Ever consider Manual Focus?
Вставка
- Опубліковано 10 лют 2025
- Head to squarespace.com... to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain using offer code AOP on checkout!
Lensdays! Using manual focus lenses will give you access to characteristics and looks that can play to you photography in some amazing ways. But these lenses were never designed to work with these cameras. I want to do this video to show you 2 things. 1) the best way to set up your camera for working with manual focus - its easy to learn and get the hang of and 2) how to change EXIF data so you can get to your photos quickly and easily.
In this example I'm showing you the Voigtländer 50mm f/2 APO-Lanthar as well as the Nikkor-S 50mm f/1.4
This Lensdays video is sponsored by Squarespace
My Adobe Lightroom and Capture One Presets theartofphotog...
Music is from Epidemic Sound goo.gl/v5wWKr
AoP T-Shirts aop.threadless...
Need a website? squarespace.com...
On my channel you will find videos about photography, cinematography, post processing tutorials for Capture One, Lightroom and Photoshop, photo assignments that YOU can participate in, the Artist Series and more. The Artist Series is an ongoing set of videos I produce as documentaries on living photographers. I am extremely passionate about photography and video and my goal in making these videos is to share my passion and enthusiasm with you! Don’t forget to subscribe and make sure to hit the like button and share this video if you enjoyed it!
Ted Forbes
The Art of Photography
2830 S. Hulen, Studio 133
Fort Worth, TX 76109
US of A
So many people who have for some time moved onto digital photography have completely forgotten the actual joy of taking photos (forget film for now) and using old manual focus lenses in the digital era, or with old film cameras is one of the most fulfilling parts of moving in for the shot. Moments pass us by daily, that we don't often get a chance to see whats around us. Its something my father said to me back in the 70's - 'Photography is the only medium that allows us to trap and capture time in the fragments of the moments we've lived.' I loved this video, thanks and cheers.
Exactly ; hunting or chasing Light , and being a Time Theif .. a good life.
thanks for the awesome comment, that inspired me to give it a try
agreed i adapt my lenses and limit myself to manual focus and its so fun and amazing and inspiring
What about real work with photography. Everyone will be doing AF...@@loui.e0241
I don't have bad eyesight by age, but from birth. I'm just happy that I finally have a camera that helps me to use manual focus for subjects where it is the better option (woodland for instance). The big thing for me is focus peaking. And I love how it is implemented on my Nikon Z.
I shoot Pentax (amongst other brands) they haven't changed their mount since the K1000 I have loads of classic glass, that quite frankly is better than some of the newer stuff.
SUPER TAKUMAR lenses .. Rule. The Schact Ulm 90mm 2.8 is killer , the Canon 0.95 50 mm , some of the Meyer Optic glass is superb. Russians and Zeiss too.
@@chrisloomis1489 Ive got a few of those that are Radioactive!!!!!!!!
Best part about learning photography on film is the necessity to learn manual focus which means that I can save a ton of cash on lens selection by using vintage lenses.
That Nikkor-S is such a beautiful lens by the way! I've got that lens parked on my Nikkormat FTn on any given day, and is one of my go-to's for when I throw Nikkor glass onto my NEX-6!
I am manual focussing 80% if the time. Owning M lenses and Pentax Takumar, I use them most of the time on modern bodies.
I also shoot video - all manual of course.
I use the LensTagger plugin in Lightroom for this task (you also need to have exiftool installed for it to properly work). I also shoot a black image (lens hood attached) after switching lenses, setting the exposure time to 1 / focal length (i.e. 1/50s when putting on a 50mm) so that I remember at home which lens I used. That does the trick.
My favorite manual is my Minolta 58mm Rokkor PF 1.4f lens. I use it on my Sony A7rIII and A7rIV.
I’m almost exclusively manual focus these days - got bored with auto focus some time ago now - some days my eyes aren’t what they used to be but it makes photography so much more stimulating creatively to me and sometimes the ‘schoolboy errors’ are happy ones.
Same here
I've bought a Voigtländer 17.5mm f0.95, and it stays on my G9 ever since. I love it.
Love manual focusing. It's almost all I use. Being able to use vintage lenses, and some of the unique art lenses out there is so much fun. I've shot video with it, too. Great subject and video, Ted! Thank you!
