strix33 Posted September 21, 2009 Share Posted September 21, 2009 <p>Greetings,<br> Sorry if this is the wrong forum but I am curious if there are any manual cameras that have some sort of focus confirmation light. My eyeglass prescription changes faster than I can keep up with and especially low light focusing is the bane of my existence right now. It would be nice if it was in either a contax/yashica mount or konica as those are the systems I have lenses for. Any help would be much appreciated.</p> <p>thanks in advance,<br> brian</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
randrew1 Posted September 21, 2009 Share Posted September 21, 2009 <p>There are two that I have and undoubtedly more.</p> <ul> <li>My Crown Graphic (4x5) can shine a light through the range finder so that you can line up the two light spots on your subject.</li> <li>When I use a non-AF lens on my Nikon N90s, there is an indicator in the viewfinder that shows when the AF system thinks the image is in focus. </li> </ul> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul_noble Posted September 21, 2009 Share Posted September 21, 2009 <p>The Pentax ME-F was Pentax' first foray into auto-focus. It only did AF with one particular lens, a 35-70mm zoom, with the zoom motor and batteries in the lens. With a manual focus lens, it does offer focus confirmation.</p> <p>I don't have an ME-F, but I do have a couple of other Pentax film AF cameras, including an SF-1. I believe that the SF-1 also gives confirmation with MF lenses. I'll check tonight, when I'm home.</p> <p>I don't know of any non-AF cameras that have focus confirmation, but there may be some out there. Focus confirmation seems to me to be the hard part of designing an AF camera, so it seems that any camera maker would go all the way to AF, once they solved the confirmation problem. But then, I've never designed an AF camera, so what do I know?</p> <p>Paul Noble</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rdm Posted September 21, 2009 Share Posted September 21, 2009 <p>The only Manual camera with that feature, that i know of is the the Minolta x600. It was produced and sold only in japan for a very short while in the early 80s. I only ever seen one body up for sale on the web and it was for $350 US. I think your other options are to move to move to a digital and get a contax/yashica mount adapter with focus confirmation chip installed, because as far as i know theres not camera system that you can add a Konica adapter to with a focus confirmation ship. So you can get a Digital Eos or Olympus system with the adapter. OR if you want to stay with film i don't see why you couldn't use the adapter with confirmation chip on the Film EOSs . Although i don't know about that for certain , maybe an EOS user could enlighten me.</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
john_robison3 Posted September 21, 2009 Share Posted September 21, 2009 <p>The Canon AL-1 of about 1982. It used the FD lens mount, had manual focusing with focus confirmation in the viewfinder. There were 3 LED's at the bottom of the frame, red arrow left, green dot center and red arrow right. The way it worked is that the arrows showed the direction you should turn the focus ring and the green dot lit up when you hit focus. There was a small rectangle in the middle of the screen that you placed on the object you wanted to be in focus.</p> <p>All that said, I don't think Canon sold many so they may be very thin on the ground by now. I think a few other camera companies also made manual focus with focus confirmation. Olympus did but if I recall their's was a clunky system that required special lenses. The Canon had it built into the body and any FD lens would work.</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cliffmanley Posted September 21, 2009 Share Posted September 21, 2009 <p>By using the focus scale and the depth of field markings you can get a focused picture without even looking through the viewfinder. Perfect for us old blind farts.</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
john_robison3 Posted September 21, 2009 Share Posted September 21, 2009 <p>Cliff, your a riot! But you right, sometimes I just give up and scale focus as the results often are at least no worse that screen focusing. But of course, at f1.4 even at 3 meters the DOF is 'waffer thin, just waffer thin. :)</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nickc1 Posted September 21, 2009 Share Posted September 21, 2009 <p>I think any autofocus Nikon will do this when a manual lens is fitted, as will My Canon T80, but that is not really manual. I don't have Pentax or EOS systems to check, but by repute they behave in the same way. The problem is finding a Konica or Contax/Yashica autofocus body to fit your manual lenses to! I would take care over using adaptors as I suspect that the focus confirmation may be one of the features that is not compatible. Ask first and Caveat Emptor! </p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nickc1 Posted September 21, 2009 Share Posted September 21, 2009 <p>Additionally I regularly use 50mm f1.4 pre AI and 85mm f2 pre AI lenses on my D40x, with focus confirmation. If you want to manually focus, a manual focus lens with confirmation is far easier, and IMHO far nicer to use than an autofocus lens in manual mode.</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cliffmanley Posted September 21, 2009 Share Posted September 21, 2009 <p>So what are you photographing that is wafer thin? You likely need more depth of field than that anyway. If you are shooting something close, then just stop it down a bit.</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
d._chan Posted September 21, 2009 Share Posted September 21, 2009 I've never used it but the Contax RX has a focus indicator in the viewfinder and it seems to be a well regarded camera. I have an AX but I don't remember is there is a manual focus indicator. I don't use continous AF mode so it works fine for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
