Manual Focus & Glasses?

DarknFuzzy

DarknFuzzy

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Now then,

I have a manual focus nifty fiftey and a Takuma 28-80mm, and i always struggle to focus images. I have to rely on the camera "in focus" light to tell me im on the money. From current experience, this tends to be a little slow and difficult if it's not a stationary object.

Is this just me being crap, or is there any other glasses wearers out there struggle too?

(You won't hurt my feeling by saying it's just me being crap :naughty:)
 
Don't worry it's not just you. My thing is not trusting what's right in the view finder what with sometimes wearing glasses and sometimes not and then adjusting the diopeter to suit which never seems perfect either. I'm afraid I'm not much help am I.
 
It's more to do with the relatively somewhat small viewfinder than your glasses. Even an old 35mm SLR would most likely have a larger viewfinder, possibly brighter, & a fresnel focussing screen & /or split prism. Your camera is just geared heavily towards autofocus lenses!

I have to say I find speedy manual focussing tricky even with a nice large bright viewfinder with a focussing screen. Give me a nice big bit o' ground glass, though... :D
 
I have to agree with hoodi.... not so much the lens as the viewfinder.

Have you tried without your glasses? Viewfinders are usually adjusted so that the image/screen is in focus at 1 metre. It then depends on the prescription of your eyes. When I wore glasses I always removed them for the camera (I'm just vain). But now I wear contacts which proves, to me at least, that it's the viewfinder eyepoint that's the problem.

The real answer for me came with the Nikon F3 HP..... that's like cinema-vision plus!
 
Even if you're not seeing a fully sharp image through the viewfinder, you're still just after the sharpest you can get. Or you could say the least blurred.

I have some - adjustment dialed into my cameras and had to use someones camera the other day with no adjustment on it. It was bad, really bad but I just went for the least awful I could get and the pics were fine.

It does take some getting used to but as with all things, practice and familiarity will get you there. :)
 
Part of it can be age (your eyes and the camera) or it could be that you're using a camera not designed for manual focus (a typical DSLR).

I shoot old (1960's vintage) film SLRs and do not have trouble focusing with a fast lens (your zoom is a bit slower, and so the viewfinder would be a bit darker, than your fifty). However, I do have trouble focusing manually using my Pentax *ist DS.

I therefore installed a split-image focus screen in it, very much like the cameras used in the 'old days' before digital. This has some drawbacks, but overall, I prefer it for manual focus.

I wrote an article about it: http://www.cameramentor.com/dslr_split_image_focus_screen

Hope you find this useful.
 
I think it may be just generally a bit difficult to tell if an image is in focus or not when focusing manually. I don't wear glasses, I'm certainly not old, and I still don't trust myself to manually focus correctly.
 
I have to say for manual focus it is hard to beat the split image or fresnel type screens the film cameras used to have before auto focus became the norm ... imgo ... :D

I too struggle infinitely with trying to manually focus my nifty or micro Nikkor to the point I believe it just isn't worth the aggravation ... :suspect:




:p
 
When you look through a viewfinder you are looking at a projected image (onto the focus screen) as opposed to an Arial image (such as viewing a print), because of this the lens you have will effect if the projected image is sharp or not. This means you can’t really tell if you have a problem by looking at a subject in the viewfinder.
The best thing to do is take the lens off and look through the viewfinder at the display (LED’s or whatever your camera has). If they are sharp you have not got a problem, if they are not sharp you need a dioptre correction lens (and probably glasses as well, an eye test will tell you what strength of correction you need).
As Chuckles said most cameras are set to minus one dioptre. This is because most people with an eye problem will be short sighted so -1 will help, where as with normal eye sight you eye will be able to accommodate this fairly small adjustment (conversely if it were +1 a normal eye would struggle with it).
Astigmatism, is the worst problem to cope with (in terms of cameras) because this means you do not have an overall short (-1 etc) or long (+1etc) sighted problem but a variation in plane of focus across your field of vision. A prescription for astigmatism would read something like -1.25 to +0.5 over a 90 degrees axis, this would not be possible to correct in your viewfinder with a standard correction lens. A prescription one could be made but it would be very expensive to one grind one to fit your prescription/camera.
As has been noted the type of view finder will have an effect as well. The F3 HP (meaning high eye point) mentioned previously is one of the best. If you wear glasses a camera with a long eye relief viewfinder will allow you to see the full screen with your glasses on as the point at which you view is not set at the viewfinder glass but a bit back from it. This means the added distance your glasses make between your eye and the glass is accommodated in the optical design. This is what the F3 HP is doing, people with normal eyes will also benefit as the “sweet spot” that your eye can work in is greater than a standard viewfinder.
I hope this is of interest, do feel free to correct anything you feel I may have got wrong or badly explained. The viewfinder test however is a good one whatever the science behind it.
 