I love my Old glass , the TAKUMAR shoots like nothing else. Nothing can touch the Vintage 1960's or 1970's all metal lenses. Try the M mount or M42 , for tight fit ..compact L39 and M mount to mirrorless. True Joy.
I've definitely found a new appreciation for manual focus now that I'm doing more video haha.
I shoot 95% manual on Vintage lenses and this is so helpful. I used the tool before, I just didn't know about the profiles. Vintage lenses is the way to go, folks!I actually just got that same Nikkor 50 1.4 for dirt cheap and happy about the results. Love my FD 50/1.4...
What comes to mind after listening to you explaining how to set things in Presets in our Computers is what years of working and mastering The Dark Room in the days of Film two decades after the take over Digital Photography has brought us to. Now all that knowledge to develop images in Film are reinvented for this new Format. Great video Ted Forbes, thanks for all the content you make in this channel!
After I dug out my old film lenses from the 70s, I bought adapters (about 2 years ago) and paired them up with my MFT cameras. The "soft" edges the lenses gave me with my old film cameras are now "cropped out" with the crop sensor. I'm now addicted to old Zeiss, Contax and Yashica lenses that use the old c/y mount. Most of the old gold that's available are using the M42 screw mount. I'm tempted to get the adapter and buy some. Since I learned using an old manual SLR, manual focus is easy. The old muscle memory is there. Peaking is essential though. Some old lenses will achieve infinity focus a bit "early" depending on your adapter. Since it takes me back to teenage and 20 something photography styles, I'm having a blast with it. I'm really going to enjoy this content.
Wow, as a beginner photographer starting out with a mirrorless camera and vintage lenses, this was extremely helpful. Thanks for the solid content.
Gosh…I’m sure you have heard this before, but you are SUCH a great mentor. I loved the series you did on other photographers!!
I have a Zeiss Distagon 21mm for my camera. It's easily the best lens I have and it's one of the most expensive lenses I have.
I rarely use auto focus. No matter how accurate it is, I always second guess it.
My go to lenses are old manual focus Super Tak lenses, absolutely love them. I use an adapter for my Fuji XT100 and I use the focus peaking also. Super helpful.
Super Taks are really great lenses. My favourite ones are 50mm f/1.4 and 55mm f/1.8. I know that they are radioactive but I love them.
I am a Pentax user and I have a Cosmicar/Pentax-A 28mm f/2.8, Pentax-A 50mm f/1.7, Pentax-m 50mm f/2 on my Pentax K1000, and Pentax-m 40mm f/2.8 and they are all great. I use the 28mm and 40mm (40mm crop factor and 60mm crop factor on my Pentax K-3) the most. I'm looking forward to these videos!
I’ve been using the old Contax Zeiss primes with an adapter on my A7rii. They’re great lenses and super affordable. The manual focus has made me better at shooting documentary because even though I take less photos, I concentrate on the moment more.
Great tips Ted. This video is bringing your channel back it it’s roots. Enough techhy geartographer talk and back to basics exploring the roots of our craft! MF is something that needs to be talked about more. 👏 Great job
Great video, I have a D700 and use some old Nikkor lenses from my film days so your timing is great for me and this feature.
My cameras of choice for the past 7 years have been Sony's Mirrorless and they are fantastic. But I have always enjoyed being more in control. I've tried manual focusing with third party lenses but still wanted more. A couple of months ago I purchased a used Leica M and some Zeiss ZM lenses and it has renewed my enthusiasm for photography. My hit rate not even close to Sony's but I think with practice I can get close. Brings back the feeling I had back in the 70's.
Very cool to hear you talk about this topic now. I'm also new to the manual world and recently got that Voigtlander APO-Lanthar F2 for Sony. Fantastic lens and a so much fun!
Which one? 50 or 65. I have the APO lanther 110. Really good
@@SauravDasGuptaIN Ah! yes, the 50mm. Got into manual lenses for their compactness for street photography, and I'm loving the quality! How do you like the 110?
