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Manual focus assist on the S1/S1R

bensonga

Well-known member
I bought a S1 a few weeks ago with the best of intentions...ie to use it primarily with my extensive collection of Leica R lenses. Since the S1 camera and lenses were available at a good price (very lightly use rentals), I also bought a few S Pro AF lenses (50/1.4, 24-105/4 and 70-200/4).

Fast forward...I finally tried the manual focus on my S1R (I couldn’t resist another good deal) with the Pana 50/1.4 mounted. My first impression was very good, ok WOW, as in this camera is so easy to manually focus, even with my 66 year old eyes. The focus magnification view in the EVF is clear and sharp, I really don’t need to see the focus peaking to get images that are well focused. I sure hope that the focus assist magnification will work as well on the 24mp S1. Since both cameras have the same EVF, I am optimistic.

Time to finally mount some of my Leica R lenses on the S1 and see how these lenses perform with the benefit of excellent manual focus capabilities.

I think the Leica SL2 and Sony A7r IV use the same very high resolution EVF as the Panasonic S1/S1R, so presumably those cameras have similar advantages re excellent focus assist magnification.

Gary
 

pegelli

Well-known member
I think the Leica SL2 and Sony A7r IV use the same very high resolution EVF as the Panasonic S1/S1R, so presumably those cameras have similar advantages re excellent focus assist magnification.
Well, my eyes are three years younger so maybe that's the difference, but I have no problem nailing focus with EVF's that are 4-5 year old technology and lower resolution. But glad to hear that if my eyesight starts to deteriorate there's better technology out there that can help me along for more years to come.
 

bensonga

Well-known member
Well, my eyes are three years younger so maybe that's the difference, but I have no problem nailing focus with EVF's that are 4-5 year old technology and lower resolution. But glad to hear that if my eyesight starts to deteriorate there's better technology out there that can help me along for more years to come.
I have not had any significant difficulties manually focusing my older mirrorless cameras either using the various focus assist options. However, I was surprised at just how easy it is to CLEARLY see small changes in focus with Panasonic's implementation of focus assist magnification on the S1R (and hopefully the S1 too). I think this will be especially helpful when manually focusing lenses at f1.4 etc when the DOF can be very thin.

Gary
 

pegelli

Well-known member
I actually find accurate manual focussing at large apertures very easy, where it gets more difficult to exactly see the precise plane of focus is at smaller apertures. For instance my Voigtländer 65/2 macro is a real breeze to focus at f2 or f2.8, the image just "pops" into focus, especially when magnified. However at f8 or f11 determining where the sharpest zone is I find more difficult and that's where a sharper/higher resolution viewfinder may help me more.
 

bensonga

Well-known member
I will have to pay closer attention to this and see if I notice a similar difference. I might not be paying close enough attention at smaller apertures because, depending on the subject etc, the greater DOF is often more forgiving of small focusing errors.

Gary
 
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