Beginner Manual Focus Newbie Question

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wooster

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Hi all

I am going on a trip to Iceland later this month and I am hoping to see the Northern Lights and, if I do, obviously I will try and photograph them. I will be using Fuji XT1 and XT 3 cameras and I am taking a Samyang 12mm MF lens which arrived this evening - so as yet unused - for this. I will also be taking my Fuji 23mm f1.4, 35mm f1.4, 10-24mm f4 and 18-135mm lenses.

I am guessing that I will use the Samyang for the lights if they appear, at f2.8 at around 15 secs or so at ISO 800. I will refine at the time, but does lens choice and projected settings seem good?

I know the Samyang focuses past infinity so I guess I could take it out this week in the daylight and focus on something far away then mark the lens with a white or silver marker at the infinity point. I'm not sure how precious I need to be with this because I'm assuming if I'm using f2.8 and I focus at around 12 ft then everything from around 6ft onwards will be in focus. This is right is it not?

I'm being ultra-cautious as I don't do this sort of thing much and obviously don't want to muck it up.

Thank you for your help.
 
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Thank you. So would the hyperlocal system or a derivation of it ( eg focus at 12 ft ) also suffice and is my lens choice pretty much correct? Would it simplify things to mark the lens for ease of use in future?
 
wooster said:
Thank you. So would the hyperlocal system or a derivation of it ( eg focus at 12 ft ) also suffice and is my lens choice pretty much correct? Would it simplify things to mark the lens for ease of use in future?
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No. Lens choice is fine but focusing at 12ft will mean that critical focus will be at 12ft and not the stars.
Zoom in on the stars in live view and manual focus until the stars are sharp. Simples.
 
Thank you. I'm not sure what I'm going on about. It seems pretty logical and I'm trying to overcomplicate it. :)
 
ecoleman said:
Zoom in on the stars in live view and manual focus until the stars are sharp. Simples.
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I'm using this exact same method. The only pointer I could give when you zoom in fully in love view they won't look sharp because they will still be slightly blurred (because your zoomed) I always try to make them look as small as possible when zoomed in fully. That's how I judge sharpness.
 
AndyG123 said:
I'm using this exact same method. The only pointer I could give when you zoom in fully in love view they won't look sharp because they will still be slightly blurred (because your zoomed) I always try to make them look as small as possible when zoomed in fully. That's how I judge sharpness.
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Hi. Thank you Andy. I guess I thought that might be the case or at least that it might be difficult to ascertain focus on such a small bright spot so far away, hence I started to wonder if it made sense just to have it manually set at a focus point and keep it there all the time. As I say I was making too big a deal of it. Appreciate your help.
 
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