A Robin and Starling (using manual lens)

I got myself a manual lens for my camera for £25 so had a little play, its will take practice to get good at using it but here are some shots I took with it

They look pretty good to me John

Geoffc said:

They look pretty good to me John

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Thanks a lot, I am no wildlife photographer that's for sure and getting a sharp photo quickly with manual is not easy. I used to use manual focus all the time years back but you quickly get used to auto focus

It was nice having those little microprisms in the old film cameras that helped with the focusing, for sure. My old eyes fight to do it at times with the basic focusing screen, especially when I'm hoping to grab something before it scurries away, so I compensate with aperture settings that help me fudge, but I've still got a crutch for my auto-focus.

BackdoorHippie said:

It was nice having those little microprisms in the old film cameras that helped with the focusing, for sure. My old eyes fight to do it at times with the basic focusing screen, especially when I'm hoping to grab something before it scurries away, so I compensate with aperture settings that help me fudge, but I've still got a crutch for my auto-focus.

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Yeah my old Zenith was far easier to manual focus than the Nikon, that little light flashing on and off is very sensitive and not always easy to get right

John Young said:

Thanks a lot, I am no wildlife photographer that's for sure and getting a sharp photo quickly with manual is not easy. I used to use manual focus all the time years back but you quickly get used to auto focus

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Well, I don't think it's because we've adapted to auto-focus. There is something else involved here. The auto-focus cameras have different ground glass then the older had. The ground glass is more transparent than the film type which makes it very hard to focus with. You can strain your eyes all you want, when you look through a DSLR viewfinder, you actually see more through the ground glass than what it used to be. This is, in my opinion, why they are so darn hard to focus with. At first I thought that getting faster glass would solve the problem… Well, in some cases, it made it worse. I even sometimes focus with the depth of field button depressed to shut down the diaphragm and feel it makes it easier to focus...

I've never gotten to the point of getting replacement ground-glass, but have thought about it often. I'm just getting used to missing a few shots here and there because of badly focused shots.

Yeah you could be right, I might try the depth of field preview next time....

But you know what as I said to my wife there is something 'nice' and relaxing about using manual focus. I am not sure if its because you have to go a lot slower but I really felt relaxed when using it... does that sound daft ?

John Young said:

Yeah you could be right, I might try the depth of field preview next time....

But you know what as I said to my wife there is something 'nice' and relaxing about using manual focus. I am not sure if its because you have to go a lot slower but I really felt relaxed when using it... does that sound daft ?

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I agree with you completely, but the only real way to make sure the things are in focus with a manual focus lens is to use a tripod and then magnify in live view. Sad but true… Which won't keep me from buying manual focus lenses since they are so so cheap, and sometimes better built than their modern counterparts.

Well lots of practice and playing needed I think.....