cornwallis
New member
Hi everyone, first post here on a very informative site!
I'm not sure if this should go here or in the Sony section, but I think it applies equally to digital backs and mirrorless cameras.
For those using view cameras with the above, how do you approach focusing lenses with floating elements/internal focusing? The advice I have received is to set the lens to infinity, and do all the focusing on the rail. This doesn't make sense to me however,
as surely if a lens is engineered to correct/improve performance at different focal distances then the lens itself should be focused appropriately?
In my tests (with a Cambo Actus and Canon 24mm TSE) I have found that on shots focused at around 5m, I get better results in the corners if I first set the lens to approx. 5m, then fine tune with the rail (especially on shifts). I haven't tested any closer as I don't do
that kind of photography, but I would expect the results to be even more pronounced. However... now I have acquired a Canon 16-35mm f4 and found it's better just left at infinity! So I'm a bit confused. I will test some more but I would be interested to hear how other people approach it.
(As expected, when using a lens that moves the whole lens group together (in this case a Pentax 645 35mm) it makes no difference where the lens barrel is focused, except that at infinity there's a little less vignetting at the very edge of the IC.)
Matthew
I'm not sure if this should go here or in the Sony section, but I think it applies equally to digital backs and mirrorless cameras.
For those using view cameras with the above, how do you approach focusing lenses with floating elements/internal focusing? The advice I have received is to set the lens to infinity, and do all the focusing on the rail. This doesn't make sense to me however,
as surely if a lens is engineered to correct/improve performance at different focal distances then the lens itself should be focused appropriately?
In my tests (with a Cambo Actus and Canon 24mm TSE) I have found that on shots focused at around 5m, I get better results in the corners if I first set the lens to approx. 5m, then fine tune with the rail (especially on shifts). I haven't tested any closer as I don't do
that kind of photography, but I would expect the results to be even more pronounced. However... now I have acquired a Canon 16-35mm f4 and found it's better just left at infinity! So I'm a bit confused. I will test some more but I would be interested to hear how other people approach it.
(As expected, when using a lens that moves the whole lens group together (in this case a Pentax 645 35mm) it makes no difference where the lens barrel is focused, except that at infinity there's a little less vignetting at the very edge of the IC.)
Matthew