Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="Bob Blaylock" data-source="post: 496348" data-attributes="member: 16749">You weren't kidding about the short focus throw on this lens.&nbsp; As previously mentioned, it focuses slightly past infinity, as shown in the first picture.&nbsp; The second picture shows it focused all the way to its closest setting.[ATTACH]181247[/ATTACH][ATTACH]181248[/ATTACH]&nbsp; For comparison, here's my ancient 1972-vintage non-AI 50mm ƒ/1.4.&nbsp; The whole focusing scale cannot be shown in one picture.&nbsp; Looks like it has slightly less than 180° of throw.[ATTACH]181249[/ATTACH][ATTACH]181250[/ATTACH]&nbsp; Looking at my other two ancient lenses, they both appear to have slightly more than 180°.&nbsp; I guess it's like you say—the newest lens is optimized for autofocusing, with the ability to be manually-focused just there as a minor afterthought.&nbsp; It doesn't even have a printed scale (other than the infinity mark which I added) and the short throw makes manual focusing very imprecise; but allows for faster autofocusing.&nbsp; The&nbsp; other lenses, of course, were made long before anyone even imagined that cameras would ever autofocus, and they are designed to allow the easiest and most precise manual focusing.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Bob Blaylock, post: 496348, member: 16749"] You weren't kidding about the short focus throw on this lens. As previously mentioned, it focuses slightly past infinity, as shown in the first picture. The second picture shows it focused all the way to its closest setting. [ATTACH=CONFIG]181247._xfImport[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]181248._xfImport[/ATTACH] For comparison, here's my ancient 1972-vintage non-AI 50mm ƒ/1.4. The whole focusing scale cannot be shown in one picture. Looks like it has slightly less than 180° of throw. [ATTACH=CONFIG]181249._xfImport[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]181250._xfImport[/ATTACH] Looking at my other two ancient lenses, they both appear to have slightly more than 180°. I guess it's like you say—the newest lens is optimized for autofocusing, with the ability to be manually-focused just there as a minor afterthought. It doesn't even have a printed scale (other than the infinity mark which I added) and the short throw makes manual focusing very imprecise; but allows for faster autofocusing. The other lenses, of course, were made long before anyone even imagined that cameras would ever autofocus, and they are designed to allow the easiest and most precise manual focusing. [/QUOTE]

Verification