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Manual Focus? Anonymous
Hey /p/

I've been thinking about working on ditching AF and doing all my work manually...any tips for speed/accuracy?
>> Anonymous
don't fuck up
>> NatureGuy !se3A3TwzdY
     File :-(, x)
pain to do with new lenses

pick up some old equipment that uses split focus

so easy it hurts with that style

There's a circle in the middle that divided into two. You make the two halves line up and presto it's in focus.
>> Anonymous
>>130560

I take it they don't make any new lenses with that feature? I vaguely remember using an old Olympus OM-1 whose lens had that.
>> Anonymous !SDPEsPMnww
>>130563
That's a feature of the focus screen inside the camera. I love manual focus on a Canon AE-1 I borrowed, but manual focus sucks ass on my 30D.
>> ac !!VPzQAxYPAMA
>>130560
>pain to do with new bodies
Fix'd
>> Anonymous
>>130566

Thanks for the disambiguation!
>> Anonymous
>>130563
http://www.katzeyeoptics.com/
>> Anonymous
>>130569
Lol, those screens cost half of my camera... And $30 Chinese knockoffs are reportedly shit.
>> Anonymous
>>130566
I've found it easy with any body above entry level, even without a split focus finder.
>> Anonymous
>>130573
Or get a magnifier eyecup for an entry-level body.
>> ac !!VPzQAxYPAMA
>>130573
But have you tried it with an old body designed for manual focus? Compared to that, even the viewfinder on a 1Ds or D3 sucks.
>> Anonymous
>>130576
Uh, I'm not so sure. Lack of prisms is fail, but today's matting technology is vastly superior to that of MF times.
>> Anonymous
>>130578
viewfinders used to be a big chunk of what you bought a camera over another one

now they slap on a kind of crappy generic one without anything new or creative being aimed at them

old viewfinders are so much better it hurts
>> ac !!VPzQAxYPAMA
>>130578
Unless you have absolutely perfect eyesight and you're looking through the viewfinder with absolutely perfect conditions, focusing with a rangefinder/prism screen is still going to be better than focusing with nothing but a matted but otherwise flat screen. There's just no contest. Especially given that modern mats don't show a difference in focus for apertures wider than about f/2.5...
>> Anonymous
>>130578
Wasn't me.

No, I haven't, and focusing screens do make it easier, but it's definitely not an ordeal to manually focus a relatively fast lens.

And the whole "focusing doesn't work below f/whatever" thing doesn't square with anything I've seen. Even shooting it wide open, the 50/1.4 (Canon) is the easiest lens to nail the focus with that I've shot with.
>> Anonymous
USE AUTOFOCUS YOU FUCKING PUSSIES

god
>> Anonymous
>>130581
The usual prisms aren't terribly accurate at xbox huge apertures, either (the accuracy is inversely proportional to the blackout aperture)

The only 100% accurate way of focusing manually is using zoomed live view. But it's extremely inconvenient if you're not shooting snails with a tripod.
>> Anonymous
>>130593
AF often fails on wide-aperture lenses, too (especially if it's a Sigma on a Canon body, lol)
>> Anonymous
>>130593
Pussies? People that actually do use autofocus are fucking pussies. Learn to actually take the photo yourself, instead of letting the camera do it.
>> Anonymous
>>130618
Correction: people who use all-points autofocus and let the camera choose where it's focusing fail. If you use the center point to focus the camera on whatever you want to be in focus it's pretty much the same as using MF and saves you time and frustration with these pitiful viewfinders they put in DSLRs.
>> Anonymous
>>130618

oh wow, guess the all caps didn't get through to you lol
>> Anonymous !SDPEsPMnww
>>130620
That's pretty much how I do it, although that AE-1 with the FD 50mm f/1.8 lens was just as quick for me as using that method on my 30D. It's a world of difference.
>> Anonymous
>>130620

agreed. autofocus is fine. i am used to manual but no one is a pussy for using either.

they both get the job done, as long as you're the one selecting the area in focus, who cares?

i don't think autofocus is that impressive though. maybe it's good to have with longer lenses but i only use wider than 35 primes, so they're easy to manual focus anyway.
>> Anonymous
>>130618
HURRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR