Manual focusing techniques for the X Vario with an Leica EVF2

[mikeodial]

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I am new to the X Vario and Leica in general. One purpose I have purchased the camera for is for general walk about and street photography. I have the EVF2 as I am used to looking through a viewfinder with my DSLR D810. I have had a SLR for 44 years now and admittedly this camera will take some getting used to. 

 

So I have three general questions:

 

1. Is the Autofocus good enough that I should rely on it for most of those "fleeting moment" shots
2. For deliberate manual focusing situations can you offer any sugguestions for how best to have the camera set up so I literally can just "frame and shoot" while in street or family situations? e.g. zone focusing, 
3. Does the technique outlined here make sense, and are all the limitations therein still valid with 1.1 version of Firmware.

Thanks in advance.

 

Mike 

 

[wda]

Mike, welcome to the forum!

 

I have found AF to be the weak point on the X Vario. For snap decisions such as your 'fleeting moments' it is likely to be found wanting. If you rush exposure before you get the green light you might be disappointed. In such situations work out a preset manual procedure, based on reasonable depth of field. (lens stopped down to f/8 and focus to your normal shooting distance for candid work. For personal locations it is easy to measure a good mid point for manual focusing.  Experiment with Face Detection which can work surprisingly well in social situations or street. (Your points 1 and 2)

 

Point 3. I do not think this is correct. My belief is that after zooming focus must be reset. I will check this when I have time.

Edited March 2, 2016 by wda

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[rivi1969]

I think is very easy to get correct focus using AF because of the wide depth of field of the slow lens. Foe example, if your subject is at 3feet from the camera using the lens at 23mm @f4 -which is the wider it can gets- your depth of field will be 1feet. Plenty of room to miss pin-point focus. So if you set the aperture at f5.6 and the focal distance at 4 mt. (12 ft) basically everything in the frame will be in focus so you only need to check the finder for framing.

Edited March 2, 2016 by rivi1969

[waloszek]

Hi,

 

since item 3. refers to a page on my Website, I would like to reply to this.

 

First of all, I am currently on a trip and do not have the X Vario with me. Therefore, I will check all this with my X Vario when I am back home.

 

I searched my site for further references and found this in the X Vario FAQ (it's all long ago...): 

As Daniel Martin found out (inspired by the noises that the focus motor creates during zooming), you can focus manually at 70 mm (46 mm) and then zoom to the wide end without touching the focus ring. The results seem to be more consistent that those obtained by focusing manually at the desired (wider) focal length. (http://www.waloszek.de/lxv_faq_e.php#imp_mf)

 

That is, I reported an observation that someone else (namely, Daniel Martin) had made and that I was able to replicate. So, I am not alone with this observation... But I will try to confirm this -- and all this was long before firmware update 1.1 (which might have changed this).

 

Basically, my remark says that the manual distance value is kept when you focus the lens. Using this for focusing at the long end is just an application  of it. Distance is, of course, not kept when you turn the zoom ring, but as far as I remember, the camera adapts focus when zooming has stopped. I cannot remember how long adapting the focus takes -- it is not instantaneously (maybe about a second).

 

From a logical point of view, the camera HAS to adapt the focus, otherwise it would be in an inconsistent state: the distance scale would tell a different story than the lens...

 

Anyway, as already wrote, I will check all this as soon as I am back home.

 

Best regards, Gerd

 

[wda]

Mike, welcome to the forum!

 

I have found AF to be the weak point on the X Vario. For snap decisions such as your 'fleeting moments' it is likely to be found wanting. If you rush exposure before you get the green light you might be disappointed. In such situations work out a preset manual procedure, based on reasonable depth of field. (lens stopped down to f/8 and focus to your normal shooting distance for candid work. For personal locations it is easy to measure a good mid point for manual focusing.  Experiment with Face Detection which can work surprisingly well in social situations or street. (Your points 1 and 2)

 

Point 3. I do not think this is correct. My belief is that after zooming focus must be reset. I will check this when I have time.

I have since checked this technique and conclude that in manual focusing mode, zooming aids accuracy and does not appear to change with focal length.

[mikeodial]

Thank you all for the input. The following image is one I took this morning using the EVF2 with the image set up "zoomed in detail window" to gain accurate focus. I "think" I saw the shimmering others talked about when in focus. I will try this technique by zooming in ... focusing ... zooming out to frame the image on a tripod where I can more sure I am not changing focal points with a hand held picture. Lots to learn. Thank you again for your help.

 

[Astropap]

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I think is very easy to get correct focus using AF because of the wide depth of field of the slow lens. Foe example, if your subject is at 3feet from the camera using the lens at 23mm @f4 -which is the wider it can gets- your depth of field will be 1feet. Plenty of room to miss pin-point focus. So if you set the aperture at f5.6 and the focal distance at 4 mt. (12 ft) basically everything in the frame will be in focus so you only need to check the finder for framing.

 

I'm new to the X Vario and have been having some issues getting good focus on landscape shots.  I've been trying to use this technique and find it to be very useful.  I'm still trying to find the best settings but I feel that this method really takes a lot of the guesswork out of it.  Thanks for posting.

 

Amy

[wda]

I'm new to the X Vario and have been having some issues getting good focus on landscape shots.  I've been trying to use this technique and find it to be very useful.  I'm still trying to find the best settings but I feel that this method really takes a lot of the guesswork out of it.  Thanks for posting.

 

Amy

Amy, for landscapes, just set manual focus on INFINITY and Aperture to f/8 and check your results. AF does have trouble locking on to distant objects occasionally. That has been my experience.