@@GEOMATTH the 110 is not compact at all unlike the 50 :) However it excels at what it was built for. In Macro capabilities it edges the Sony 90 which is a great lens itself. The MF wheel is smooooooth, well dampened and has a long throw. Absolutely no CA whatsoever. A bit too sharp for portraits but by modern days standard its quite good. Excels in landscape as well. Sometimes bokeh can be a bit uneasy compared to the 90 but most of the times its great. Inspite of being a bit heavy, I usually carry it on a trip. Combo of CV 21 3.5, 40 1.2 and 110 2.5 works pretty well for me although I must admit the 40 stays on most of the time due to the FL
Five years ago I saw a picture of an old Canon FD lens mounted on a Fujifilm X-Pro2. I decided to do the same with my old Nikkor 50mm and X-Pro2. I loved it. Next thing I knew I resurrected my old film cameras and have hardly used my digital cameras in 4+ years.
Here's a very strong benefit when using manual focus, and one that I have not heard spoken of: You are not limited to focus on a specific area at a time within your frame, meaning you don't have to change focus points, or even worse, focus and recompose. With practice this is overall faster then auto focus. Of cause auto focus is faster at one given point, but if you want to have a more fast flexible control over where you focus, manual focus wins. Just my experience with it. Thanks for the episode.
I would like it if you gave a shout out to the other channels who have been talking about vintage lenses for years. Seems like the honorable move.
I'm glad that you discussed this topic. I began to rely on MF when I started to shoot rocket launches. A vintage super telephoto lens was the most affordable option for me to get that amount of reach. With stabilization & focus peaking & digital zoom in, modern cameras are making MF much more easier to manage. It opens up a completely new world for me, and it's actually a lot of fun!
Ted, thanks. I enjoyed the manual focus discussion. Initially I used the excuse that arthritis in my thumbs made it too difficult to do the turns and twists for manual focusing. Thankfully I realized that was a terrible excuse. Once I accepted my arthritis rather than fighting it, I found that using manual focus brought me more joy than auto focus. Manual focus also slowed me down. Instead of rapid fire shutter clicks in the hopes of getting something, I became more aware of establishing my intent first. (A good lesson I learned from Hugh!) where I might have taken 100 photographs with auto focus, I might make 5 photographs with manual. And I end up with better photographs. That’s a win-win, brother.
I recently started using my old medium format lenses. My 1986 Pentax 55mm f/2.8 is fantastic on my Sony a6600. On the Sony it works out to be 51mm @ f/2.5. It’s been a blast using manual focus again.
I live for my minolta 1.2 50 mm on my Sony. And the other lenses I have from my grandfather.
As if Ted knew I just bought a Meike 35mm f/1.4, a manual focusing lens for my X-T100 lol
I'm still struggling with it, as if I couldn't be near as fast with my other Fuji lenses. But the learning experience and that f/1.4 have been so much fun!
Thanks for making this video, Ted!
Three points to consider - 1) depending on the camera an adapter may change the lens focal length - I'm guessing the long "tube" adapter you showed is one that does, 2) some adapters have a correction lens that basically eliminates pure use of the old glass, and 3) adapters can be found with a camera-specific chip that enables in-camera focus confirmation. Certain camera makes/mounts are better suited to using old glass.
The Voigtlander Apo Lanthars are amazing. They are all incdibly sharp, have almost no chromatic abberrations and are mechanically extremely well made. However these are very "technical" lenses with a very neutral charactersitics. I would definitively recommend to try also the Noktons - especially the Nokton 50mm 1.2 (and mostly also the 40mm 1,2 and 35mm 1.2). These lenses have got a romantic "vintage look" that I like a lot. They've got also a very beautiful bokeh (which many of the old lenses did not have!). All of them are a lot of fun to use. They are a bit dreamy betweeen f1.2 and f2 and then get very sharp at f8. And yes, they also deliver exif metadata.
Great tutorial! I'm in agreement with you that now I'm getting used to manual focusing since I got a classic 55mm 1/28 macro lens and will now make it my walkaround lens!
Thanks for going back to basics...'
Ted enjoy your channel and you have taught me a lot. during COVID taught my self photography using manual lenses on my Fuji xt1. Super takumar 35mm. Using focus peaking and zone focusing... tried a autofocus lens and could not figure out how to use it, went back to the takumar... just found it easier...
Doing mainly landscape and architecture photography, I have been using manual lenses more and more recently. In my case, these are no vintage lenses, but current models which I prefer over my AF lenses because they have a much better handling (among other reasons). The new Canon EOS R5 and R6 models have a focus guide that is brilliant for focusing manually - just like the old split-image rangefinders in SLRs before the AF age, only much better. I prefer that over the focus peaking (that is also available in case you like that better).