astral Posted September 21, 2009 Share Posted September 21, 2009 <p>On one hand I'm struggling to understand why a 'manual camera with focus confirmation' when there are plenty of AF cameras that will do the job extremely well, even with manual focus lenses fitted. On the other hand, some AF cameras are pretty useless with manual focus lenses, etc.</p> <p>But on the third hand(!) ageing eyes are a problem for me too and here are two solutions that I have adopted:</p> <p>Pentax SF7 and the non-classic MZ5N (dunno the US models) work very nicely with manual lenses and have a focus confirmation l.e.d. display - I use several M42 and M-mount lenses on these bodies with ease - even a T2 mount lens works perfectly well.</p> <p>Better still - Nikon F4 with a type-K split r/f focussing screen. This is a brilliant camera to use with manual lenses and has the advantage of taking AF lenses if needed. The K screen works perfectly well in manual and AF modes and the focus confirmation is big and bright (also it doesn't require any exposure compensation). The F4 ranks as a real classic camera too. The only down-side is that it is big and heavy.</p> <p> </p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Gammill Posted September 21, 2009 Share Posted September 21, 2009 <p>I see an AL-1 at KEH from time to time. My wife has one and it works well with the 50mm f1.8 and Sigma 70-210 f4-5.6 zoom. It will even do focus confirm with slower lenses. Not sure about the Minolta X-600 or Olympus OM-F. My favorite way to do focus confirm is to mount manual Pentax lenses on my ZX-5 (USA model for MZ-5). The ZX-5 and Pentax SMC -M 40mm f2.8 pancake lens is a neat little package.</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
User_502260 Posted September 21, 2009 Share Posted September 21, 2009 <p>I use the focus confirmation on the Nikon N2020. I only use my two N2020s in manual focus mode and if the light is good enough the focus confirmation is nice to have. I still use a diopter because I find it distracting to use a focusing aid while the whole scene looks not quite in focus.</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mfophotos Posted September 21, 2009 Share Posted September 21, 2009 <p>The Nikon N8008 has a beautiful eye-eypoint viewfinder, so glasses-wearers like me really enjoy such a great view. It works well with AF and MF Nikon lenses, too. </p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wmwhee Posted September 22, 2009 Share Posted September 22, 2009 <p>The nikon f100, which can be used in manual exposure mode and can be used with both nikon af lenses and nikon manual focus lenses, has a focus confirmation light in the viewfinder. </p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wmwhee Posted September 22, 2009 Share Posted September 22, 2009 <p>The nikon f100, which can be used in manual exposure mode and can be used with both nikon af lenses and nikon manual focus lenses, has a focus confirmation light in the viewfinder. </p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alex macphee Posted September 22, 2009 Share Posted September 22, 2009 <p>The camera you want is the Contax RX, particularly since you specify CY mount.</p> <p>This has a focus confirmation LED in the viewfinder. It has a depth of field indicator, and will also tell you whether the object you're focussing on is in front of or behind the plane of focus.</p> <p>The RX is a superb camera to handle and use, and probably the finest I've ever held.</p> <p>Incidentally, the later RX II does not have the viewfinder focus confirmation system. This model was only issued to let Cosina use up factory stocks when the original focus electronics chip supplies dried up.</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alberto_c Posted September 22, 2009 Share Posted September 22, 2009 <p>Take a look at the Contax AX. It has even AF, so I can't imagine it without some kind of focus assist.</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bgussin Posted September 22, 2009 Share Posted September 22, 2009 <p>I somewhat understand your question. I wear glasses and am always conscious of scratching them on the viewfinders, or in some cases I can't get my eye close enough tothe viewfinder with glasses on. So I have focused a fair amount of cameras without my glasses. "Split-circle" focusing works fairly well without glasses. Big bright rangefinder "overlaps" work well, and something I haven't tried are those lens adapters with the chips for using old manual lenses on newer SLR bodies where the auto focus confirmation lights will work.<br> For low light focusing I suggest big bright rangefinders.<br> It's a strange sensation to focus when everything is blurry.<br> -Bob</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chuck_foreman1 Posted September 22, 2009 Share Posted September 22, 2009 If you have Yashica lenses than please try the RX with focus assist. For a long time Kyocera-Contax resisted the Auto-focus SLR ..probably because they had to re-work all their lenses with motors.... The RX is a very good "assist".. any you have the lenses. You may want to check your lenses. It may be that only MM lenses can support "focus support" . Kyocera eventually "bit the bullet" and made an autofocus where the whole focal plane moves instead of the lens. This is the AX model, which many have already mentioned as why bother with "manual" or "assist" when you can have technology solve the problem. Anyway the RX deserves a try ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
john_wiegerink1 Posted September 22, 2009 Share Posted September 22, 2009 <p>I owned and used an Olympus OMF, for a short period, to go along with my OM3. It was a very good camera and I really liked the confirmation light in the viewfinder, but had a major drawback for me. It totally ate batteries. I mean it gulped them. Other than that it was a fine camera and used all the same lenses as my other OM cameras.</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alex macphee Posted September 22, 2009 Share Posted September 22, 2009 <p>Chuck, I can confirm that the focus assist on the RX doesn't depend on the presence of the MM lug on MM-enabled lenses. It works with both MM and AE ('ordinary') lenses. All that the MM lug does is tell the camera it can use shutter priority mode with this lens.</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MTC Photography Posted September 22, 2009 Share Posted September 22, 2009 <p>Contax T2 in manual focus mode, has focus confirmation LEDs, > , *, < ; >indicated tofar, < to close, green dot * indicated right on focus</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MTC Photography Posted September 22, 2009 Share Posted September 22, 2009 <p><img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/5786365-md.jpg" alt="" width="679" height="481" /><br> Contax T2 in manual focus mode, has focus confirmation LEDs, > , *, < ; >indicated tofar, < to close, green dot * indicated right on focus</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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