Ewan said:
I think it may be just generally a bit difficult to tell if an image is in focus or not when focusing manually. I don't wear glasses, I'm certainly not old, and I still don't trust myself to manually focus correctly.
Click to expand...

Manual focus may be becoming a bit of a lost art, with the smaller viewfinders and different focusing screens of the new digital SLR cameras. Granted, looking through the viewfinder of the average Olympus, Sony, Canon, or Nikon DSLR, I am unable to manually focus at all - it just cannot be done as far as I can tell.

For those who are unaware of what a proper viewfinder looked like in the days of the film SLR, I would encourage them to check one out at some point. On such cameras, manual focus was not difficult at all - on many older cameras, it was the only way to focus, as AF had not yet been invented.

I still see manual focus as a worthy tool for creative control, much like the nearly-lost art of differential focus. AF has made huge strides, but at least for me, it is often wrong - perhaps correctly focused, but not on what I intended.
 
Good post ilikebowens. :thumbs:

I have real trouble with this issue. All my cameras are pretty much adjusted to as much - as I can dial in.

I had a test recently and was told that my vision is excellent but my ability to move focus is not so good. I was given a small + perscription to sort out the need for - adjustment on the camera. I still don't really get this despite having asked four seperate opticians.

It's something along the lines of the perscription helping to stimulate accomodation in the muscles, which in turn will remove the need to dial in the minus on the camera. All the opticians I talk to say, "that should work". When I ask why they just say, "hmmmm, it's hard to explain".

It does seem to work but the trouble is the glasses make normal viewing harder and I tend to put them on and find sometime later in the day, they're just sat on top my head. :lol:

I've got used to the viewfinder being blurred now and just work with it. As long as I know the focus distance is set to the sharpest I can get for the point I'm aiming it, it tends to all work out OK. I would feel far less comfy working this way without zoom in preview though.
 
Wow, thanks for all the replys folks.

It is good to know that I am not the only one who struggles, I do have a split MF on my old A3000 35mm and I have to admit that I found that alot easier.

The 50mm and the 28-80mm lenses that I have are very good lenses and it's a shame that I dont use them more, but the amount of spoilt pictures I have downloaded to the computer is putting me off using them.

I haven't tried using them without my glasses on as someone earlier suggested, I may give that a go this weekend. :)
 
Thanks for the thread DarknFuzzy :clap:, I was thinking of posting something similar.

Have now adjusted my diopeter and have a far sharper image through the viewfinder, so thanks all for your advise :thumbs:
 
I really miss the old split thingy in the middle of the viewfinder. I wear varifocals and just can't get manual focus to work....I always seem to be looking through the wrong bit of my glasses and after a long day of photography....I cant see a ble*****g thing!

I just have to trust that auto focus gets it right. I've just tried that thing of taking off the lens and (after switching on, doh!!) seeing what the display looked like. WELL out of focus so twiddled the dioptre thingy and got it as sharp as I could (it wouldn't go any further). Don't know if this will make a difference....will have to wait and see.

PS hope I didn't attract loads of dust onto my sensor....you are not supposed to have a lens off and the camera on, because of something to do with static etc.:cuckoo:
 
I find the easiest way to manual focus without a split thingy is to use any reflections or light points, if there are any on the area you want focused.

A point of light will grow in size very quickly as the plane of focus moves in front or behind it. When it's as small as you can get it, you've got focus. Whether it looks sharp to you or not. :)
 
Good topic :thumbs:

I have sight issues that give drifting focus on close-up (not fixable with dioptre adj.). And worse in my right eye(would be wouldn't it) where focus can go out of whack for an hour or so and then pop back again.
Only really noticed when trying to manual focus a camera and spent an hour trying to work out why everything was Oof.:lol: Now do a quick check by using my left eye, bit awkward using the camera this way though.
So tend to use auto-focus far more than I want to.

Picked up an old OM1 the other day and the fresnel and split screen were an absolute joy :thumbs: (I'd almost forgotten how good this system was.)
Shame they can't/won't? use that with the auto-focus cameras.
 
I've never really had a problem manually focusing on my dslr and thats with glasses and i've shot quite a few motorsports events using manual focus tracking cars, it is noticably harder than on a film slr though due to the viewfinder size.
 
ilikebowens said:
If you wear glasses a camera with a long eye relief viewfinder
Click to expand...

Great post, just discovered, I have avoided DSLRs all this time due to this problem, I use scopes with long eye relief with glasses with no problem, but have had to stay with prosumer cameras for the EVF which is transmitted light and the LCD.

Can anyone recommend which DSLRs are available with long eye relief?, I could be tempted back.
 
Yeah great thread for us "Mr Magoos" here :embarrassed:
FYI you can still have that split prism focus screen although not a cheap option - KatzEye do them HERE although you'll have to import from US ... Paul ;)
 
That's a good start, now I just need long eye relief and I may finally go DSLR after 40 years with SLR.
 
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