked the adjustment control and it was way off.
If you want to get super technical, don't aim in the center of the depth of field...aim 1/3 of the way into it. If you have an iPhone, there's an app called Simple DOF that can help determine your depth of field at various aperture setting/distance combos.
@northy "Both eyes? Madness!" Then I tried it... shocked to discover that actually works! Saw a big improvement in consistency straight away.
@bradleynovak not on my rusty old 10D sadly, will file that tip away for future reference though.
@mikew Do you mean like the split image focus screens you can attach to a camera? Will the focus lock work even on a wholly manual lens with no electronic parts? I didn't buy the AF confirm adapter for my lenses. (Using m42 lenses on a Canon.)
Yes, I meant the split image focus screens. You can buy them for Canon, just not sure which models. The focus lock shouldn't depend on the lens, it's part of the AF system in the body, so yes I think it ought to work just fine. It just detects when edges are at their sharpest and at that point the green light goes on.
@alpeedee I use the same method as @bradleynovak described. But as I see you have a 10D you don't have liveview, so for you it's only possible to view the shot after you made them. When you have enough time you can use a tripod, make the photo, review it via LCD screen (zoom in!) and refocus and reshoot if necessary.
Liveview indeed is one of the big advantages of more recent cameras, together with much much better high ISO possibilities (and video).
Sorry that I can't help you more on this!
@northy haha I do that sometimes too... not always as it's not always practicable if there's a bright light source behind.
@bradleynovak The only thing I don't like about live view is I can't use the viewfinder, I have to use the screen... I end up with movement :/ Mind you, I've only played with it a few times because I just couldn't get the "feel" for it.
@alpeedee@mikew If you use a non EF-compatible lens on a Canon (e.g. an M42 lens) without an AF confirm adapter, you will not get focus confirmation from the camera even when the lens is correctly focused.
Canon made the choice to disable this function when a non-EF lens is used -- there's no technical reason why it doesn't work. An AF confirm adapter simply fools the camera into thinking that an EF-compatible lens is attached, giving you the focus confirmation feedback.
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one problem i find with a very narrow dof (and bearing in mind that i'm working with macro) is that breathing can result in me moving just enough to take the bit out of focus...
anyhoo... now sure that is in any way helpful... hopefully someone who really knows their stuff will respond and i will read the response so i can figure out how to do this better!
Most cameras have a focus lock indicator in the viewfinder, and with most cameras, that light will light up (usually green) when focus is achieved, even when focusing manually. So try a single centre focus point and see if the light goes on.
Try to find something contrasty, like an edge - much easier to see when that's in focus.
And yes, I think the middle of that band is where you want to aim. If you err, err towards focusing a bit too near, rather than far, becuase DOF will give you more slack further away than it will if you focus a bit too far out.
I've got so much happier with my landscape shots since I started doing this -- even in good light, it's surprising how often the autofocus gets close, but not quite right. And like @alpeedee, I find attempting to manually focus through the viewfinder an exercise in disappointment!
My camera has an indicator when it thinks things are in focus. I always use the center point and recompose, but when dof is an issue that can be a problem as swaying a bit can throw your focus off (something to be mindful of). Otherwise, I kept staring intently through the viewfinder while I slowly focused, trying to see what it looked like when the camera's indicator beeped.
A macro or a telephoto lens is easier to see the focus than with a wide angle. A fast lens is easier because its brighter - my kit lens was just about impossible for me to manually focus. After some practice, I discovered that I was pretty accurate and have never bothered with a split image focusing screen like Katz Eye or others - just use the screen that came with the camera. Not all cameras have viewfinders that make that possible (thought one of the Sony DSLR camera's viewfinder was so small, there was no way I could manually focus. Don't remember now which one that was).
One last thing - if your camera has a dioper adjustment on the viewfinder, make sure it's adjusted to your eyes (and that you don't need new glasses). Once I couldn't figure out how come my pictures were so off when they looked right in the viewfinder - I had accidentally knocked the adjustment control and it was way off.
@bradleynovak not on my rusty old 10D sadly, will file that tip away for future reference though.
@mikew Do you mean like the split image focus screens you can attach to a camera? Will the focus lock work even on a wholly manual lens with no electronic parts? I didn't buy the AF confirm adapter for my lenses. (Using m42 lenses on a Canon.)
Liveview indeed is one of the big advantages of more recent cameras, together with much much better high ISO possibilities (and video).
Sorry that I can't help you more on this!
@bradleynovak The only thing I don't like about live view is I can't use the viewfinder, I have to use the screen... I end up with movement :/ Mind you, I've only played with it a few times because I just couldn't get the "feel" for it.
Canon made the choice to disable this function when a non-EF lens is used -- there's no technical reason why it doesn't work. An AF confirm adapter simply fools the camera into thinking that an EF-compatible lens is attached, giving you the focus confirmation feedback.