As far as adding metadata in Lightroom when using vintage lenses via adapter is concerned, you could also use any other metadata field where text can be entered (like a description field). Since I am using the Negative Lab Pro plugin, I can use the metadata fields that come along with that plugin - one of which is named “Lens Model”. A smart collection can use those fields as well, so while I can’t edit the “real” lens metadata field in Lightroom (which I would, of course, prefer to do), this one does the job for me and saves me from using external tools (which is also no big hassle; but the plugin just makes life a little easier, I guess).
This is so interesting that I have decided to go back to Manuel focus, but I have taken it a up a notch. I have choses to go with polaroid and have notice it has become my new favorite way in which to take photos. It is crazy in how it has become popular once again.
I mostly shoot old film cameras, so yeah, I use old manual lenses all the time. When I do use a DSLR, I often turn off AF to get the focus the way I want it.
I also have an old East German viewfinder camera (made at the old Carl Zeiss factory in Jena). On that one, I have to gauge distance (sometimes by measuring, sometimes guessing, sometimes by using a separate rangefinder) and then set the distance on the lens and the of course also meter the shot before setting shutter speed and aperture. When I got back the first roll of film from the lab, and the images were all in focus and well exposed too, I felt like I had arrived... And when I discovered swirly bokeh in some of my images, I felt quite pleased.
My point is, that there is still a lot of good to be had from old lenses. Some of the features, you find in modern day software, the old lenses produce naturally. It's just a matter of understanding when to use it and how.
I'll look forward to seeing your old lenses in coming lens day videos.
Good video, particularly as I've renewed my interest in manual focus work. One other thing I did on my A73 is assign peaking color to a button so that in cases where my peaking color is the same or similar to the subject I'm trying to get critical focus on I can quickly change it to another color.
When I bought my first camera, the Sony A7ii, I got the 35mm Voigtlander F1.4. now I got the Loxia 21,35 & 50mm.
I have taken a more modern approach to manual focus glass ,recently I added the Nikon ZF and Zfc to my collection of cameras. I have several DSLR's and mirrorless cameras that have that style of body, but I added the Fujifilm XT5 and a slightly used XT3 and really enjoyed the dials for shutter speed, ISO and exposure compensation, when the ZF was released I felt like this is the Nikon camera that would complete my camera collection, I purchased the Voightlander 4omm f1.2 and 15mm f4.5 and then the Zfc with a Voitelander 23mm f1.2, all manual focus old school glass with modern day electric connections that relay focus conformation, focal length and aperture that make manual focus more easily used. These are all Nikon Z mount glass and the 15mm is a MKIII model that is more expensive than the original but oh so good, along with the Voightlander glass I have a few Viltrox lens, even though they are auto focus they have the aperture ring and with the ZF and Zfc bodies can be used on both cameras. The Voightlander manual glass looks as if it was made for the ZF and Zfc.
I am an ex- commercial photographer and film shooter of 30 plus years. I shoot everything from large format 4x5 to a Fuji XT. Always on manual focus! I like feeling connected to the equipment in every possible way.
My favorite lens now a days is a Minolta MD 50 mm f/1.4. And it’s a manual focus lens!
Fantastic content. I have been shooting mainly manual and vintage lenses for several years with my sony aps-c.. I recently bought an auto-focus lens and I find the whole shooting experience missing the fun and the joy of -making the shot-. Thank you and looking forward to this series.
At 12:54 (Files in Finder) - how do you come up with black & white ARW-Files? I mean, .jpeg, sure. but e.g. _A730125.ARW seems to be already in grey tones in the raw-file; wish I could not do so with my Sony A7iii - how did you make those shots?
