Focus peaking, on fuji x cameras, works perfectly fine (2 different briightness intensities + 3 color choices- red,white,yellow). And I almost always shoot with open aperture (kipon/iberit 35mm f2.4).
makes me think I might have to try using it again. But maybe the peaking on Sony cameras is just worse. Thanks for letting me know and cool little lens btw!
Hi Tim I shoot with a selection of old Olympus lenses 54 + years old on a Sony A7R2 and get great results I've tried various ways to focus but my main way is to zone focus and find its good for most shots not all, I like to use the lenses at there full frame size i.e. 28mm etc though I will use them on APSE size its not my cup of tea really with manual lenses, however using auto focus lenses on my APSE cameras is great the size is compact and very easy to use and fast for those days you wish to almost snap away. I find the Olympus lenses make me think more and take my time all the above is when I am doing street photography. The old lenses take me back in time to when I used film a lot I like working with them. The great thing is with the mirrorless cameras almost every lens can be adapted to your camera in the manual lens world we are so lucky in the modern day in this respect. I Subbed your channel Tim look forward to seeing more videos Tony.......
Thanks for taking the time and leaving a comment, Tony! One of the reasons for me buying a Sony full frame mirrorless was actually the fact that you could adapt vintage lenses and also get the full character of that lens in comparison to a crop sensor camera, where you would lose a part of the image circle the lens produces. Over time I sold most of my vintage lenses though and invested in native sony e mount manual lenses, which I know is a luxury but for me totally worth it for feeling and usability
I had stopped taking my camera on my travels because of the modern bulky af lenses. This year however I bought a small 35mm f2.8 Ai Nikkor lens and fitted it to my old D810, yes a dslr! The combo proved a joy to use. It’s not the lightest but it’s compact and light enough to want to take it with you anywhere. Looks great too and ergonomically perfect. I’m mostly in auto iso, 1/500s and f/8 or f/10 when outside. At those apertures you’ve plenty of dof with a 35mm lens. I’m enjoying the challenge on not relying on limited dof to separate subjects from the background but rather making better compositions with what is available and searching for contrasting light. Suddenly my photography has gotten better. Focusing aids? I mostly rely on the green dot but am also finding that at those apertures the zone system is more than enough. If I’m at low light and need to,open up the aperture than I switch to live view which turns the dslr into a kind of mirrorless hybrid and zoom to one hundred percent with a touch of the button. It’s easier than you’d think. I truly never get a missed focus and you would too. Its fantastic.
Great to hear your perspective, Stephen. And I totally agree with you that a compact lens can make even a more hefty camera body feel nimble. It's just a joy to use! And that's what it's all about isn't it. Having a camera and lens combination you enjoy using is still the best recipe for creating images
My strategy for focus peaking; Set a custom picture profile and change contrast, saturation to something that works better for you. Each camera system seems to be a bit different? I only shoot in RAW so the custom colors are only seen on the LCD ( and JPEG file) not captured in the RAW image. I also have quite a few vintage lenses, but it seems the convenience drops a bit when adding a bulky adapter. So, i also like buying the budget Chinese options for the smaller sizes and no adapter needed. Some are quite stylish also.
Interesting, I just found that in the custom picture profile it's also possible to adjust sharpness which can work as a very light kind of peaking. And as you say shooting RAW that will not translate to image output. Regarding vintage lenses I feel the same. Adapters just make the camera way too front heavy for my liking but of course it is still a great option to get into manual focus glass
Being old enough to have started my photographic journey in the age of film I like the best of both worlds. I like the convenience of digital so I would not go back to using film but I am old school in using manual lenses and working my way around the exposure triangle. I use M mount lenses on my Sony (but not Leica I don't have the budget for that)and 28mm-75mm suits most of my needs. I do use focus peaking sometimes on a "light" setting for those mid-distance shots that I am not sure about; otherwise for standard street work I prefocus according to which lens I am using and let d.o.f. take care of the rest. Usually set to f8 auto ISO and adjust the shutter speed as needed Re: your recent trip to London. Yes street is easy in London and other tourist areas. I live in a tourist area south of London and no problem. The only thing some Brits can get paranoid about is "strangers" taking candid images of children; best to ask permission if you want to do that otherise you can get an angry grandmother shouting at you ( yes -it has happened to me). Otherwise usually no problem .Good luck.
