I am also pleased to see new members introducing themselves each day.

Just stunning.

Ok

I use the K10 and this is how I can use it:

Manual focus lens only.

Set camera to AF-S

Press and hold shutter button, and slowly turn the focus ring.

When the camera aurofucus system thinks the image is in focus, the green hexagon will appear and allow the shutter to release.

Now your camera might be different, as I know the K20 has a menu item for this, presumably to enable this to be used with autofocus lenses too. Perhaps someone with a K200 can answer.

Liam

That has to be the best flower photo I have ever seen.

I think I see the problem

Which camera are you using ?

Ok , so we are talking about seriously mushy , not just missing focus by a smidgin.

If it was 100% off I would say bin the lenses, but the fact that it works sometimes and not others is very odd.

Are you using shake reduction? and are you correctly telling the camera the correct focal length when you mount the lens ??

Hi

The smaller and darker viewfinder of a DSLR can make manual focussing harder than what you are used to with a 35mm camera.

A couple of points first, f22 wont give you the sharpest image because you will be suffering from diffraction. f5.6-f8 is generally where lenses are sharpest. But to pin down focus issues you should test the lens on a tripod using both manual and auto-confirmation to see if there is a problem with the lens. Use widest aperture for this test.

If you can focus manually fine with other lenses then your lens must be faulty.

Just a thought: what is the widest aperture of the autofocus lenses that you can manually focus with ?

It may be that at f1.7 you are just not accurate enough, but at f3.5 the DOF hides this fact.

A split prism screen is the way to go, it worked for me.

The sun came out for a few hours today so I took myself down to the Wey Navigation Canal and got a few snaps of the ruins of Newark Priory near Pyrford in Surrey.

It stands on private land so you cant get too close, but this has the advantage of no visitors to spoil your pictures !

I think I shall make an effort to capture it in all seasons this year.

The second one is just beautiful Liam