thomsva Posted February 8, 2010 Share #1 Posted February 8, 2010 Advertisement (gone after registration) My opinion is that the current focus system (firmware 1.0) is very difficult to use. But with these changes it could be a lot better. Suggested firmware changes to improve manual focusing: 1. Make the scale wider to use the entire width of the screen. Add more marks, at least a 4m mark between 2m and infinity. 2. Indicate approximate depth of field by showing the marker as an aperture-dependent line on both sides of the peak focus mark. Changing the aperture should make the line (depth of field) longer/shorter. 3. Remember focus setting when turning camera on/off. 4. Lock focus wheel to prevent unwanted focus adjustment. Unlock by holding the focus/delete button or halfpressing the shutter release button while using the focus wheel. 5. Make the user choose between m or ft to save space on the screen. I think the manual focus should be optimized towards zonefocusing. In normal use (point – focus – shoot) the manual focus will never be faster or more accurate than (the not-so-fast) autofocus, so autofocus will mostly be preferred. But sometimes it would be nice to use preset manual focus for quick shots with very low shutter delay. Some comments on speed with manual focus: With preset manual focus the X1 can actually be pretty fast. But there are still a couple of problems that can partly be owercome. First of all autoreview slows down operation for the next shot. By turning off or shortening the autoreview time the camera immidiately feels a bit snappier. Secondly there is still a delay when writing an image to the memory card. For a single shot this delay is almost 1 second (raw+hq jpg 12.2Mpx). This is a bit annoying but with some practice it will not be difficult to estimate when you can do the next low-delay shot. On the positive side it is possible to use continuous mode to shoot several quick shots before the camera starts writing the data to the memory card. Just hold the shutter release button and 6 pictures will be taken within a short moment, with very short delay to the first pic. After the series the camera again takes it's time to write everything to memory. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Advertisement Posted February 8, 2010 Posted February 8, 2010 Hi thomsva, Take a look here Manual focus and speed - comments and suggested firmware changes. I'm sure you'll find what you were looking for!
yanidel Posted February 8, 2010 Share #2 Posted February 8, 2010 Knowing that many of its customers use zone focus, I don't understand why Leica did not come up with a simple system such as the DP2 focus distance dial. Your suggestions are good but they still require use of the screen to adjust distance and therefore take away reactivity to a given situation. Really, Leica wasn't far from a winner, maybe only that detail away. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
thomsva Posted February 8, 2010 Author Share #3 Posted February 8, 2010 Your suggestions are good but they still require use of the screen to adjust distance and therefore take away reactivity to a given situation. Yes you are right, I also think it would take more than firmware changes to make manual focus truly responsive and quicker than autofocus. That is why I think manual focus should be optimized for zone-focusing, and there some work on the firmware would make a real difference in useability. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
thomsva Posted February 8, 2010 Author Share #4 Posted February 8, 2010 Also there is a small bug in the firmware: If MF Assist is turned on, pressing the Delete/Focus button brings up the focus scale, and the enlarged area of the center. But if MF Assist is turned off, then nothing happens when pressing Delete/Focus. My logic would say that the scale should show on the screen. Thinking more about my suggestions for firmware improvements, I would rank suggestions numbers 3 and 4 highest. I could live with the current scale, and I could live with learning to estimate depth of field. But the fact that I need to readjust my zonefocus when I turn the camera off/on, and the fact that the focus can move accidentally are both making zonefocusing difficult. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
damnsharp Posted February 8, 2010 Share #5 Posted February 8, 2010 Yes you are right, I also think it would take more than firmware changes to make manual focus truly responsive and quicker than autofocus. That is why I think manual focus should be optimized for zone-focusing, and there some work on the firmware would make a real difference in useability. Could you tell us Thomsva, if there are DOF markings or how you can use zone focusing with the Leica X1? Thanks. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
thomsva Posted February 8, 2010 Author Share #6 Posted February 8, 2010 Could you tell us Thomsva, if there are DOF markings or how you can use zone focusing with the Leica X1? Thanks. No, there is nothing in the X1 that helps with zone-focusing. But by experience it is possible to roughly know what kind of DOF to expect with a certain focus distance and aperture. I have tested this only a little myself, but focus slightly below 2m and aperture f=5,6 or f=8 seems to give a nice range. But then for a really good shot, the main object needs to be at roughly 2m distance where the peak focus is. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
damnsharp Posted February 8, 2010 Share #7 Posted February 8, 2010 Advertisement (gone after registration) Ok Thomsva, so it's more a question of experience. Thanks a lot. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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