Manual Focus on Very sunny days?

[inlineadam]

Hi there.

I'm still on the learning curve here but i've got a little thing which is getting quite annoying.

I've been out in the sun and been using MF for practice. However, i am finding that it can be difficult to get the MF perfect due to the extremely bright days we're having just now ( a rarity ). When i look at the screen to check, it's again hard to tell because of so much sun! Just as i think i've got it right, i come home and stick the photos on the laptop and their out of focus... darn:shake:

Any tips?

Cheers.

 

[Oggy]

Hi there.

I'm still on the learning curve here but i've got a little thing which is getting quite annoying.

Sorry to hear that Adam.

Sorry - couldn't resist. :bonk:

Most cameras have "depth of field preview" which closes the apperture to what you have set. Assuming you are not shooting wide open this will darken the image in the viewfinder. This may help.

 

[Musicman]

Most cameras have "depth of field preview" which closes the apperture to what you have set. Assuming you are not shooting wide open this will darken the image in the viewfinder. This may help.

TBH, it won't.

Modern cameras focus with the lens wide open, meaning that the region in focus is at its most shallow. This gives you the best opportunity to discover where the actual point of focus is when you're performing focus.

DoF preview stops the aperture down. If you're set at f/22, then it will

a) darken the viewfinder, making it harder to see

b) make it look like more stuff is in focus (which, TBF, it will be) but it won't help you find where your point of critical focus is.

To the OP: you don't mention which lens(es) you're using. If you're using native EF lenses, you should see a red AF confirmation dot appear in the viewfinder when focussing manually. If you're using something else (an old M42 lens for example) then you can get adapters with an AF confirm chip which enables this feature.

DSLRs in general (and crop bodies in particular) are pretty poor for manual focusing compared to film bodies: small, dim finder with no fresnel or split image rangefinder.

There are alternate screens such as this that may assist to some degree, but it will be (yet) dimmer and may affect the metering. Also not much cop with slow (er than f/5.6) lenses and not a user-replaceable part on the 20D IIRC.

 

[inlineadam]

TBH, it won't.

Modern cameras focus with the lens wide open, meaning that the region in focus is at its most shallow. This gives you the best opportunity to discover where the actual point of focus is when you're performing focus.

DoF preview stops the aperture down. If you're set at f/22, then it will

a) darken the viewfinder, making it harder to see

b) make it look like more stuff is in focus (which, TBF, it will be) but it won't help you find where your point of critical focus is.

To the OP: you don't mention which lens(es) you're using. If you're using native EF lenses, you should see a red AF confirmation dot appear in the viewfinder when focussing manually. If you're using something else (an old M42 lens for example) then you can get adapters with an AF confirm chip which enables this feature.

DSLRs in general (and crop bodies in particular) are pretty poor for manual focusing compared to film bodies: small, dim finder with no fresnel or split image rangefinder.

There are alternate screens such as this that may assist to some degree, but it will be (yet) dimmer and may affect the metering. Also not much cop with slow (er than f/5.6) lenses and not a user-replaceable part on the 20D IIRC.

Using the EF-S 55-250mm IS ...

 

[Musicman]

aha.

f/4-f/5.6 won't make life easiest for MF.

If you're using native EF lenses, you should see a red AF confirmation dot appear in the viewfinder when focussing manually.

If you press the shutter button half way during manual focusing, the active AF point and the focus confirmation light in the viewfinder will light when focus is achieved.

Of course, then you're just using the electronics to confirm your manual focus, so you might almost as well have used AF, but :shrug: