Kit Lens Jockey
TPF Noob!
- Joined
- Mar 25, 2016
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Let me sum up my thoughts on how much this chip adds to this lens (not the performance of the lens itself!!) with this one classic meme...
Seriously though, I bought the "Dandelion" AF confirmation chip on ebay, the one that ships from Minsk, to put on this lens. Even though it's a manual lens, I figured that having focus confirmation in the viewfinder would make it almost as good and easy to use as an electronic lens.
Well, the chip does what it says. I can't really knock it for not doing that. Putting it on the lens caused the camera to recognize the lens being attached. The AF point in the viewfinder does blink when the camera thinks it's in focus. The only problem? It confirms the focus is accurate even when it's way off. Really, it's not even worth having based on just a little testing. So, I guess now I understand why Canon disables focus confirmation with manual lenses. It's not that they're pushing you to buy more expensive lenses, it's just very inaccurate. And I guess this proves that there's a lot more going on between the camera and a modern AF lens than simply "move the focusing element until the camera decides it's in focus." Because, it's simply not that accurate trying to do that with a manual lens. Maybe it's the super short focal length making the camera not as sensitive to focus. But then it begs the question how do the super-wide AF lenses manage to do it so accurately? There's clearly more to it than just this basic understanding of autofocus.
Anyway, I guess what I'm saying is, before dropping $20 on one of these chips, just understand that it will not work as perfectly as you may think, at least on this particular lens.
Nothing bad to say about the lens itself though! Super cheap and nice and sharp. You just better get used to live view focusing if you're picky about having sharp focus like me.
Seriously though, I bought the "Dandelion" AF confirmation chip on ebay, the one that ships from Minsk, to put on this lens. Even though it's a manual lens, I figured that having focus confirmation in the viewfinder would make it almost as good and easy to use as an electronic lens.
Well, the chip does what it says. I can't really knock it for not doing that. Putting it on the lens caused the camera to recognize the lens being attached. The AF point in the viewfinder does blink when the camera thinks it's in focus. The only problem? It confirms the focus is accurate even when it's way off. Really, it's not even worth having based on just a little testing. So, I guess now I understand why Canon disables focus confirmation with manual lenses. It's not that they're pushing you to buy more expensive lenses, it's just very inaccurate. And I guess this proves that there's a lot more going on between the camera and a modern AF lens than simply "move the focusing element until the camera decides it's in focus." Because, it's simply not that accurate trying to do that with a manual lens. Maybe it's the super short focal length making the camera not as sensitive to focus. But then it begs the question how do the super-wide AF lenses manage to do it so accurately? There's clearly more to it than just this basic understanding of autofocus.
Anyway, I guess what I'm saying is, before dropping $20 on one of these chips, just understand that it will not work as perfectly as you may think, at least on this particular lens.
Nothing bad to say about the lens itself though! Super cheap and nice and sharp. You just better get used to live view focusing if you're picky about having sharp focus like me.