I was about to sell everything but one camera en one lens, but now I will be selling just only a few spare bodies. I’m looking forward to the 2004 Photokina in Cologne.
BTW, anyone planning to visit this major trade show? I ‘ll be staffing the BIPP stand and probably lecturing (in english and dutch) at this stand.
Jürgen, unfortunately the bayonet mount of all MF Minolta cameras is different from the AF mount. I had to buy a completely new set of glass when I switched to AF. Several years later I had to buy another set of optics, now Nikon bayonet, as I went digital. 🙁
Now I have three complete sets of lenses and quite some cameras…
As far as I know, that allow the use of MF lenses with stop down metering on AF Minolta cameras. But as I have been working in photography for about 30 years now, I have learned one thing: if you have the money to spend it on adapters, spend it on a good meal. The only people who love adapters are the manufacturers of adapters.
Leen, same thing happened with Canon when they switched to EOS. I have some fairly nice lenses for my Canon A-1, but, alas, they can’t be used with the EOS (film or digital).
Chuck, don’t be disappointed. I still keep my MF equipment as in my opinion MF cameras are by far superior when it comes to nature and landscape photography. Focussing on exactly the spot you need is much easier and this is particularly important when it comes to hyperfocal focussing. This is extremely difficult with an AF camera.
Jürgen and Chuck, you both own some of the finest MF cameras ever built. Both the X-700 and the A-1 are wonderful and extremely reliable pieces of craftmanship. Moreover, today second hand lenses of absolute top quality are extremely cheap as everyone supposes they cannot do their work properly without autofocus.
Grant, I’d like to hear that rant. I’m convinced my picture-taking skills declined when I switched to an autofocus camera, and the more complicated the auto-focus scheme, the worse my results. (The 10D has all sorts of blinking squares in the viewfinder that seem to want to focus on the wrong part of the picture…)
In my opinion both systems have equal value. It depends on the job what system one prefers.
When it comes to landscape photography I prefer a manual focus camera as usually time is not an issue and it allows me exacter focussing. When I’m covering a wedding or doing (environmental or in the studio) portraiture I ‘m glad I have autofocus cameras too. Especially focussing a DSLR is problem.
Usually I don’t notice any of the features manufacturers build into the viewfinders of their cameras; I just notice them when I need to know certain information like shutterspeed as I usually shoot in aperture priority.
Register the center auto-focus on your camera, and shoot in P mode (Green modes on the 10D, I think, all use multi-zone focus). That will get rid of the multi-zone auto-focus function and will, most likely, help to acheive more reliable focus on your pictures.
Ray, I was going to mention in my last post that you instructed me on how to get rid of all those extra squares – thanks for reminding me why it’s working better now!! 🙂
The rant will not go on but I will clarify my thoughts on autofocus. It is a tool and used properly can be a wonderful tool for aging eyes like mine. My big complaint is that people tend to rely on autofocus without really putting too much thought into what they want. When you slow down a bit and force the camera to focus on what you want it will probably do a better job that you can on your own. But when you don’t understand when to use it and when not to it then it can cost you photos. A year or two back I was shooting with a friend, it was one of rapidly changing sports events. I as getting the shots and his wasn’t. He bitterly complained that his camera didn’t focus as fast as mine. I said that was because my autofocus was disables and I using hyperfocus while his camera’s autofocus was not keying fast enough for the shot. He had become lazy and was relying on his Autofocus system while forgot basics. Cameras are tools to be use not mantras that should govern your shooting.
Brother Grant, I couldnot have said it in a better way. You took the words right out of my mouth! A camera just like the woman one is married to. Often on automatic, sometimes some extra attention.
You are a romantic at heart anyone that can anthropomorphize a camera into a woman is surely cut from the same cloth as swashbuckling sailors of old. But then the best artist are the romantic artist.
Grant, Chuck I agree about autofocus 100 per cent. One of the things I want is a digital camera which has a real manual focussing system. I can set my G3 on manual focus so that it gives me a sort of hyperfocal setting – but it’s so hard to see exactly what distance you are focussing on to get it right. And there are quite often occasions when I want to overide the camera and focus very precisely and I can’t do it quickly and easily. My SLR predates AF and while it is not always as quick as an AF SLR I know exactly what I am focussed on!
Susan, the only way to construct a digital camera with a real good manual focussing system is building digital into a rangefinder system like Leica, Contax Konica, Voigtländer, etc. Technically probably no problem, but I suppose it won’t be a sales success.
Leen – I suspect that it would also be waaaay out of my budget as well! I’d just like to be able to take over from the camera and make the decisions myself from time to time!