[waloszek]

As promised, I checked whether my statement (see original posting) is correct after returning home.

I did this "just for the record" because there was already a consensus about this matter.

Not surprisingly (now...), the method worked.

Depending on how fast you turn the zoom ring, you can see that the camera adapts focus (you can see this better if you turn the ring as fast as possible, otherwise the camera can nearly keep up). This takes about 0.1 to 0.2 seconds, but that's just an estimation...

Best regards, Gerd

[2wk]

Be careful at 70mm. Even though the lens is fairly stopped down at that point when "wide open" the depth of field is still fairly shallow. I was manual focusing on a model the other day and even though it appeared I was in focus, I was actually off...

[waloszek]

Amy, for landscapes, just set manual focus on INFINITY and Aperture to f/8 and check your results. AF does have trouble locking on to distant objects occasionally. That has been my experience.

 

I can second that.

 

If you want to know the near limit for the DOF (the far limit is infinity), you can take a look at my tables of hyperfocal distances for the Leica X Vario at: http://www.waloszek.de/lxv_hfd_e.php#table

 

Please note that the hyperfocal distance (HFD) is the DOF near limit, when you focus at infinity. (If you focus at the HFD, it is half the HFD.)

 

Setting distance to infinity ensures that your photos are indeed sharp at infinity, whereas setting distance to the hyperfocal distance would only ensure that your photos are "acceptably sharp" at infinity, which may not be good enough for you, depending on your viewing conditions.

 

BTW, due to the rather "compressed" distance scale on the X Vario lens, I find it hard to use the hyperfocal distance at all.

 

f/8 seems to be always a good choice (in good weather), but f/11 is also OK. At f/16, APS-C cameras reach their theoretical diffraction limit (I calculated this, see http://www.waloszek.de/gen_optimum_f_e.php, but also made some test photos that you can find on the same page).

 

Best regards, Gerd

Edited March 8, 2016 by waloszek

[waloszek]

Be careful at 70mm. Even though the lens is fairly stopped down at that point when "wide open" the depth of field is still fairly shallow. I was manual focusing on a model the other day and even though it appeared I was in focus, I was actually off...

Just for curiosity: Did you use screen magnification when focusing?

Personally, I find the image quality poor when using screen magnification -- which may be the reason for your focus issues.

 

Best regards, Gerd

Edited March 8, 2016 by waloszek

[2wk]

Yea, I was using screen mag with a hoodman LCD loupe on a tripod. I couldn't use the evf because the hotshoe had my flash trigger.

The image quality definitely looked poor, I could shift the ring and still not see where my sharpness was at. Autofocus saved the day.

[waloszek]

Thanks for the reply -- and I am glad that AF saved your day.

Best regards, Gerd

[Astropap]

Amy, for landscapes, just set manual focus on INFINITY and Aperture to f/8 and check your results. AF does have trouble locking on to distant objects occasionally. That has been my experience.

 

Thanks for this tip.  It really made a different in getting nice sharp shots while on my trip.

 

Amy

[mikeodial]

Hi everyone,

 

After a few months now with the camera, I am getting used to the manual focus with the EVF. It's isn't the fastest, but not the slowest either, and it makes me slow down, which is probably a good thing. 

 

The X Vario is a very underrated camera in my opinion, and I find myself being able to use it for many different applications. The manual focus is very satisfactory; the only thing I am getting used to is trying to determine DOF, something which is much easier on my DSLR. 

 

I really enjoy the feel of the camera, and very happy with the results. 

[Manoleica]

Hi everyone,

 

After a few months now with the camera, I am getting used to the manual focus with the EVF. It's isn't the fastest, but not the slowest either, and it makes me slow down, which is probably a good thing. 

 

The X Vario is a very underrated camera in my opinion, and I find myself being able to use it for many different applications. The manual focus is very satisfactory; the only thing I am getting used to is trying to determine DOF, something which is much easier on my DSLR. 

 

I really enjoy the feel of the camera, and very happy with the results. 

That comes with experience & why not write up a cheatsheet? (after a few weeks you will be more experienced and can leave it in your camera bag)..

[Trivette]

Here is a convenient table of hyperfocal distances for the X Vario. (Just a reminder: If you focus at hyperfocal, everything from half the hyperfocal distance to ∞ is in "acceptable" focus. This gives slightly more in-focus foreground than setting focus at ∞.) Using suitable software, you can make your own DOF table using the actual focal lengths (not FFE) and a COC of 0.02mm.

[Manoleica]

Here is a convenient table of hyperfocal distances for the X Vario. (Just a reminder: If you focus at hyperfocal, everything from half the hyperfocal distance to ∞ is in "acceptable" focus. This gives slightly more in-focus foreground than setting focus at ∞.) Using suitable software, you can make your own DOF table using the actual focal lengths (not FFE) and a COC of 0.02mm.

 

In this instance I would argue that the best way to learn is to do it yourself..

Edited May 23, 2016 by Manoleica

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[Trivette]

 

In this instance I would argue that the best way to learn is to do it yourself..

No doubt, but some landscape photographers find hyperfocal to be useful. On the other X cameras you have the DOF indicator in MF mode: For hyperfocal, just set right end of the DOF bar at ∞.  On most Leica lenses, the DOF is indicated on the lens barrel.

 

Here is my simplified hyperfocal table for the XV. The left hand column is f-numbers; the top row is focal lengths. Hyperfocal distances are in meters.

 

 

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