Manual focusing ease with different lenses

straupenieks · 05-28-2011, 06:27 AM

Well, compressed focus isn't always a bad thing. I am mostly using old manual lenses and on Tair-3 300/4.5 you get about 360 degrees from 2.2m to infinity, and that's not the light action of modern lenses. Which makes it really tricky to use it for any kind of action shots.

hjb981 · 06-23-2011, 08:02 AM

Originally posted by MJL

Hi hjb981,

I am on the same boat! Manually focusing DA*200/2.8 is difficult as the focusing ring turn rather "quick", whereas the focusing throw on M200/4 is smooth & easy. 90% of my lenses are MF and can be use on my Kr, K5 & K7, but I find my focusing ability is way off from using the same lens on a film camera such as MX. Same apply to the AF lenses when I use MF on them. I shoot existing light a lot and this problem has really stumped me. Hopefully you can tell us whether a KatzEye helps in manual focusing.

It does help. I received it a few days ago, put it in, and thought everything was great after trying it with the DA 18-135 f/3.5-5-6 WR. Then I put on the good ol´M 50 f/1.7 from 1978, and it was very apparent that the screen's position was not correctly calibrated. I bought a set of shims, and after trying found the 0.10 mm (the thinnest on - they go from 0.10 - 0.50 mm) to be the right one. The original shim in my camera was the 0.35 mm. Now, the screen is properly calibrated, and as a preliminary opinion, without yet trying it for real, it seems to me that this screen makes manual focusing much easier. Both with the center prism and with matte part of the screen, which is better than the stock screen's matte (the stock screen only has matte area for focusing). The screen I have is the KatzEye for Pentax K-5 with center prism, micro-prism collar, with optibright treatment and without markings for focus points etc

KatzEye swiftly sent me instructions on how to change shims, and in my opinion, changing the shims was easy - the hard part was still getting the focus screen out and in without scratching anything (which has to be done each time the shim is changed, btw).

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05-28-2011, 06:27 AM	#16
straupenieks New Member Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: Derby Photos: Gallery Posts: 7	Well, compressed focus isn't always a bad thing. I am mostly using old manual lenses and on Tair-3 300/4.5 you get about 360 degrees from 2.2m to infinity, and that's not the light action of modern lenses. Which makes it really tricky to use it for any kind of action shots.

06-23-2011, 08:02 AM	#17
hjb981 Forum Member Join Date: Apr 2011 Posts: 71 Original Poster	Originally posted by MJL Hi hjb981, I am on the same boat! Manually focusing DA*200/2.8 is difficult as the focusing ring turn rather "quick", whereas the focusing throw on M200/4 is smooth & easy. 90% of my lenses are MF and can be use on my Kr, K5 & K7, but I find my focusing ability is way off from using the same lens on a film camera such as MX. Same apply to the AF lenses when I use MF on them. I shoot existing light a lot and this problem has really stumped me. Hopefully you can tell us whether a KatzEye helps in manual focusing. It does help. I received it a few days ago, put it in, and thought everything was great after trying it with the DA 18-135 f/3.5-5-6 WR. Then I put on the good ol´M 50 f/1.7 from 1978, and it was very apparent that the screen's position was not correctly calibrated. I bought a set of shims, and after trying found the 0.10 mm (the thinnest on - they go from 0.10 - 0.50 mm) to be the right one. The original shim in my camera was the 0.35 mm. Now, the screen is properly calibrated, and as a preliminary opinion, without yet trying it for real, it seems to me that this screen makes manual focusing much easier. Both with the center prism and with matte part of the screen, which is better than the stock screen's matte (the stock screen only has matte area for focusing). The screen I have is the KatzEye for Pentax K-5 with center prism, micro-prism collar, with optibright treatment and without markings for focus points etc KatzEye swiftly sent me instructions on how to change shims, and in my opinion, changing the shims was easy - the hard part was still getting the focus screen out and in without scratching anything (which has to be done each time the shim is changed, btw).