Maybe I misunderstand…my Olympus E-20 has an AF/MF switch. I can turn off the autofocus, and it has a focussing ring on the lens so I can do it manually. I haven’t used it much…maybe I should be… My last film SLR was a Honeywell Pentax, which was match-needle manual focus with a microprism focussing aid. A switch on the side of the lens gave a "depth of field preview" which I used a lot to do selective focus. I wish my Oly had that. Bert
Bert, on my Canon point and shoot model with MF, there’s no focusing ring; you turn on MF with a button and get a very small bar on the LCD display measured in feet (US model), then use the camera’s multi-purpose rocker switch to change the height of the bar. VERY rough to do well… Your OLY has the right idea… The 10D has focusing similar to an SLR; AF/M switch is on each lens. Also has depth-of-field preview, though I haven’t tried that yet.
Hyperfocus is a condition I get when I forgot to remove my glasses and try to focus using the 10D which has dioptric adjustment (of course, tailored to my needs!)… 😉
Ray, that diopter adjustment is critical for me; that’s one problem I have with using my old A1. Canon used to sell individual diopter correction lenses that fit over the viewfinder eyepiece, but that was 20 years ago….so I squint!
The other option would be to wear contact lenses, but my eyes are too dry (vision gets foggy after a few hours). Try to seek for them on e-bay. You might get lucky !
Chuck, yes and I never thought about it until I started back into photography. I think the optometrist just used my right eye since I’m right handed! Lucky for me. I found out the hard way one day that the lenses do not work in the opposite eyes!
Dick, I suppose it’s possible to use your left eye for the viewfinder, but on a compact camera it certainly squeezes your nose against your trigger hand.. 🙂
Hyperfocussing is the best way to determine your depth of field. Prime lenses always have a depth of field scale engraved with aperture numbers opposite to the distance scale. Thus you can determine what F-number you need to cover the depth of field you need. You don’t focus any more on your subject, but use this scale to set the right distance. Generally this will be at 1/3 of the DOF area.
Unfortunately with the advent of digital photography these scales aren’t quite correct any more, but still a rather good guess.
Ray and Chuck, I use the diopter setting in the viewfinder of my camera. Both my Fuji DSLR as my film Minolta have these settings. However, usually I have to rely on the AF to focus correctly to be quite sure.
Now that we’re on the subject (and quite frankly, something I never fully understood), may jump in with a question (or two) ? 😉
With my 10D, my prefered lens is Canon 28-105 USM II. On it, there are two series of numbers. One scale is in ft / m (feet / meters) and the other, below the small plastic glass where this scale is are numbers that I believe are focal lenght (because they range from 105 to 28…).
With these numbers only, how can I compute (evaluate ?) the hyperfocus distance ?
On the diopter adapter, I’m lucky enough that my only working eye (left) isn’t that bad that I get 100% accuracy on manual focus. Incidently, I’ve started to shoot with manual focus since a few weeks ago. To help, at first, I used the 10D focussing indicator. Registering the central point (or any other), once focus is acheived even manually, the cursor will blink a couple of times, indicating that focus is ok at that point.
On most zoom lenses there is no depth of field scale. You will need the instruction booklet of your lens; probably you can find it in there. In the "old days" these scales were engraved too on zoomlenses, but unfortunately, as hardly anyone knew how to use these engravings, they disappeared.
I don’t remember how they called it, but on early Canon EOS cameras there was a setting to use this hyperfocal setting automaticaly. You had to set the neares point, push a button, set the point the furthest away point and the camera calculated and set the required aperture. This wonderful feature for landscape photographers even made me doubt about switching to Canon. Sometimes these small features can make a world of difference.
Leen, re prime lenses and depth of field scale: they’re conspicuously absent from my EOS lenses…had to go back to my old Canon EF lenses to find an example. Guess lenses have been ‘dumbed down’ too… 🙁
I should have read the rest of the thread before posting…oh, well. But even my one non-zoom lens (a 100 mm macro) has no depth of field scale….unless it’s hiding under the optional tripod mounting ring (which I can’t seem to figure out how to remove…)
Nancy, nope! Been there, done that, finished! All the stores are a 10-minute drive away, so you can do a lot of damage in a short period of time. One item I wanted was sold out in all the stores I visited: a low end (under $15) CF card reader for USB port. Looks like a lot of folks are going to get them in their stockings tonight!
Learn how to optimize Photoshop for maximum speed, troubleshoot common issues, and keep your projects organized so that you can work faster than ever before!
Related Discussion Topics
Nice and short text about related topics in discussion sections
