Manual focus practice?

[crimbfighter]

Ok, so here's my issue... I am trying to force myself to learn the basics of photography, and manually focusing has been a HUGE frustration for me. For some reason, I always seem to miss the focus, just by a little bit, when compared to the AF. The AF gets it right 98ish percent of the time (the other 2% is usually user error, wrong focus mode, AF point, or just miss it, ect.) But when I take a photo using MF, I always seem to miss it by just that tiny margin, blowing my ability to crop the picture very much. I will play with the focus until it looks tack sharp to me in the viewfinder, release the shutter, then review the image and shed a few tears... Like I said, I only miss it by a teeeeeny tiny bit, but miss it none the less. Given that my camera does so well on AF, I think it's safe to eliminate the camera as the problem, leaving quite obviously...me. Am I going nuts? Or is this a learning curve most new photographers go through? Does anyone have tips or tricks I could use to practice? Or things that may be particularly easy to practice on?

Here are a couple examples of what I mean. They're not the best examples, cause I usually delete the bad ones out of frustration, but I think they show what I mean.

1.
I was going for the bird, but ended up getting the box instead, AAAARRRRRGGGG! I swear it looked like the bird was in focus when I snapped the shot...

2. MF

3. AF

Thanks Much!

 

[supraman215]

I SUCK at MF as well. I have the same frustration. The newer cameras don't seem to have the same little focus helpers in the middle of the frame that the old ones used to. I was told the best thing to do is to focus fast, and as soon as you see the focus stop and wind it back a touch and that's it. I haven't been able to make this work myself but maybe you will have more luck with it.

 

[fokker]

Part of the problem is that modern crop body DSLR's have a relatively small and dim viewfinder compared with full-frame or film SLR's. This makes manually focusing tougher. A couple of tricks I've picked up:
-Use live view for manual focusing if you're on a tripod and the subject is still. You can zoom in to 10x magnification on the LCD screen which lets you really nail the focus perfectly on whatever you choose.
-With a lot of lenses, you can set the focus on what you want to focus on, and then zooming with the lens will still keep the same focus point. So you can zoom right in to focus manually in the viewfinder, then zoom back out to whatever framing you intended.
-Practice makes perfect

 

[mwcfarms]

You can also adjust your diopter and see if that helps.

 

[Big Mike]

Why not just use AF instead of trying to do it manually? :scratch:

Concentrate on things like exposure & composition.

 

[Lipoly]

With a lot of lenses, you can set the focus on what you want to focus on, and then zooming with the lens will still keep the same focus point. So you can zoom right in to focus manually in the viewfinder, then zoom back out to whatever framing you intended.

How do you identify if a lens is capable of this? It sounds extremely handy. My Nikon 18-55 changes just enough across the zoom range to make this not work.

 

[nchips1]

You can also adjust your diopter and see if that helps.

THIS THIS this

I used to have trouble myself. I guess I just got used to it now.

 

[Petraio Prime]

Many of the lower-priced auto-focus SLRs don't have good focussing screens. I use a Leicaflex SL2. It has the best focussing screen ever made. Brilliant, large, easy to see.

 

[nchips1]

Many of the lower-priced auto-focus SLRs don't have good focussing screens. I use a Leicaflex SL2. It has the best focussing screen ever made. Brilliant, large, easy to see.

Well aren't you cool

 

[crimbfighter]

I am working on exposure and composition, but I am a firm believer that practicing all the basics is important. Plus, there are lenses that don't AF, such as my 50mm 1.8, and as far as I'm concerned, if I can't nail the focus, the lens is useless...

Supraman215 and fokker, thanks for the tips. I'll have to give them a shot and see if that works for me.

Thanks for the suggestions!

 

[crimbfighter]

You can also adjust your diopter and see if that helps.

THIS THIS this

I used to have trouble myself. I guess I just got used to it now.

This maybe a total beginner question, but does the diopter alter the photo at all, or is it just a use option that allows you to adjust the camera to best fit you?

 

[Breaux]

I agree with Big Mike - use the autofocus! I use all manual film cameras, mostly because I want the simple creative control, but the one thing I would add if I could is autofocus.

 

[Big Mike]

This maybe a total beginner question, but does the diopter alter the photo at all, or is it just a use option that allows you to adjust the camera to best fit you?

It doesn't affect the photo. In fact, the whole viewfinder assembly has no affect because once you press the shutter release, the mirror flips up and out of the way (the viewfinder goes dark).

 

[Derrel]

What Petraio says is true--I would amend his statement to say that most of the lower-priced autofocus SLRs have poor focusing screens; most lower-cost models use a pentamirror system,not a pentaprism, and the quality of even the mid-level d-slrs is nowhere near as good as the bright and crisp image of say the Nikon D1 or D2 series, which were probably the best APS-C bodies ever made, viewfinder-wise that is. The Nikon D2x has a super viewfinder quality for an APS-C d-slr. STILL, manually focusing an AF camera is not always easy.

Why? 30 to 40 percent of the light goes right through the mirror, and is angled downward, to the AF sensors located in the bottom of the mirror chamber area, behind the mirror. AF slr's use partially transmissive mirrors, whereas older manual focus SLR's used full-reflectance mirrors, and the user focused on a coarser-ground focusing screen, and lenses from the manual focus era had slower, more-deliberate focusing ring travel. Almost any decent manual focus 35mm slr is easier and more accurate and more-reliable to focus by hand and eye than almost ANY modern d-slr is.

The focusing screen inside a d-slr has a bright, smooth ground surface, which is NOT very good for determining focus with using the human eye--a coarser-ground screen is actually easier for the human eye to see and evaluate. If you have to focus by hand, always focus from Infinity and turn the lens toward the closer distances; this works best (long,involved answer,due to lens focusing rate of travel/human eye adaptation). Focus from FAR to near, and as soon as it looks good, stop! You might have to make one small reversal of direction, but this is the best way to manually focus.

Practice and review can help. AF works the best most of the time though, but at times, you'll want to manually focus,so it pays to learn how to get the most out of your gear. Most AF lenses have very short focusing ring travels, and so errors can be quite large. Most manual focusing lenses are easier to focus by hand and eye than most AF lenses. Wide-angle AF lenses can be a total biatch to focus by hand and eye.

 

[Petraio Prime]

Many of the lower-priced auto-focus SLRs don't have good focussing screens. I use a Leicaflex SL2. It has the best focussing screen ever made. Brilliant, large, easy to see.

Well aren't you cool

Yes, I am!

LOL

1975 vintage camera. Uses phylm. No autophocus. No auto expozur. Manual advanz.

Takes photos like this:

Taken with 180mm Elmarit-R- (Mark 2) lens and Leicaflex SL-2 last Saturday on Fuji NPH (ISO 400) and scanned. I looked at the image under high magnification and discovered the focus went right through her left (closer) eye. I don't think auto-focus can do that.