Originally posted by weave2d2 It's funny how bad I want this camera, despite its several shortcomings (for my needs/wants.) I found myself wondering, after reading about the low light focusing difficulties, that perhaps I could use this great focus peeking and just shoot it as a manual focus camera. Then I'd be almost exactly where I was shooting college sports in 1993 w/ my fm2 with manual film advance, 100mm 2.8 (I now own the 70 ltd 2.4) , shooting tmax 3200. Somebody smack me.
See, I don't understand why this is all such a big deal. As I mentioned in another thread, my little old cheapie 18-55 zoom that came with my old *ist DL as its kit lens is just slow and clunky on this camera in autofocus mode, so I use it exclusively in manual, and it's great! Also, I don't notice the little kit lens, the DA 40mm XS, struggling very much in low light. I do not use this lens in manual because I have not felt I needed to.
The focus peaking in manual is a thing of beauty, anyway. I have a circa-1979 Rikenon 50mm, which is a cheap, mass-produced, nothing-special lens which actually produces beautiful bokeh, on mine right now. So much fun.
I strongly disagree with Adam's conclusion that the viewfinder is as bad as he says in full sunlight. I have poor eyesight, and I was easily able to do things like use the focus select mode, moving the area of focus around the grid, with the sun at my back, with no problem seeing what I was doing. Ah well. I suppose this is the sort of thing that comes down to the individual, and what you think is poor performance.
Anyway, I read Adam's review, and overall, it's a positive one, but the tone from folks here is that the review is a negative one.
isaac7:
Quote: I had hoped that the LCD display would be akin to focussing on a ground glass screen, but brighter and right ways around. I wonder how easy it would be to determine focus without the focus peaking method, is the screen pitched finely enough to allow good old fashioned manual focussing like we used to do on matte screens?
isaac, you can, but it's more difficult. The focus peaking is beautiful. Seriously, you have to experience it. I am in love with it. Even though it's ever-so-digital, it feels
right. I turn the focus ring, the white shows accordingly. And it's very accurate, too.