I love shooting manual focus too Ted! One tip is I would completely skip using the exif editor altogether. What I do is just create keywords based on the lens. For example, I also have the 50mm Nikkor S. So for that lens I created a keyword, “Nikon 50mm f/1.4 Nikkor S”. Then you can either go to your keywords list and click that keyword to sort all images in your catalog with that keyword. You can also use it in Smart Collections also and use the criterion with images to look for keywords that contain that lens. I see no real advantage to doing it the way you are and it creates extra unnecessary steps imo. Thanks for your great videos! You’re one of my favorite UA-cam photographers and I always look forward to your videos!😊✌️
I bought my a7s for the mitakon F0.95 which is only focus. 5 years later (and several other lenses along the way) it remains my favorite. I've gotten very good at nailing focus and the thrill of the look the lens offers is just more fun than the Gmaster stuff (for me). Focus magnification is a blast. I like feeling at least partially responsible for the creation of the image and manual focus offers this.
I actually have started to prefer manual focus. Have an FD on an old Fuji X-E2
I'm using an entry level Fuji X-T100 and have started using manual focus as well. It's great
You know it’s ironic, when I got into FF mirrorless (coming from apsc dslr) I started dropping absurd amounts of money on all new modern native lenses. What I didn’t expect is that I’d love using my old adapted lenses perhaps even more than that new top-shelf glass. It’s now come to me using the modern razor sharp glass for landscapes, and for portraits and everything else I’ll stick with manual focusing those old character-rich primes. Idk but there really is something special to both the experience and the characteristics of the vintage glass, and If you’ve never experienced that, you really should give it a try.
Using my Nikkor 19mm or 24mm PC-E I have no choice. But, it’s such a nice change from total automation.
I enjoy using vintage lenses and other manual focus lenses now that I use fujifilm cameras and their manual focus assist makes it so easy. I have more manual focus lenses than I have auto focus.
The first camera I learned was a K1000. I have an old m series 1.4 50mm adapted to my Fuji. Never have had auto focus in my life! Manual just feels right!
I learned on Manual. I often use manual even on my Sony, turning auto off, and have a lot of old Minolta MD glass that I adapt onto my Sony. But you are right, many adaptors are terrible. I had to take apart and modify mine to get it to work right.
Lens metadata is honestly one of my favorite things about shooting with Nikon DSLRs, I can set the focal length with the camera itself into the metadata for any non CPU lens I mount on the camera and vintage Nikon glass or third party F mount even signals the aperture I have set
I should add that with the adapted Voigtlander lenses I use a Voigtlander close focus adapter. They are beautifully made and they allow you to beat the rather long close focus of M mount lenses. The normal Voigtlander adapters are nice as well. Their great virtue is their narrow size.
I have never used an Auto lens! In my sony mirrorless camera I use an old lens with a different adapter!
hi,could you tell how understand does old lens permit 24 or more megapixels, and picture will be sharp
My Nikkor 35mm f2 pre-AI might just be my favourite lens I own. It easily matches if not exceeds my modern Zeiss/Sony 35mm f2.8.
right on my lens stocks, I have the Mamiya 80mm macro, 50mm m42 Carl zeiss jenna, Pentax 50mm super takuma, mamiya 50mm , schneider 50mm..beautiful lenses...
You mentioned Focus peaking which is okay for MF. I tried the Manual Focus assist on the EOS R once and bought the camera after that. So much better than Focus peaking!
As an old school manual exposure inanimate object shooter,, manual focus meets my particular needs better than auto in much of my works. I use my Fujifilms for Fujinon auto shooting & a Sony A7 II for my full frame vintage lens manual focusing shooting. Using beautifully built, smooth as butter vintage lenses such as my heavenly focused Pentax Takimsrs, for example, also adds additional satisfaction to the shooting experience, by the way..... in my opinion, of course.
That’s Takumars, of course..... couldn’t correct the misspelling afterwards.
I like your videos Ted. I'm kind of mad because everyone keeps spoiling the secret of buying old film lenses causing the prices to rise. My only real problem with this video is that you said you get what you pay for when comparing $250 posh adapters to $10 cheap amazon adapters, but you also said you get full functionality from the cheap adapters. I switched to Sony mirrorless specifically because I had a bunch of old glass from shooting film. These adapters are essentially a metal spacer that correct the focal plane distance and mate the non-native lenses and body's to each other. I'm sure the Novoflex are more precisely engineered to a certain extent, but with the current technology available in manufacturing I just can't believe that they are so much better than some of the cheaper alternatives. Also, there are typically numerous adapters to choose from on Amazon and elsewhere ranging from dirt cheap $10 adapters to $30 - $50 adapters that usually have better tolerances, tighter and more secure fit, and better reviews. As one example, It does not seem like these adapters are the same as ND Filters where the Price to Performance is tangibly noticeable (color shift, flaring, etc.) when comparing the cheap vs. expensive choices. Ted, could you elaborate on why you think these adapter so special that they are worth spending the money on them?
