I recently got 2 of samyang manual lens (14mm and 85mm) for my 5D since they performs pretty good per pz reviews. Probably it's my lack of experience in manual focusing, i found it pretty hard to manual focus them. For the 14mm, it's impossible to tell through view finder where the focal point is. I could only guess the distance and use the scale on the lens, or just reduce aperture for more tolerance on error. For the 85mm 1.4, it's also hard to precisely focus on the eye when doing portrait shoots without the use of live view (which the 5D mkI doesn't have).
I had tried to change the focus screen to a split screen; however, it shades the off-center areas and makes the metering/E-ttl flash think it's under exposed, and the accuracy is not that good for subjects without straight vertical line(s). So I change it back to the original screen.
Someone suggests me to chip the lens or get a magnified eyepiece to assist the manual focus, but i'm not sure if that will work or not.
Any advises from manual lens users will be greatly appreciated.
And excuse my English grammar.
james
I found it pretty easy to focus MF lenses, when the
EE-S screen is installed.
BTW ... if a different focus screen causes wrong exposure, you could
change the installed screen to EE-S in the custom functions. That should help.
With the 14mm, it is likely that you should first calibrate infinity focus. I heared, that
some lenses do focus to infinity, when the setting of the scale is quite a bit
before or after the infinity mark. Once that is corrected, manual focussing "by guessing"
shouldn't be too hard.
With the 85mm, a screen like the EE-S should help.
just my 2cts ... Rainer
[quote name='Rainer' timestamp='1294141812' post='5339']
I found it pretty easy to focus MF lenses, when the
EE-S screen is installed.
BTW ... if a different focus screen causes wrong exposure, you could
change the installed screen to EE-S in the custom functions. That should help.
With the 14mm, it is likely that you should first calibrate infinity focus. I heared, that
some lenses do focus to infinity, when the setting of the scale is quite a bit
before or after the infinity mark. Once that is corrected, manual focussing "by guessing"
shouldn't be too hard.
With the 85mm, a screen like the EE-S should help.
just my 2cts ... Rainer
[/quote]
Thanks for reminding me about the EE-S setting in custom functions. The EE-S will darken the view for apertures smaller than F/4.0, the camera might adjust light metering per aperture used, but due to the lack of any electronic coupling of these lenses, the camera have no idea about the current aperture. So the metering might still be a problem.
Had anyone tried the magnified eyepiece? i'm not quite sure it's for far-sighted people or for manual focusing.
James
genotypewriter
Unregistered
[quote name='james' timestamp='1294164163' post='5348']
Thanks for reminding me about the EE-S setting in custom functions. The EE-S will darken the view for apertures smaller than F/4.0, the camera might adjust light metering per aperture used, but due to the lack of any electronic coupling of these lenses, the camera have no idea about the current aperture. So the metering might still be a problem.
Had anyone tried the magnified eyepiece? i'm not quite sure it's for far-sighted people or for manual focusing.
James
[/quote]
I too recommend the S-type screens. They will not have those problems you mentioned because I use a lot of manual lenses without any electronics and things are fine. The only thing is you need to set the Custom Function to tell the camera you're using a S-type screen.
Again, there's no sudden darkening because of f/4... but for all apertures, the S-type screens are darker than the standard one. Their usability is reduced when it comes to lenses that are f/4 and slower, but in no way it makes things unusable.
GTW
Use live-view if you have it.
For the 14 mm, I'd just use the distance scale. DOF is huge at 14 mm.
