Manual Focusing tips

Hi all,

I have a K20d and Da*16-50. I tried a bit of manual focussing and was wondering whether the camera detects when the subject is in focus on all manual lenses. It seems to beep and thered focus box highlights when you get the centre of the frame in focus. Would this also happen on a fully manual lens as well, or is it just because my lens has autofocus on it?

Bit confusing.

Thanks, James

The body will give you focus confirmation with any lens auto focus or not. With the old manual lenses (M42;"K";M;and A series)many people have found this a help. Further if you use the camera in auto-focus single mode the shutter wont fire until the focus confirmation is present. This is called focus trap method.

However you should be looking for the green hexagon for confirmation, not the red squares.

I personally have found the focus confirmation to be a bit hit or miss, and I have fitted a split prism focus screen to my K10, but that is another story.

OK, thanks for the info. What is the red square, then?

That just tells you which of the 11 focus points the camera's using.

Dan

It would have been quite useful if they could have got the 11 red points showing up in manual focus rather than just the centre point though.
I can't understand why that isn't possible.

There wouldn't be much point in that, would there? Even if you use manual focus, it's good to know which of the 11 points is in use, whether you are set to automatic, manual or centre point focusing (In the Rec. Mode menu, check the Select AF Point setting).

Surely it would save having to focus then recompose if I could just focus using say the right hand (top if doing a portrait shot)red dot and get focus confirmation.
When I focus on an object I very rarely want it dead centre.

That is exactly my point. In the Rec. Mode menu, if you select the manual option in the Select AF Point, you can use the four-way selector to pick your focus point. Then you adjust focus manually until the image appears sharp, or the green hexagon lights up.

Just note that the red dot just confirms where you are focusing, while the green hexagon indicates that focus is achieved.

If all 11 points were lit, you would not have any idea where the camera is measuring.

Personally, I find it easier to use the centre point, aiming it at my selected focus point, focus, then recomposing my image.

Yes I realise that thanks, I was talking about 1 point lit at any one time, which you can do with a AF lens set to manual focus but not with a manual focus lens in MF setting.
Perhaps I should of made myself clearer or are you saying the K200D can do this with a fully manual lens?

Sorry, Mike, didn't realise that manual lenses only use the centre spot . I tested an automatic lens in manual focus. Now I checked my 1.7/50mm manual lens, and centre spot only, unfortunately. So I agree wholeheartedly with your initial comment.

Since it's unlike Pentax to be unhelpful for the sake of it when it comes to backwards compatibility, I'm going to hazard a guess that the multi point AF requires some item of information which is not passed back by the older MF lenses.

I can't figure out why this should be, but that could just be because I have an incomplete understanding of how the AF/MF confirm system works.

If your thinking about going the manual focus route, I can recommend you think about changing to Katzeye type of focus screen.

Best money I've spent to get things consistantly sharper.

is it possible to fit these alternative focus screens yourself or can it be only done by dealer/repairer

Hello bforbes, firstly welcome to the forum, secondly it depends on which camera you have, certainly on the K10D & K20D it's user changeable.

The Katzeye website lists for *istD, *istDs, *istDs2, *istDL, K100D, K1000D super, K110D and K200D. So these must also be changeable, but by whom I do not know.

Ask the camera specific question here on the forum, there are many more knowledgeable folk than me around here, who will be able to confirm for you.

I bought one of the cheap split screens off ebay and can honestly say it was the biggest waste of money I have spent on my camera (apart from 2 useless flashes).
I also buggered up my original focus screen when changing them over (and back again) as I touched both of them with my fingers before realising that A) it leaves bloody great fingerprints on both, B) you get LOADS of dust in the viewfinder unless you do it in a fairly dust free enviroment and C)when you try to clean the dust off the screen it makes it 50 times worse.

All in all not a pleasant experience and one I am still living with everytime I look through the viewfinder.

Saying that though, its a fairly simple process