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Proper focusing screen?

S

sirvine

Guest
Can anyone catch me up to speed on what is involved to put a focusing screen appropriate for manual lenses into a Canon body. Is this possible on a 5D?
 

Jack

Sr. Administrator
Staff member
My advice is to get used to focusing on a plain matte or grid screen --- takes some effort to learn, but once you do, MF issues will evaporate.
 

robmac

Well-known member
It is possible on a 5D but you MAY need to have the body and alternate Canon screen shimmed by Canon (or by you) for proper focus.

The camera is known for sloppy tolerances in it's moulding and/or placement of the focus screen/prism and every individual camera is shimmed for proper focus with the stock screen at the factory. ANY deviation from that, even with a Canon screen, MAY cause issues (I had them, drove me nuts). The popular choice for the 5D is the Canon precision matte unit.

The 1 series cameras have no such issues - just pop in an alternate screen and go. I use the center prism screen with awesome success on my 1Ds2.
 

Jack

Sr. Administrator
Staff member
Well, different experience here. My 5D's, two of them, manually focussed perfectly with the stock, grid replacement screens installed, no extra shimming required. Of course all of my 1-series cams have too :)
 

robmac

Well-known member
Yup - varies by camera. Same as mirror clearance issues. Lens A will work fine on my 5D but hang the mirror on the guy or gal's next to me. Focusing issues aside, my did 5D work flawlessly with every CZ and Leica lens I threw at it.

Focus-wise, my 5D drove me round the bend - until I stumbled across some other folks having same issue. While my temper got better of me (Canon camera + Canon focus screen should = attainable focus) and moved to 1Ds2; for those folks, sending camera and screen (with screen installed) into Canon for some shim-shuffling fixed the issue. You can also do it yourself with metallic duct tape (0.001" thick apparently) but most chose not to. If you use a 3rd party screen, you are on your own.
 
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