As mentioned, this type of lens has just one group of elements which all move together. If you focus with your eyes and miss focus, it cannot be the adapter. The problem could either be with the diopter you have set, the adjustment of the focus screen, or just with you It is actually common when first starting to manually focus to consistently miss.
If I were you, I would just practice for a while, using the focus confirmation information to double-check. If you find that the viewfinder really does not look in focus at the point where it should be, then you need to get the mirror adjusted, or more likely: adjust the focusing screen position. This can be done with shims, which you need to buy from Canon or a dealer. Alternatively you could send it in for adjustment.
Keep in mind that manually focusing on crop cameras is not easy at all, and the stock screen is designed for brightness, not manual focus.
I guess I'm not understanding how it works, forgive me if I'm beating a dead horse. If I'm focusing with the confirmation dot, doesn't micro-adjustment affect my focus accuracy?
loosh wrote:
I guess I'm not understanding how it works, forgive me if I'm beating a dead horse. If I'm focusing with the confirmation dot, doesn't micro-adjustment affect my focus accuracy?
Well I dont know about the dead horse, but some adapter chip allows for adjustments, and then your camera can do that too (e.g. the 5DMkII). Often the problem is that micro adjustment differs depending on shooting distance. This goes for both in-camera and on-chip adjustment. But it can be done optimally (as I see it) if you 1) using a prime (check!) and 2) use wide-open shooting on fairly similarly distant objects (looking at your images, check!). Hence, if you micro adjust for 2-4 meters subjects, that part should be fine.
But - AF confirm is liberal. So dont trust it. But rightly used it will give you a good wink. You will get different hits moving the focus ring from infinity-to-hit compared to MFD-to-hit. You have to learn each lens and how your camera behaves.
EDIT: better still for that lens would be to switch focusing screen. There are multiple available for the 7D that I now saw that you use, but Canon does not support it. But with the right screen, for your type of shots with a lens like that, a EG-S (5D2 terminology) would be what I would like to use. The 7D's VF is worth it, I had one too but did not switch but I would have if I knew what it did to my current 5D2.
carstenw wrote:
Keep in mind that manually focusing on crop cameras is not easy at all, and the stock screen is designed for brightness, not manual focus.
Standard screens this far has been accurate only f/4 and slower lenses, so it will be rather difficult anyway to see where the focus is without S-screen (or some 3rd party screen). Luckily I don't shooting anything moving and therefore don't need the optical viewfinder. For me it's so much easier to shoot with LCDVF & live view.
Rokua National Park (from 2009 summer holiday pictures) - Contax Sonnar T* 2.8/85 @ f/4 (don't have notebook of this trip anymore but I have faint memory that this would have been f/4), 1/5s, ISO 100
Well, I couldn't find any USA takers for my ZE 21/2.8 after about a month of listing here on FM or eBay, and continuing to lower the price to under $1400. I was kind of surprised actually. Lots of low offers, and one international inquiry thwarted by high import VAT.
Possibly everyone was doing me a big favor by not buying it. Out of complete honesty, I'd mentioned (very, very) slight marks in the front element's coating, and that may have turned people off, thinking it was banged up. I worked on it today a little more vigorously with micro fiber cloth and Singh Ray cleaning fluid, and removed all but the tiniest microscopically thin marks -- very few, and needing +3.25 reading glasses to see at all! They seem to have been made by the edge of the plastic lens cover -- trying clumsily to attach with the metal hood on. Amazing what a few tiny grains of dust can do when embedded in the soft plastic! Anyway, all's well, and I took it out today with my recent 5D2 purchase (thanks to Joshua Ong! ).
Although I love my 24 TS-E II slightly more, I do love this Zeiss lens! Really pretty colors and sharpness is outstanding at f/8 -- can practically walk around all day without refocusing at medium distances. Since I don't need the funds to get a body for a while, I guess this will stay in my collection, and I'll offload my Nikon odds-and-ends to finance more gear (bye-bye annoying D7000 and trusty D1X), staying with Canon products and those that can be mounted on EOS EF mount.
As I said, these building exteriors are 5D2, f/8, ISO 100, PP in LR4. (PS -- After posting, I see some dust spots in the sky on the right. Time for the Rocket Air!)
Hello all! Just a sample. Some might call it 3D-effect, some just call it depth!
Distagon 2/35mm ZF2
And in case anybody is missing one more shot of my bread & butter subject. Just to prove what Samuli was saying about the 1.4 Planar - except for those few situations, where you intend to misuse this specific weakness of your Planar for certain reasons as I did here:
Samuli Vahonen wrote:
Forgot to mention that both 1.4 planars are pretty low quality wide open in close-ups.
Planar 1.4/50mm ZF2 @ f1.4 / ISO 6400 (!)
Samuli: I love the first in your Snow-Falling collection. Awesome brilliance!
loosh wrote:
I guess I'm not understanding how it works, forgive me if I'm beating a dead horse. If I'm focusing with the confirmation dot, doesn't micro-adjustment affect my focus accuracy?
I don't know Canons, but I think the answer is yes, the micro-adjustment should affect focus point. Try to set it to some extreme value to verify that.
Thanks for the help everybody. I'd just like to say that I'm an idiot, and didn't realize how much control the dandelion chip has. It lets you calibrate focus as well, so I got it close on the chip and now I'm only +2 MA. Perfect.
Here's an image to get myself back on topic: 7d C/Y 50 1.7
Need to bring this thread back on first page. Thanks for kind comments.
Plenty of nice contributions as always.
The ZE21 seem to enjoy its place on your camera Gunzorro :-)
Naektergal, love to see some mushrooms though I'm really longing for the spring, some of them maybe deserve a little bit of NR?
Samuli, elegant sharpness handling as always, trying to learn here. Like the last shot posted in particular (85/2.8).
Here's the ZE 21/2.8 followed by the 85P/1.4 wideopen (Canon 5D2). I heard people say it's a bit soft wideopen, personally I find it very sharp. Short DOF though so it's hard to nail it.
Thanks zhangyue. Bad part is that I just got me a 50P the other day. Have not been able to try it much but I wouldnt call it very soft or so from the little I've seen so far. Or, maybe I'm just too fond of anything new I get :-), anyway I'll put it through a lot of wideopen shooting soon.
The good part is that I've seen plenty of very attractive images with it, so I have hopes.
It is actually common when first starting to manually focus to consistently miss._1per6s_975px.jpg "2026 © Samuli Vahonen")
