On Fri, 11 Oct 2002 13:53:34 GMT, joel@exc.com (Dr. Joel M. Hoffman) wrote:

>>Some Caveats. I really like manual focus. The only SLR I have used is
>>a Canon AE-1. I just love the focus aides and the feel of manual
>>focus.

>I thought I loved manual focus, too, but it turns out I'm MUCH happier
>with AF. This is one area where the camera really is better than I
>am, though I would never have believed it. My suggestion is to borrow
>someone's AF and see if you really like MF as much as you think.
>
>If you do:
>
>Make sure you get a camera that has a microprism for MF. This rules
>out most entry- and mid-level cameras. Without the microprism, MF is
>almost impossible.

This is not true if the camera has sharp viewfinder optics
(many do not), and you can see sharply at the virtual focus
distance of about one meter (many cannot). If the above are
true, a good plain ground-glass (with good Fresnel to
brighten the edges) will provide the fastest accurate
focusing possible (beating out most AF...). "Focus aids"
require finding subject areas that are appropriate for
their use, and these may not be at the optimum position
or distance for accurate focus, and since the focus aids
are centered in the finder (unlike the GG surface),
reframing after focus may be necessary, and this can
introduce errors due to time and motion, and with wide-angle
lenses due to rotation of a flat field in an arc, changing
the focus distance in close-ups...

>Nikon will let you use any MF lens. Canon will not.

The Nikon lens must be AI'd, or the body must permit
flipping out of the way the AI tab when non-AI lenses
are used...

>I know some Canon lenses have full-time MF, which means you can focus
>the AF lenses while the camera is in AF mode. This may be the best of
>both worlds for you.

This is a great feature, just now appearing on Nikon
"S" lenses...

>As to the MF gearing, etc., it varies by lens.

>>Other questions would be how hard is it to focus without focus aids in
>>the mid range cameras like the the F80/Elan 7?

>Almost impossible on the Elan II.

And on the N90, N70 and other Nikons with bright-but-soft
finders, optimized for slow zooms (sometimes I think
mfgrs. make their AF body finders soft to convince people
they need AF and new AF lenses...;-). Try an 8008, F3,
or F100 (though the AF on this last is really good...!;-),
and you may not want to bother with AF when MF works so
easily, without focus locking buttons, selecting focus
positions in the finder before focusing, waiting for the
camera to find *something* to focus on before the wildly
focusing lens settles down, etc.