D2 manual focus in low light

[farnz]

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I'm finding it difficult to achieve accurate focus when manually focussing through the D2's EVF in low light and night photography, which is not really a surprise because it's not an optical finder.

 

I'm using the MF2 manual focus enlargement feature but the EVF is fairly slow to respond under these conditions and the focus seems to change erratically as I 'twiddle' (a technical term) the focus ring. It seems logical under these conditions to use a lit object to focus but I wonder whether this is upsetting the contrast-focus mechanism.

 

It may be that I've hit the limits of the D2's capabilities and if so I'll grin and bear it.

 

Could anybody offer helpful advice please?

 

Pete.

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[george +]

Pete, you might as well grin and bear it. When the light is bad I try to use manual - measured distance - focus with a smaller aperture. I know this is a double handicap - but it works better than trusting the autofocus or trying to match sharpness in the dark.

[johnwolf]

Pete,

 

George is right. Better to estimate the distance and use the distance scale, with as small an aperture as possible. Making a few exposures at sligtly different distances may increase your chances.

 

John

[davephoto]

don't know if you'll find what i have to say is helpful or not, but i'm quite the opposite -- i tend to rely on a camera's autofocusing more as the available light gets dimmer. i personally would rather rely on a camera's ability to focus than on my less than perfect eyesight.

[farnz]

George, John and Dave, thanks for your helpful responses. Pretty much as I'd expected <sigh> . I'll use the distance scale and 'guestimate' hyperfocal distance because there's no dof legend on the D2's lens.

 

I'm sure I've read somewhere that hyperfocal distance is different for digital cameras (because of variations in circle of confusion?). Can anyone confirm or illuminate this please?

 

Pete.

[george +]

There is a hyperfocal calculator on the net, probably several.

 

Try this:

 

Online Depth of Field Calculator

[farnz]

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Thanks, George.

[elansprint72]

Pete,

The answer is obvious: you need a Leica Geosystems laser tape-measure.

 

http://www.leica-geosystems.com/corporate/en/ndef/lgs_5061.htm

 

I have tended to let my D2 auto-focus after dark, it seems to work out most times.

 

From what I've seen of your night shots, you're not doing too badly, btw.

 

Cheers,

Pete.

[farnz]

Pete,

 

Great idea. How do you get it to rewind?

 

Thanks for your gracious compliment (but ... you haven't seen the zillions of images that were oof!).

 

Pete.