Thanks for your comment, Dennis. Prefocussing is the technique I use most as well, if the scene allows for it of course. Interesting to hear how you are using peaking for specific distances, I would believe you have peaking enable/disable mapped to a button? I'll certainly give that a try. Thanks for sharing your London street experiences as well. I will keep that in mind to not make the same mistake! Btw I'd love to use M mount lenses as well but I have been put off by reading about worse performance of the lenses when adapted. Something to do with the difference of the sensors.
@@timsalton I have focus peaking and focus magnifyer allocated to the mymenu settings for ease of access . Tim there are not many function buttons on the Sony ACR which for me is good thing, less buttons to press accidentally. When it comes to street keep it simple.
Agree that focus peaking is way too distracting and imprecise. However, it can discriminate relatively well if you focus wide open and close down aperture to shoot (assuming your vintage lens does not suffer from too much focus drift). Otherwise, trust your eye and turn off the peaking: there is a moment when you go through the focus range where your target kind of "shimmers" (the point where the target's contrast just "feels" right). If you do not have time to punch in, just assume you got it right at that "shimmer' point and click: it is very likely you'll have nailed it. Pretty much how things worked with SLRs and first generations of analogue matte screens. All that said, there is a reason why AF helps.... ;)
That shimmer you mentioned is something I do take advantage of when the scene is mostly static. In more busy scenes where there is lots of movement I find it harder to focus on this shimmer and then revert to the magnification. And yes, there are as you mention moments where AF is superior :D
I have the Nikon Zf and tried the focus peaking but was not accurate. I adapted Voigtlander F mount with FTZ mount. It has the electrical contacts so that the focus green box lights up when the lens is in focus. I also tried the TTArtisans with the electrical contacts for my M mount lenses and the green box lights up when lens is in focus. This is what I have been using for the las month and it seems to be working well.
Focus peaking, on fuji x cameras, works perfectly fine (2 different briightness intensities + 3 color choices- red,white,yellow). And I almost always shoot with open aperture (kipon/iberit 35mm f2.4).
makes me think I might have to try using it again. But maybe the peaking on Sony cameras is just worse. Thanks for letting me know and cool little lens btw!
A high resolution EVF where you can magnify the image works much better.
Hi Tim I shoot with a selection of old Olympus lenses 54 + years old on a Sony A7R2 and get great results I've tried various ways to focus but my main way is to zone focus and find its good for most shots not all, I like to use the lenses at there full frame size i.e. 28mm etc though I will use them on APSE size its not my cup of tea really with manual lenses, however using auto focus lenses on my APSE cameras is great the size is compact and very easy to use and fast for those days you wish to almost snap away. I find the Olympus lenses make me think more and take my time all the above is when I am doing street photography. The old lenses take me back in time to when I used film a lot I like working with them. The great thing is with the mirrorless cameras almost every lens can be adapted to your camera in the manual lens world we are so lucky in the modern day in this respect. I Subbed your channel Tim look forward to seeing more videos Tony.......
Thanks for taking the time and leaving a comment, Tony! One of the reasons for me buying a Sony full frame mirrorless was actually the fact that you could adapt vintage lenses and also get the full character of that lens in comparison to a crop sensor camera, where you would lose a part of the image circle the lens produces. Over time I sold most of my vintage lenses though and invested in native sony e mount manual lenses, which I know is a luxury but for me totally worth it for feeling and usability
I had stopped taking my camera on my travels because of the modern bulky af lenses. This year however I bought a small 35mm f2.8 Ai Nikkor lens and fitted it to my old D810, yes a dslr! The combo proved a joy to use. It’s not the lightest but it’s compact and light enough to want to take it with you anywhere. Looks great too and ergonomically perfect. I’m mostly in auto iso, 1/500s and f/8 or f/10 when outside. At those apertures you’ve plenty of dof with a 35mm lens. I’m enjoying the challenge on not relying on limited dof to separate subjects from the background but rather making better compositions with what is available and searching for contrasting light. Suddenly my photography has gotten better. Focusing aids? I mostly rely on the green dot but am also finding that at those apertures the zone system is more than enough. If I’m at low light and need to,open up the aperture than I switch to live view which turns the dslr into a kind of mirrorless hybrid and zoom to one hundred percent with a touch of the button. It’s easier than you’d think. I truly never get a missed focus and you would too. Its fantastic.
