Manual focusing tips?

Hi and welcome ! I'm fairly new here too..I have an E-PL1 and atm all of my lenses are legacy and therefore manually focused. I have the OM 50mm f1.4. I resorted to buying the VF-2 as was having similar problems to yourself, particularly outdoors in bright light it was almost impossible to see anything on the LCD. I nearly always use the magnification assist button as well, otherwise I find the final images are not sharp. And practice of course !!

 

I find that the VF helps a little in normal situations, but in bright light it's essential.
Always do your focusing with the lens aperture wide open, that narrows your depth of field and makes it easier to home in on the sharpest focus. Then stop down to your desired aperture for the shot.
If your subject allows for it, focus bracket. Take extra shots with the focus set just slightly to either side of what you think is "in focus".
And practice, practice, practice...:smile:

 

There are some good tips in this thread:
https://www.mu-43.com/f40/there-knack-mf-thing-21929/

The best tip is as Minniesmum says: practice :smile:

 

Flowers are good to practice on - they don't move (unless it's windy) and the bit in the middle where the pollen is is easy to focus on when magnified (or the leaves or petals..). Anything with a sharp/defined edge or straight edge is easy - patterns, details on buildings, that kind of thing?

The hardest are things that keep moving (animals, people) especially in low light.

 

No, that wouldn't work. The camera does not communicate with adapted lenses whatsoever. The adapted lens focuses to wherever you focus it. To get the hang of it, put your 50mm lens on your camera, turn it to the closest focus distance, and slowly focus towards your subject. You will see the plane of focus move further and further away from you. When you tap on the back of the screen with a native lens, the camera is basically doing the turning of the focusing ring for you.

Practice on whatever you feel like. Small stationary objects are the best. Try things like lampposts, mailboxes, the top of a fence post, etc. Things that don't blow in the wind. Put a doll or an action figure on a table outdoors, and focus on it. Then, move the focus to whatever is in the background, and see how it works.

 

First off, my biggest advice would be to stop reading about it, asking about it, and worrying and fretting about it :tongue: You have enough advice, so go outside and JUST DO IT, as Nike says. There is no amount of reading that will help you as much as just practicing. Second, you always want to focus from closer to further, because the when you focus to a specific distance, the depth of field extends further behind the focus point than it extends in front of it.

 

The best advice I can give is not to second guess yourself. Manual focus is a natural part of using a camera, and is not as difficult as people make it out to be. What makes it difficult is not trusting your instinct or your eyes. If you trust yourself to snap to focus where you feel you're in focus and not to go back and mess around with it endlessly, then you'll find that your results are normally better. Spending too much time "fine tuning" your focus is usually when it gets thrown off. Of course, this applies more to a full-coverage view from an OVF or EVF and doesn't really apply to using the Magnify button. Eventually though, you're gonna have to learn to focus without the Magnify aid, because you can't always afford that luxury when your subjects are moving.

When you're using a digital camera, then frames are almost free. Don't be afraid to use 'em up as you practice. Doing it more often is important, because your body naturally gets attuned to how much the focus ring needs to move to reach focus.

 

Good advice above.

I'd also suggest that every manual focus lens has its own unique physical characteristics, so working intensively with one lens seems to result in more focussed shots. When I start out with a lens, I pick the same 4-5 objects at different distances around my house, and photograph them in rapid succession, using only the LCD. I then take a look at my success rate by magnifying the images. If this results in a poor rate of in-focus images, I use a viewfinder or a magified view with that lens. Some lenses just seem to be easier to focus than others; I attribute this to contrast, sharpness, sensitivity of focus ring, and perhaps how much coffee I've had!

 

I know this may sound crazy but I switch to manual focus now even with AF lenses. I am definitly preferring to have complete control over focus rather than let the camera decide. Maybe I'm just a control freak ! lol. Once you get the hang of mf it felt to me like passing my driving test.... it's fab

 

What he said. Pick a few things at different distances, and practice moving between them. Get familiar with what your lens looks like when it's in focus, and when it's almost in focus. Try at first using the magnification to lock, then just snapping from the overview and using magnification in review to confirm.

On a related note to what was being asked earlier, can you use the touchscreen to choose where the magnification box is? It's kind of annoying to move it around with the dpad on the e-pl1, and I'd love it if the om-d could use the touchscreen instead. Any current touchscreen users have any experience with this?

 

I'm brand new to the EP-2, so just learning. I noticed that focussing in bright sunlight was a PITA, so bought a VF-2 from another member. Just tried it at lunchtime, nice sunny day. Huge difference.

I wear Transistions glasses, which darken in sunlight, so had to remove them to focus at all on the LCD. Was able to focus with the glasses on and darkened using the VF-2.

Here's a shot I just took, 100% crop, hand-held, Pentax 50mm f1.7 (at f4, IIRC). The VF-2 is worth the extra cost, IMO.

 

I'll reiterate this. Decades ago, when manual focus was all we had, practice was all we did.

Good luck. Keep honing your skills. When you become proficient., you will experience a real sense of accomplishment.

Welcome aboard.

 

As well as our young, hip, youthful, cool, happening, modern, cosmopolitan users too.