Originally posted by brightseal So basically is it just a matter of using your own eyes over all else?
Aside from the focus confirmation (beep) is there anything else that aids in focusing with this thing?
"Live View", as with any other manual focusing lens on any modern DSLR. Phase-detect focusing sensors on a DSLR body can only do so much. For critical focus, especially where very shallow depth-of-field is concerned, you really need to use Live View for accurate focusing. In film SLR days, a split-prism focusing screen was used to enable quite accurate results, but in these days of 100%+ reproduction in post-processing, even that approach has limitations.
This is one reason why mirrorless cameras are so popular for manual focus lens use... the EVF is a live view electronic display. Personally, I prefer using an optical viewfinder most of the time, but if I'm shooting with manual focusing lenses, I'll pick an EVF any day of the week...