I just picked up this lens and from what i can tell so far is it has real potential to be a great lens.But it does have focus shift.I have not had this problem with any of my lenses in the past.I have been researching how to best deal with this.Thought i would also ask for suggestions here on this forum.I know, no doubt many of you here have experienced this and have some answers for me.
If i am understanding things correctly the shift will always be behind or farther away from where you focused correct?
Focus stopped down a bit so you see the true plane of focus.
Say you want to shoot at F8, then stop down to F2.8 or even F4 if it's bright enough to focus.
This is assuming you are using LiveView or your focussing screen is proeprly calibrated.
jotdeh,
I appreciate your suggestion but with Zeiss ZE lenses it is not possible to focus stopped down, the lens does not stop down until you take the picture
forgot to mention that i am using a Canon 1DsII - thus no live view.I have been practicing focusing using the "Depth of field Preview Button" and it seems to help quite a bit.
I think the DoF preview button is the only remedy for electronically controlled apertures. It was suggested in a past thread with the 85P and the person incorporated the technique when shooting with the lens.
bluetsunami wrote:
I think the DoF preview button is the only remedy for electronically controlled apertures. It was suggested in a past thread with the 85P and the person incorporated the technique when shooting with the lens.
indeed, holding down dof preview is the only way i know. unfortunately, it takes 3 hands to manual focus with the dof preview button held down on most canon cameras.
I can hold the button and focus at the same time with the 50P.thanks for the suggestions, i think it will just take some practice.But IMO it will be worth it.I really like the way the lens draws.
-jim
Jim, You need practice to compensate it. In real life, it seldom bothers me. If used at f2.8, if the subject close by, I will hit DOF botton on my D700 and focus by eye. More than f4, DOF most likely will cover it.
If subject is long, I will just play the focus confirmation dot, there is usually a range before it start blink, I will focus slightly on the front side of confirmation dot. This usually will do as well. Don't have any experience on Canon about focus confirmation.
Once the distance get longer, DOF usually will make this less an issue. Plus manual compensation as above will help as well.
Basically, With some practice, you should be able to compensate it based on distance. Even without compensation, you will find that for long distance say 3M, this never be a real issue.
It does have focus shift, but the problem get exaggerated, for real world use, it doesn't bother as much IMO.
Jim, there is a workaround for 5D II using the video mode which was indicated by Samuli Vahonen, and picked up, I believe, by Luka (denoir). I am not sure it can help you, since you shoot a 1 DsII.
Aside from that, which I don't use, when I shoot my beloved 50P, and when I get either below f:2.8 or closer than 2m, or closer than 2m and below f:4.0, I just deliberately mis-focus by a bit to compensate what I know will be the shift. It may hurt my keeper rate by some 30% compared to non-shifted shots, so it isn't that bad IMHO. And I tend to focus bracket and chimp a bit more if it is a shot I really want to nail. Frankly, it doesn't stop my from loving both 50P and 85, but then shooting up close and close to wide open isn't my usual style anyhow.
And, when you nail that shot, you will get rewarded. Congratulations on getting one of those unsung gems!
carstenw wrote:
Avoid f/2 and f/2.8 as much as possible. When you can't, try to use live view. When that isn't an option, guess and re-shoot as needed.If you ask me the best photos from this lens come ~ f/2.5, where most optical imperfections are gone. If you are shooting at distance, in which focus shift causes issue, closing down to f/4 or f/5.6 does not increase depth of field enough to cover for the focus shift. I never was able to do it even with f/8 since inside DOF there is always sharper region and I want it to be on correct place.
How I would focus if somebody would force me to use optical viewfinder with Z* planars:
- if shooting with f/1.4 then focus normally
- if shooting with f/1.6-f/2.5 then focus with actual shooting aperture
- if shooting with f/2.5-f/22 set Av-mode to f/2.5 and use Av-mode to focus with DoF preview button pressed, then switch back to M-mode to shoot with correct exposure (I always shoot with M-mode)
Focus shift with 50P is gone at ~3m (~9 feet) and larger distances. I personally play it save and use the movie mode (special mode in live view, which uses shooting aperture when composing and focusing) always when shooting with either of the Planars (50 or 85). If I could not use live view, I would use C/Y versions of these lenses (can't stand ZF due to "wrong" focus direction).
philber wrote:
Jim, there is a workaround for 5D II using the video mode which was indicated by Samuli Vahonen, and picked up, I believe, by Luka (denoir)Other way around (or somebody else inventing it), but I'm happily using the technique, and really thankful for whomever invented the method.
