Focus Peaking is not working

[Susan G.]

I love using focus peaking on my Olympus E-M1 Mark II. I'm currently shooting some macro with my Olympus 60 mm f 2.8 macro lens. I am in manual mode with focus peaking turned on. Areas in focus should be rimmed in red but that is not happening! First time it's failed me. Any ideas?

 

[retiredfromlife]

I presume peaking is turned on in "Manual Focus Assist" or whatever it is in the menu.
I set my body to manual and auto focus so I can half press then turn the focus ring in auto mode as well. Handy sometimes.

Does the lens focus but not show the peaking?

On another note I find manual focus does not work very well at all with that lens. I use the 60mm macro very often and to be honest given up on manual focus.
Some times turning the focus ring does virtually nothing at all, other times works well. I have tried with the focus limiter switch in all positions and that does not seem to help either.

 

[Susan G.]

I presume peaking is turned on in "Manual Focus Assist" or whatever it is in the menu.
I set my body to manual and auto focus so I can half press then turn the focus ring in auto mode as well. Handy sometimes.

Does the lens focus but not show the peaking?

On another note I find manual focus does not work very well at all with that lens. I use the 60mm macro very often and to be honest given up on manual focus.
Some times turning the focus ring does virtually nothing at all, other times works well. I have tried with the focus limiter switch in all positions and that does not seem to help either.

Yes, the lens focuses but does not show peaking. I actually find that manual focus works well. I set the lens to the magnification that I want (usually 1:2) and then focus by moving the camera forward and backward on a rail rather than turning the ring. I just like the confirmation of peaking as I fine tune.

 

[PakkyT]

Peaking works two different ways. One is to assign it to a button and then you turn it on and it stays on working continuously until you press the button again.

The second method is the automatic method where when you go in to manual focus mode the camera detects when the lens focus ring is turned and will enable peaking while it is turning. A few moments after the ring is no longer detected being turned the MF Assist tools (peaking and magnification if you have that on as well) disable.

If you are adjusting focus by moving the camera on a rail and are using the 2nd, automatic, peaking method then that won't work. As far as the camera is concerned you are not manual focusing since the ring isn't being turned.

So for rail use you will want to use method one and assign peaking to a button.

 

[LilSebastian]

Just a reminder that peaking works by highlighting the highest contrast areas of the image. Are the problematic scenes low contrast, with few distinct transitions? This could limit usefulness of peaking perhaps.

 

[Chris5107]

As was stated above, I would test the focus peeking on some thing with high contrast. There was a time when I thought my focus peeking was not working. In my case it was simply a case of low contrast and it worked fine when I tried a different subject. This may not be your case, but it is worth a try.

 

[RAH]

To add to what @Chris5107 said, I have noticed that sometimes with very close-in macro, the area of focus is so fine that the tiny peaking highlight is almost not noticeable. I have it set at the boosted level in red and sometimes I still can barely discern it when the DOF is very low. But certainly, @PakkyT 's post about the setting is what is causing you trouble, IMHO, especially using a rail, where it will turn off as he said. I find it a real shame that you have to dedicate a precious button to peaking, but that seems to be the case here.

 

[PakkyT]

@PakkyT 's post about the setting is what is causing you trouble, IMHO, especially using a rail

Yes if that (using the rail) is indeed when she expected to see the peaking. Re-reading her post it might be a case of her talking about two unrelated things (peaking not working with manual focus and sometimes she uses a rail as an aside). But if she is indeed expecting to see peaking when moving the rail, there lies the problems. Unfortunately she hasn't been back to clarify.

 

[emudojo]

Same question how do I make Focus peaking in more pronounced, sometimes the line is so thin is hardly visible and I've missed focus many times thinking the outline was there

 

[LilSebastian]

Use focus magnification instead, don’t rely on focus peaking for critical focus.

 

[emudojo]

Use focus magnification instead, don’t rely on focus peaking for critical focus.

Focus magnification on moving targets is really difficult

 

[PakkyT]

Focus magnification on moving targets is really difficult

Well so it focus peaking. And so is manual focusing in general. However in the case of this thread, the original poster was talking about macro photography with the aid of a rail system, so it is probably an excellent assumption the subject is not moving. If you are shooting moving targets, probably best to use an AF capable lens since we generally don't have the the focusing screens of old that while also not perfect could at least get your to where you could stab the shutter button and hope the subject didn't move too far after you briefly saw the image in focus in the OVF.

 

[RAH]

Same question how do I make Focus peaking in more pronounced, sometimes the line is so thin is hardly visible and I've missed focus many times thinking the outline was there

This can be confusing, at least with my E-M5.3. You can change the color and the intensity on the fly (as you are using the manual focus ring on the lens and the peaking color is actually displayed) by pressing the INFO button. A little menu will come up offering you High intensity, color, etc. This is tricky because in my tests, the peaking has to actually be shown on the screen when you press INFO. Otherwise, the Info button performs as it normally does and toggles the info you see on the screen (histogram, level, etc).

But you can set the color and intensity ahead of time (and presumably it makes it the default for whenever you initiate MF and peaking) by using:

Menu> wheel> D3> Peaking Settings.

There you can choose the color, intensity, etc. This to me seems like the best method, although I suppose sometimes you might want to change the look of the peaking under certain conditions, so the on-the-fly option would be good to use in that case.

No wonder OMD camera menus are so confusing - there are sooo many options, with options for options and options for options for options... ;-) That said, I need MORE buttons!!

 

[Clarifixer26]

Maybe a long shot, but I dicovered today that when I started experimenting with the Keystone settings, the focus peaking disappeared. As soon as I turned off Keystone, the peaking reappeared.

 

[RAH]

Maybe a long shot, but I dicovered today that when I started experimenting with the Keystone settings, the focus peaking disappeared. As soon as I turned off Keystone, the peaking reappeared.

That doesn't seem too surprising because setting Keystone radically changes the display (so you can adjust it). I've never used it but it's interesting to know. It seems likely that any of the options to change the display probably turn off peaking (like fisheye compensation, etc).

 

[flynfoto]

I’ll offer my own experience as I had the same thing happen with my E-M1 Mk II. Just for giggles and grins I took out and reinserted the OEM battery and seems to have remedied the issue for me.