I love manual focus! I began shooting in Church services, and those were really dark, my sony a58 couldn't focus with the kit lens on those conditions, so I learned my way into MF. I love manual focus and I use a lot on my a99. Now, going to fuji, I'm not a fan of manual focusing with focus by wire lenses, so I'm probably buying an adapter to use my manual minolta lens on my fuji. I do own a srt202 and 1 lens. And I'm buying more lenses for it so I can make some videos with manual focusing.
Most practical manual focus lenses in my experience are from 28mm and wider. The wider the easier. Take for example the Voigtlander 15mm SWH. You only need to remember the range between 0.5m-1m and 0.8m-infinity. Zone focus. Then it’s compose and shoot (just watch out for the leveling).
Another easy lens for everyday use is the Leica Summaron 28mm.
Great - thanks. Looking forward to further videos on vintage lenses!
Before applying metadata changes by exiftool (outside LR) or Lenstagger (inside LR), it is crucial to save metadata (CMD+S) even if you just imported! Most people have metadata applied during actual import (like creator info or country) and you risk to lose it if you don’t save before using an external metadata manipulation tool.
I have Nikon 50 mm, 28mm, 24 mm manual focussing lens and an old nikon FM2 . Sometimes they give me amazing results... But you have to consider the fact you will shoot slower .
Fully manual lenses are all I use. Not a fan of auto focus or focus by wire. I mainly use legacy Nikon AI mount lenses on my Fuji X cameras. Lately though, the 7Artisans 35mm F2 Sonnar has been living on my X-E3. Really digging that lens!!
I have 2 vintage lenses that I use on my Leica SL2, a Canon 50mm f0.95 and a Leica 75mm f1.4. I really like the way the vintage lenses create a very different way of capturing light and the bokeh is insane. Technically modern lenses are sharper but there is something about those older lenses that keep it on my camera.
I prefer it over the focus by wire lenses of Panasonic. Use the first version of the Helios 44 with a speedbooster for portraiture. Way more precise. Works like a charm!
What a coincidink! I just picked up a Pentacon 50mm f1.8. I can't wait to try it out!
I enjoy using manual focus lens. The only native full frame lens I have for my A7III are Zeiss Loxia 35mm and 50mm. I also have a Nikon D700 & D800 that I have been buying Nikkor AI and AIS lens for. Now I really want a D850 so I can have focus peaking on live view!
I still shoot large format regularly. Still do wetplate with a 1861 Voigtlander Petzval. Side note, I love my Nikon Z7, ordered a Novoflex Leica lens adaptor last week.
K&F adapters are perfect for the money! Metabones and Novoflex are great but I am not sure does they deserve the money all the time. Especially for some cheap lenses...
I own Takumar, Rokinon, Samyang, Chinar and Tru/ five Manuel focus lenses with my Pentax cameras. I don't need focus peaking because I have focus confirmation and get a green dot when the camera is in focus
Amazing video!! Hope to see this old lens in action!
Anyone who has never used manual focusing on a vintage or modern manual focus lens is missing out on a huge part of the photographic experience. It’s not only the arrival but process of getting there.
Great topic. I use native Sony Voigtlander and Zeiss lenses and adapted M mount lenses, and in the case of the adapted lenses I rarely know which is which. I haven’t my used peaking on the Sony because my past experience is that it is inaccurate. I might try it if you think it works. Otherwise, I set the C1 button to focus assist when I need it.
Hi, very interesting (and useful) video but whatever happened to the follow-up videos that you said were coming "in the next few weeks"?
I would have been *really* keen to see them - or have I just missed them in the list?
Good info about using exif editor on Mac. I use exiftool to "import" new photos from memory card to different folders on external storage. Mostly just date/time of pictures. I have a nice canon fd 50mm 1.4 on my Sony a7 III and like the look but missing meta data makes it sometime difficult to find "all" of the pictures shot by de fd lens.
Hope soon to read/see the video about the older lenses and tricks/tips.
