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How often do you use AF with your MF-system?

Paratom

Well-known member
I am interested how often you guys use the AF when you are shooting MF.
And how good does the AF of your system work for you?

And for those who use a WLF with an AF-Camera: do you feel that AF allows a whole new approach since I would think one can work with WLF in situations, where one would have had to use the magnifier for focusing in earlier times (when cameras did not offer AF).

I am also interested in opinions regarding WLF vs Prism-viewfinder (correct word??)

Cheers, Tom
 
D

ddk

Guest
Depends on the lens and the situation, I usually have the camera (contax 645) set to mf but will use the AF button to bring the focus within range before manual fine tuning, that's with Contax lenses, otherwise its all manual when using Hassy glass.

I don't often use a tripod and prefer the prism finder when hand holding.
 
J

jmvdigital

Guest
I posted a similar question back when I was researching the Phamiya body.

Since then, I've found that AF is totally serviceable and I use it more than I don't use it. Perhaps mostly because with wide-angle lenses and far-ish subjects, I can't reliably tell where the sliver of focus is. Using my 150mm for closer subjects is easy to use manual focus.

The AF, when it locks, is very good. It has proved very reliable. However, as with most AF systems... you can't have anything confusing it in the way (shooting through tree or grass, for example), or a very small subject that might not take up the whole AF point, or very low light/low contrast subject.

My process has changed a bit since switching from the 45-point Canon, to 1/3 point Mamiya is that I often use AF to lock on my subject, then change it to manual focus, and recompose shot, since my subject or focal point is rarely dead in the middle of the frame where the AF point is. With the focus set, and on MF, I can play with exposure and take as many shots as I like without having to mess with focus.

-J
 

jlm

Workshop Member
speaking in general:

i only have manual focus for MF and it suits the way i work for outdoor shots (tripod, and slow composition) (split image screen)

if shooting flat art work in the studio, i hold up some newsprint on the surface and manual focus on that.

the large screen. split image and easy to implement magnifiers make judging focus pretty easy

if using the D3, autofocus for almost anything except flat art, where again i use the newsprint and MF or autofocus. here manual is harder to judge since i don't have a magnifier

M8: i have a bit of difficulty using the rangefinder for accurate focus due to aging eyesight, especially with longer lenses where the image is tiny; if this camera had autofocus, it would be a dream
 

Jack

Sr. Administrator
Staff member
I use it a lot with my Mamiya since it works very well. When I'm not using AF, I am almost always using the electronic focus confirmation, which works well with any lens, even older 3rd party manual focus glass...
 

Paratom

Well-known member
John,
with the D3 I use AF 99% and it works great.
However being used to a D3 and then using a Mamiya ZD the AF feels so slowish plus I have no feeling yet where the camera focuses. How big is the area the sensor meters?
I wondered how much better other MF-solutions work regarding AF or if MF is more about manual focus.

Lately I got pretty good focusing results with the M8, first of all I feel al my lenses are reliable now and dont suffer from any focus shift or back/frontfocusing and I also feel that its kind of training-the more I use the M8 the better I get.
Regards, Tom
 
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