accurate manual focus without live-view on 450D

<p>For portraits I manually focus an old smc pentax 50/1.4 using liveview. The trouble is I do a lot of shots in sunny conditions and I just can't see the screen well enough even in the shade (actually even when cloudy). At the large apertures I shoot the viewfinder is useless. Infact liveview for portraits with kids isn't very practical. However I have a fine old time with my film camera (Canon AL-1): I can manually focus on the 'ground-glass' just fine (it doesn't have a split image rangerfinder).</p>

<p>I was wondering if anyone could recommend, from experience, a 3rd party focussing screen that doesn't pander to the "brightness" addiction but does a good enough job with the 450D's penta-mirror? I've heard of Catz-eyes. However as well as being fairly expensive I would prefer a dimmer screen that showed the depth of field more accurately since I will generally not be using the split-image ranger finder.</p>

<p>I am considering getting a chip to get the benefit of focus confirmation but much of the time I'll need to focus without that aid.</p>

<p>Is there anything worth my sheckels out there?</p>

<p>I use a lot of manual Pentax lenses like the A 50mm F1.7 and several 50/100 macros and have no problem focussing on my K10D (no liveview)and if DOF is uncritical I simply rely on the focus confirmation sign in the viewfinder. Its quite a bit harder with wide lenses and the standard screen. Does your Canon not have any kind of focus confirmation?</p>

<p>Greg, maybe I am missing your point here but why not just buy the good old Canon 50/1.8 II? Then you have a nice fast lens, can use a/f or m/f as you feel so inclined, you get focus confirmation, dof preview, optical view finder or live view if you really must.<br>

To get accurate and precise focusing I always use a single focus point so know where the camera is focusing. DoF can be done by DoF preview or by experience.</p>

 

<p>I never use Live View - I find I can do a better job of manual focusing my lenses through the viewfinder.</p>

<p>As for DOF the fact is that if you are using a 3rd party manual lens via an adapter you'll have to focus wide open anyway because if you stop down your view will become increasingly darker nad difficult to nail focus with, that's the way I feel anyway. </p>

<p>The adapter with the chip would be less expensive than the custom screen but, you'd need one for each lens brand you have.</p>

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<p>The adapter with the chip would be less expensive than the custom screen but, you'd need one for each lens <strong>brand</strong> [emphasis added] you have.</p>

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<p>No, the chip copies (read "pirates") a bit of the circuitry from a real Canon lens. It works on any lens in the same <strong>mount</strong> , not brand. You need only one for M42 (Pentax, Pentacon, Zeiss, etc.), one for Nikon F mount (Sigma, Nikon, etc.), and so on. Most of them are cheap enough to just buy one for each lens you regularly use.</p>

<p>The focus-confirmation chip is simply glued on the adapter, and one of them glued on a little off center or otherwise flawed, completely fried my 20D's circuits some years ago. This (focus confirmation) is not necessary if your eyes are half-way decent. Use a magnifier on the viewfinder if you must, but just focus very carefully wide open and then stop down to shoot. The newer the Canon, the easier this is, since they have been steadily making their viewfinders larger and brighter.</p>

<p>@JDM: "<em>Use a magnifier on the viewfinder if you must, but just focus very carefully wide open and then stop down to shoot.</em>" </p>

<p>I reckon my money would be better spent on a focussing screen. 'Careful' focusing isn't so practical in the conditions I need it. Without a magnifier I can't get close to accurate focusing at even just f2.8. As far as I can see the focusscreen is designed for f5.6 lenses at least leaving us large aperture people with no option but to use AF or a focus confirmation chip.</p>

<p>@Colin"<em>Greg, maybe I am missing your point here but why not just buy the good old Canon 50/1.8 II?</em>"</p>

<p>I prefer the pentax for qualities that the cheaper Canon's don't have. </p>

<p>So no one using cheaper 3rd party focus screens with large aperture lenses?</p>

<p>I use a Haoda screen with split-image/microprism. I really love it: it works very well, even with my zuiko 50 f/1.4 at f/1.4. And it also helps in spotting focus-errors with your AF lenses :)</p>

<p><a href="http://haodascreen.com/default.aspx">http://haodascreen.com/default.aspx</a> and <a href="http://www.katzeyeoptics.com/">http://www.katzeyeoptics.com/</a> are the best. I would not make compromises here but it's your money.</p>

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<p>Is there anything worth my sheckels out there?</p>

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<p>In Israel, there sure is..... :-)</p>

<p>Happy shooting,<br />Yakim.</p>

<p>I would agree with you but aren't dimmer ones better for accuracy of depth of field? I doubt I'll shoot above f2.8 so a cheap one might be all that's required.</p>

<p>I don't see how a dimmer one would be better?<br>

The Haoda is a "coarser/rougher" screen than the standard screen, making it more easy to see the difference between in-focus and out-of-focus if that's what you mean? With f/4 of f/5.6 lenses, the screen looks definitely dimmer than the standard screen, whereas with wide aperture primes, it seems to be at least as bright (this is a feeling, didn't do any measurements).</p>

<p>Apparently old fashioned screens (40 years ago) were optimised for large apertures and were relatively dim. Ultra-bright modern screens tend to be so bright by compromising the accuracy of the oof rendition in the viewfinder giving more dof than there really is and making focusing trickier for large apertures. So I'm guessing that perhaps a cheap screen might be dimmer with the virtue of better large aperture performance. Because it's a guess I'm asking here in case people have tried cheaper screens.</p>

<p>On the Nikon F series I used a whole screen microprism screen. Unbeatable for fast focusing. Unfortunately, I googled and I don't see that anyone makes such a beast for the 450d.</p>

<p>Can you change the focusing screen on a 450? Didn't know that, thought it was a privilige of the higher models. If you can't, I would second the 50/1.8 option. It doesn't give you much better focus control on the screen, but you do get autofocus and/or focus confirmation. It costs about the same as a Katzeye. I changed the screen on my 40D to the Canon EF-S, which is quite cheap and gives you good focus control. Perhaps you can get someone to hack that into your camera.</p>

<p>Also, as an aside, make sure you don't accidentally rotate the little correction button for people with glasses when putting your camera into the bag. Happens to me quite regularly, and it is very annoying especially during MF.</p>