Unfortunately is not available in the App Store in the Netherlands. But the tool looks very useful.
What would be really good is if one could zoom into magnify view and still see the composition in a smaller window and what part is magnified. Like how it works in Play mode but when shooting.
Depending on situation, I find that if I manually focus @wide open.
And then stop down to lets say 5,6, 98% of the time I will be in focus.
For longer lenses, or shallow depth of field, that C1 button is focus magnification.
If I have really fast shutter speed I sometimes set camera to burst mode, and take 7-10 images, while pulling focus slowly past where I expect it to be.
On Sony you can put up the in camera sharpness to +3. Only affects Live View (and JPEG but not RAW), this gives a kind off shimmering where the focus plane is, often this is good enough to actually set sharpness without peaking or zooming in.
I’m finally getting to use my old Canon FD and Mamiya Sekor lenses. Thank you mirrorless cameras and cheap adapters. And Ted👍
I literally only use Pentax-M and Konica AR vintage lenses. Definitely check out the Konica 40/1.8... Might be the best retro lens for the price.
Love my Konika pancake 40/1.8. The Konika's are very sharp for vintage and well built. The 40/1.8 does make a slight sound when you shake it about...but those are small bearings moving normally inside their tracks...so no worries about that either.
Got a used D850 in the mail last week. First setting I changed was to assign my 300mm f/4.5 AI to non-cpu lens #1
while I don't have any full manual lenses on my Sony mirrorless setup, I do shoot with a Nikon FM2n, which is not only great for the film aspect (slowing down, being more deliberate, etc) but lets me experience a real manual focus, and not the fly by wire stuff, which I have a love/hate relationship with
I’ve shot Nikon for years and continue to use my older AI lenses on my digital bodies. I agree that these lenses have real character. I’ve even begun to take out my old FM SLR and play at film again. Now that is real character!
I'm shopping for a macro lens for an R5. Its boiling down to the RF 100 Macro which has some issues with focus shift, and a fully manual Laowa 90 Macro. Most of my use will be flowers, insects, etc. Not studio set ups. Generally outdoors. I grew up in the day of manual focus and generally I am enjoy manual focus as long as I can see what is going on the view finder. Will I be able to see well enough to focus with a fully manual lens and the R5? That is what I am worried about with the Laowa.
Looking forward to this series!
Thanks for great video! I expected more tips on how to focus without digital helpers, and then realised it was a different topic. However would be great to cover it too if possible, please! I mean how to quickly nail focus on 35mm and medium format film cameras.
I love vintage lenses!!!!
Great channel! That Voightlander APO Lanthar 50 is amazing! Wish they would develop an apochromatic 35 or 40 with that amazing build quality.
One of my favorite lenses on my D700 is the old nikkor auto H 50mm f2. I converted it myself to "AI" to use on my camera. I see why they call it the Japanese summicron. It has a very distinct look, and can be had super cheap. The way it renders tho is totally unique. I'd like to see you review one Ted.
I always use manual focus unless I'm chasing down fast moving objects. I can usually nail focus pretty well and quickly when in manual as I'm practicing with it all the time.
I have an adaptor for my father's old Rokkor (minolta) lens on my Fuji X-T20. I get good results except with the macro lens, depending of the resolution of the EVF. Sometime manual focus the macro lens can be difficult to realy pinpoint your focus and even more difficult when I add the macro extension tube on top of the adaptor. I would probably get better results with a camera with a better EVF resolution.
i just bought a voigtlander 110mm macro and i love it. i used older manual focus lenses adapted to my crop canon dslr, but really loved it w/ all the focus assists on the sony body.
what peaking strength do you use? i use med and high previously, but w/ the voigtlander, i find i have better results using low. mostly because the peaking is so strong that it gets in the way of determining where the plane of focus actually is. i find that i usually need to zoom in to get things like eyes in perfect focus.
i'm also not really a fan of the automatic magnification while focusing and like you turned that off as well. planning on getting another apo lanthar in the future
Prefer manual over autofocus in a lot circumstances. Using a KamLan 50m F1.1 II and 1.4 27mm. The focus throw on both is excellent, it has just right amount of control. Manual lenses have many strengths, not just their great price.
Going to shoot with Jupiter 9 MC mounted on Fuji tonight and just in time this video popped up for me)