Great to hear your perspective, Stephen. And I totally agree with you that a compact lens can make even a more hefty camera body feel nimble. It's just a joy to use! And that's what it's all about isn't it. Having a camera and lens combination you enjoy using is still the best recipe for creating images
My strategy for focus peaking; Set a custom picture profile and change contrast, saturation to something that works better for you. Each camera system seems to be a bit different? I only shoot in RAW so the custom colors are only seen on the LCD ( and JPEG file) not captured in the RAW image.
I also have quite a few vintage lenses, but it seems the convenience drops a bit when adding a bulky adapter. So, i also like buying the budget Chinese options for the smaller sizes and no adapter needed. Some are quite stylish also.
Interesting, I just found that in the custom picture profile it's also possible to adjust sharpness which can work as a very light kind of peaking. And as you say shooting RAW that will not translate to image output. Regarding vintage lenses I feel the same. Adapters just make the camera way too front heavy for my liking but of course it is still a great option to get into manual focus glass
Being old enough to have started my photographic journey in the age of film I like the best of both worlds. I like the convenience of digital so I would not go back to using film but I am old school in using manual lenses and working my way around the exposure triangle. I use M mount lenses on my Sony (but not Leica I don't have the budget for that)and 28mm-75mm suits most of my needs. I do use focus peaking sometimes on a "light" setting for those mid-distance shots that I am not sure about; otherwise for standard street work I prefocus according to which lens I am using and let d.o.f. take care of the rest. Usually set to f8 auto ISO and adjust the shutter speed as needed
Re: your recent trip to London. Yes street is easy in London and other tourist areas. I live in a tourist area south of London and no problem. The only thing some Brits can get paranoid about is "strangers" taking candid images of children; best to ask permission if you want to do that otherise you can get an angry grandmother shouting at you ( yes -it has happened to me). Otherwise usually no problem .Good luck.
Thanks for your comment, Dennis. Prefocussing is the technique I use most as well, if the scene allows for it of course. Interesting to hear how you are using peaking for specific distances, I would believe you have peaking enable/disable mapped to a button? I'll certainly give that a try.
Thanks for sharing your London street experiences as well. I will keep that in mind to not make the same mistake!
Btw I'd love to use M mount lenses as well but I have been put off by reading about worse performance of the lenses when adapted. Something to do with the difference of the sensors.
@@timsalton I have focus peaking and focus magnifyer allocated to the mymenu settings for ease of access . Tim there are not many function buttons on the Sony ACR which for me is good thing, less buttons to press accidentally. When it comes to street keep it simple.
Agree that focus peaking is way too distracting and imprecise. However, it can discriminate relatively well if you focus wide open and close down aperture to shoot (assuming your vintage lens does not suffer from too much focus drift). Otherwise, trust your eye and turn off the peaking: there is a moment when you go through the focus range where your target kind of "shimmers" (the point where the target's contrast just "feels" right). If you do not have time to punch in, just assume you got it right at that "shimmer' point and click: it is very likely you'll have nailed it. Pretty much how things worked with SLRs and first generations of analogue matte screens. All that said, there is a reason why AF helps.... ;)
That shimmer you mentioned is something I do take advantage of when the scene is mostly static. In more busy scenes where there is lots of movement I find it harder to focus on this shimmer and then revert to the magnification. And yes, there are as you mention moments where AF is superior :D
I have the Nikon Zf and tried the focus peaking but was not accurate. I adapted Voigtlander F mount with FTZ mount. It has the electrical contacts so that the focus green box lights up when the lens is in focus. I also tried the TTArtisans with the electrical contacts for my M mount lenses and the green box lights up when lens is in focus. This is what I have been using for the las month and it seems to be working well.
That's actually an amazing feature. Being able to still see the whole frame while focussing seems to me like a much better experience
I prefer to focus manual, even with my autofocus Lenses ! All my Lenses are prime Lenses, I do not like to use zoom lenses.
That's what I call commitment!