Focus with manual lens - night photography

Gruyanidas

Senior Member
After first couple of hours outside in the night and a couple of shots into the night sky, I came back inside the house asking myself: How the hell is even possible to get the sharp images using manual lens with camera without built-in motor? I have been shoting with my D3300 with kit lens and I will put my shots soon once I procces them, but thinking of an upgrade no lens comes on my mind which is not super expensive... Any ideas of an upgrade without changing my camera?

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Marcel

Happily retired
Staff member
Super Mod
The best way to manually focus is using the Live View function with the magnifying function. But I can understand that if you are trying to shoot stars, it's not very easy if not impossible except for the moon.

But you mention using your "kit" lens (I suppose 18-55), so you could try the autofocus only to find that there isn't enough light and objects to focus on.

Some people find the infinity focus point on their lenses during the day and mark the lens so they can reproduce the focusing inside before going out in the dark.

Good luck.
 

Gruyanidas

Senior Member
The best way to manually focus is using the Live View function with the magnifying function. But I can understand that if you are trying to shoot stars, it's not very easy if not impossible except for the moon.

But you mention using your "kit" lens (I suppose 18-55), so you could try the autofocus only to find that there isn't enough light and objects to focus on.

Some people find the infinity focus point on their lenses during the day and mark the lens so they can reproduce the focusing inside before going out in the dark.

Good luck.
Thanks for the answer Marcel!

Yes, I use 18-55mm. The way that I achieved focus during session was finding quite interesting tree near by and then painting it with the light until focus is aquired, then af is set to mf, recompose and then shot long exposure. The shots are quite good and sharp at first sight but I ask how to focus on clear sky with manual lens. I am a little bit confused with the infinity focusing idea and somewhere I have read that those shots with lens focused to infinity are not that good like other achieved in the method that I previously used.

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Marcel

Happily retired
Staff member
Super Mod
Thanks for the answer Marcel!

Yes, I use 18-55mm. The way that I achieved focus during session was finding quite interesting tree near by and then painting it with the light until focus is aquired, then af is set to mf, recompose and then shot long exposure. The shots are quite good and sharp at first sight but I ask how to focus on clear sky with manual lens. I am a little bit confused with the infinity focusing idea and somewhere I have read that those shots with lens focused to infinity are not that good like other achieved in the method that I previously used.

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The infinity method I mentioned is mostly for Star pictures, milky way etc. In your case focusing at infinity if you had trees that were not at infinity would have been a mistake.
 

Fred Kingston

Senior Member
You'll need to do some research and trial and error. Google, and understand "Hyperfocal distance"... learn to set your camera for the distances you'll need, and it'll work. You don't even need to see very much... and in fact, some of the older less expensive manual lenses have the distance scales on the lenses... Good luck...
 

Gruyanidas

Senior Member
Thanks for the advices , I will do research definitely. I am going to post my shots here after processing.

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Scott Murray

Senior Member
Thanks for the answer Marcel!
I am a little bit confused with the infinity focusing idea and somewhere I have read that those shots with lens focused to infinity are not that good like other achieved in the method that I previously used.

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Really?

I must really talk to my camera then ;) all at infinity focus.

Untitled by Scott Murray, on Flickr

Untitled by Scott Murray, on Flickr
 

Gruyanidas

Senior Member
I knew that I am going to get an answer like this lol 😃 Do I need to say something like stuning shots 😃 My issue is that I have trouble setting kit lens to infinity. Need to do research on it.

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Fred Kingston

Senior Member
Turn OFF the af by switching to M and turn OFF VR, rotate the front lens barrel all the way to the left/right while looking thru the viewfinder at something close by... during bright light... you will see which direction to rotate the front lens barrel for Infinity...
 

Gruyanidas

Senior Member
Turn OFF the af by switching to M and turn OFF VR, rotate the front lens barrel all the way to the left/right while looking thru the viewfinder at something close by... during bright light... you will see which direction to rotate the front lens barrel for Infinity...
Thanks Fred! That would be the answer! Looking forward to try that!

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Scott Murray

Senior Member
I knew that I am going to get an answer like this lol  Do I need to say something like stuning shots  My issue is that I have trouble setting kit lens to infinity. Need to do research on it.

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As @Marcel said use live view, zoom in and focus in brightest star OR during daylight hrs focus on something a long long way away. Look at your lense and maybe place a mark on it to show you later where 'infinity' is. This is what I did when I was unsure of where infinity focus was :) Another tip is while in the city focus on a light of some sort a fair way away this will too give you infinity focus. Hope this helps, please post your results.
 

Bob Blaylock

Senior Member
I have learned, with my D3200 and the stock 18-55 lens that came with it, that if you let it try to focus with the lens cap on, the point where it stops after failing is at infinity. So, if I want the lens focused at infinity, I just do that, put the lens cap on and let it try to focus, then switch the camera to manual-focus mode, so that the lens stays focused there.
 

Gruyanidas

Senior Member
Wow guys such good answers and tips! Thanks a lot! Using those tips, after a session of night shots I will post results here. Results that I got for the first time are such a shame so I will skip posting them for now 😃

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