Audii-Dudii
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 Re: RX1(R/R2) Image Thread | |
Ray S. wrote:
Audii-Dudii wrote:
h00ligan wrote:
Sorry to be clear and just sum up about the zone focusing. You're suing he macro ring to set focus. Leaving it part way between then two click stop settings? Very interesting.
Yes, you're correct. Here's the procedure I use:
Step One: Set the macro ring in the "0.3m - infinity" position.
Step Two: Focus the lens at infinity using either manual focus or autofocus (it doesn't matter, just so long as it's focused at infinity.)
Step Three: Focus on the desired subject by slowly turning the macro ring from the "0.3m - infinity" position toward the "0.2m - 0.35m" position.
Step Four: Stop turning the macro ring whenever the desired subject is in focus. (Note: You can use focus peaking and/or image magnification to help you focus the lens, as they both work exactly the same as they do when focusing otherwise. I typically brush my fingers lightly against the manual focus ring when I start turning the macro ring in order to activate the image magnification function.)
Did the subsequent rx models finally offer lightening fast af? If here's one complaint about the rx1 it's that the autofocus is so slow as to be mostly useless for anything but static subjects. I find that manual focus and face recognition are the fastest way to shoot
The RX1RII focuses slightly quicker than the RX1, but I wouldn't call it particularly quick. I haven't upgraded from my pair of RX1s yet because I rely heavily upon the RX1's pop-up flash and the RX1RII deleted this feature. Boo-hiss!
So instead I'm very interested to know how many of you work around the slow af particularly for pets. I want to use this camera in my volunteer work for he local no kill shelter but right now I'm restricted to dslr because I cannot get a work around that's good enough.
Most of my pet photography is done outdoors while on walks and hikes -- https://abby.aminus3.com/, if you're curious -- so I can't answer your question definitively. However, I do also photograph her indoors at times and IMO, I get decent enough results by zone focusing, using the pop-up flash, and letting the ISO fall where it may ... YMMV!
I think that explains it really well. What I did was just establish where focus is for about 2 meters and painted a tiny dot on the macro ring, so I could hit that spot quickly and easily. I find most AF fast enough for how I shoot most things - the RX1 was fine, the RX1RII is better yet - but nothing on earth beats zone focus for street shooting, at least the way I shoot. To me, just trying to get the focus point on the subject is enough of a process to lose the moment, regardless of how fast the AF is. So I use zone focus for street work regardless of how fast the AF is on the camera I'm using... And the Macro Ring trick really is the way to go for a lot of manual focus on the RX1, although I'm not sure about when you want to be at macro distance...
-Ray
The one drawback of focusing via the macro ring is that the minimum focus distance is fairly long, somewhere right about .35m, in fact, which is the maximum focus distance possible with the camera in the macro range. Given the number of times I need to focus closer than that, however, I don't find this to be a big deal.
One more tip: The macro ring is fairly narrow and with my large fingers, I sometimes find it difficult to grab just it and not also the body of the lens or the manual focus ring, especially if I'm hurrying. So I wrapped a pair of black, plastic zip ties around it thusly and filed the cut ends smooth:
Setup this way, it's now (IMO) as quick and easy to focus as any old-school type manual-focus lens. So much so, that I typically use it this way for my street photography rather than zone focus. Because for me, zone focusing with a 35mm lens is often not quite precise enough for my taste.
Now, if the RX1 came with a 28mm lens -- be still my heart! -- then that would be another matter entirely. Because back in the day, I regularly -- and happily! -- photographed using zone focus with my much-missed compact film cameras (Nikon 28Ti, Minolta TC-1, and Ricoh GR1)
And if you have a decent amount of finger strength and manual dexterity, the zip ties can be slipped onto and off of the macro ring easily enough, such that you don't need to leave them on all of the time or replace them after every time you take them off.
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