MF on D200 in low light

[hughes]

Hello all

 

Am I a Dinosaur?

I still use my MF lenses on my D200 partly because I like them partly because

Of economics and partly because up till now I thought I could focus better and

quicker manually.

But shooting an amateur production this week I had a horrible job focussing in

poor light my 85/1.8 was unuseable I just couldn't focus, my 135mm F.2 was

useable but I still wasn't happy with the ease of focussing, I should add that

I'm a whisper away from my 50th birthday.

Is this a function of getting older or just a sign of the times?

 

Here's my question sell all my MF lenses which are a 55mmF2.8 macro a 85mmF1.8

a 105mmF2.8macro a 135mmf.2and and invest in one AF lens, or buy a Katzeye

screen and try that?

Is there anybody else who has been manually focussing for 35 years ready to

give it up. I have a 400mm 3.5 mf lens that is not a problem to focus at all,

and rangefinders are not a problem. I am not a total Luddite as I do have

several AF lenses but it sure is getting hard to manual focus on my D200.

 

 

regards Steve<div></div>

[ronald_moravec1]

I have no trouble with Leica Visoflex lenses on the D200. Did a bunch 125mm 2.5 a month ago.

 

I am almost 65.

 

Try getting your eyes checked. Stuff creaps up you do not notice. I would try the Katz after the exam, then decide.

[william_john_smith1]

I use a Katzeye with a D-200 and MF 50mm f1.2 wide open and it works great. Couldn't do

it with the standard screen. Katzeyes are well worth the money, nice people

besides.<BR>And for you youngsters I'm almost 67, so there!

[jerryballard]

I found the answer to that problem by buying the DK21-M for the D200. I wear glasses and when I added that $24 item it all of a sudden became perfectly clear that I needed it. I don't think this would be the case for everyone but the combo of that very small increase and my glasses formed the tack sharp solutuion. I love my 18-200 AF as it is very fast focussing and mine is as sharp as can be. Not all of them are I guess. But I also love my MF 105 macro kiron 2.5 and would not use in AF even if it had it. Most of the time my 18-200 is dead on, but there are times when it would have been better to MF, very nice to have the option of both!

[Matt Laur]

Why, in my day, we had to use manual focus going uphill both ways to school through the snow, in the dark, and we LIKED it that way, yessir we did!

<br><br>

For what it's worth, Steve, I'm in my 40s, don't wear glasses (still coasting along at 20/20 - whew!), and I still have a hard time manually focusing something like a 50/1.8 in lower light. But having learned the nuances of my D200's focusing behavior, I've become quite content to let AF do the work. The error rate is so, so much lower than anything that would happen with me manually in control in a dynamic situation (we're not talking about still lifes, here), that it strikes me as a no-brainer to let the camera's fine system do the work. Um, of course that's easy for me to say when you already OWN those nice MF lenses, and I'm not the one that would have to replace them for you! But... it really works quite well (AF does), and it lets me concentrate on light, composition, timing, and content instead. But it's not just you - it's that the D200 wasn't really conceived as the MF guy's tool of choice.

[ilkka_nissila]

The Katzeye screen gives better contrast for manual focusing in the matte image and if necessary you can use the microprism collar and split image also. I just got mine, haven't tried it out much yet.

 

Don't sell your manual lenses! They are much better built than all but the most expensive AF lenses and easier to manual focus. Any fast lens is best focused manually at close distances (unless you shoot a flat object where AF is fine) since 3-d objects like the human face are hard to get just right using AF.

[jim_steranko]

Katzeye offer an "optibrite" enhancement to their screens for about a 50% premium over the standard ones. Is it worth it?

 

Jim

[ilkka_nissila]

Well the screen is bright already. If the treatment doesn't improve focusing accuracy then IMO it's not worth paying for it. But I havent' seen the OptiBrite screen. From the web pages I gather it mainly helps users of really slow lenses.

[pete_s.]

Steve, try a different focusing screen first. I have recently bought a 24/2.8, 35/2, 50/1.4, 85/2 and 105/2.5 and I just love manual focus. But I'm only close to 40 so I'm not as OLD as you :)

 

And I would recommend looking into a Haoda Fu screen instead of a Katz Eye. The split prism in the center is not matted on these so you have a very bright center and IMHO it's much easier to align the two halves. The microprism area is also a little larger on the haoda fu screen. You can check prices and such at haodascreen.com

 

Peter

[william_john_smith1]

<I>And I would recommend looking into a Haoda Fu screen instead of a Katz Eye.</I><P>So

you have use both extensively and that is your conclusion?

[pete_s.]

William,

I recommend looking into a Haoda screen yes. I have used both SIMULTANEOUSLY in very dark conditions and I very much prefer a clear split image to a matted split image. YMMV.

[sjmurray]

Don't sell your MF lenses yet! Besides the above suggestions, another thing to check out is your camera's manual focus adjustment. Some DSLRs (Canons too, I am told) are not adjusted perfectly out of the factory. My D80 was one of them and it focused "behind" what was focused on in the viewfinder whenever I used a manual lens. D200's can also have this problem. It showed up when using large apertures with shallow dof. Nikon fixed it no problem. Now I can focus on a razors edge, and I am 57, and I see no need for changing the stock screen. Set up some objects a few millemeters apart front to back and focus on the middle one. Use a tripod and a lens like a 50mm 1.4, shooting wide open. Or, shoot a ruler from a 45 degree angle and note just where the focus point is in the resulting image, whether it is where you focused in the viewfinder, or somewhere else. There are more references to this type of testing if you google. I would do this testing before buying an expensive screen.