Q3 Zone Focusing

[Steve19958]

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I am setting up a zone focus on the focus ring and shooting @ F11. I put the infinity mark on F11. Where is this, at the beginning or the center of the mark?

There is no hard stop on the infinity mark.  I have a fair amount of leeway past infinity heading towards the AF setting.  I ran a number of tests with camera on tripod. I get the sharpest focus when I manual focus trees way off in the distance using F 11 and same shutter speed.  Using the zone method the trees are not as sharp using zone method when I view both photos @ 200% in Lightroom.

Is OIS a factor?

Thoughts?

 

Regards

Steve

[Trankster]

FWIW if I manually focus my Q3 on distant objects I find infinity is at the beginning/left edge of the infinity mark.  From earlier discussions, it seems common with the Q and Q2 that infinity is inaccurate. You just need to test where your infinity is on your lens distance scale.  I read in another past discussion on the Q2 that a forum member tested the lens scale and found other distances than infinity to be accurate.  

[Steve19958]

Thanks for the reply. Testing is my next step.

[hedleyw]

On 6/8/2024 at 2:30 PM, Steve19958 said:

I am setting up a zone focus on the focus ring and shooting @ F11. I put the infinity mark on F11. Where is this, at the beginning or the center of the mark?

There is no hard stop on the infinity mark.  I have a fair amount of leeway past infinity heading towards the AF setting.  I ran a number of tests with camera on tripod. I get the sharpest focus when I manual focus trees way off in the distance using F 11 and same shutter speed.  Using the zone method the trees are not as sharp using zone method when I view both photos @ 200% in Lightroom.

Is OIS a factor?

Thoughts?

 

Regards

Steve

I’m not sure what your expectations of zone focussing are, but if you’re expecting tack sharp viewing at 200% using the lens DOF scale you’ll be disappointed. Zone focussing is for “acceptable” focus at normal viewing. The DOF markings on most lenses are most accurate for prints from film cameras viewed at the appropriate distance for their size. With digital, and particularly full frame high resolution sensors like the Q3, you might try working two stops less on the scale. Use f5.6 rather than f11. Apologies if you are familiar with all this!

[dpitt]

As @hedleyw explained, zone focusing is just for acceptable focus, and the DOF markings are made in the film days when people were happy with a 9cmx13cm print. So use the DOF zone that is 2 stops smaller than the actual aperture for today's high resolution sensors. But even then, with any aperture there is a point of critical focus at about 1/3 of the DOF zone. So if you have the time to actually focus on your subject, it will always give the best results. 
Apologies if you are familiar with all this!

[Steve19958]

I discovered a great discussion about zone focusing on the forumn, with the mentioning of "acceptable focus"  Ran into this years ago when  HD video cameras were available. If you did not nail focus it showed when projected on a large screen.

Thank you

[David Wien]

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1 hour ago, Steve19958 said:

I discovered a great discussion about zone focusing on the forumn, with the mentioning of "acceptable focus" 

Well... Where is it to be found, please?

David

[JNK100]

I can understand why hyperfocal focussing or zone-focussing would be used with an M.

With a Q however, I am not sure why autofocus would not be suitable.

[Steve19958]

Do a search for "zone focusing" Great discussions about this, and megapixels, viewing distance of prints.   

Discovering Q3 is best suited for AF and or hyperfocal focusing. 

[jaapv]

On 6/8/2024 at 3:30 PM, Steve19958 said:

I am setting up a zone focus on the focus ring and shooting @ F11. I put the infinity mark on F11. Where is this, at the beginning or the center of the mark?

There is no hard stop on the infinity mark.  I have a fair amount of leeway past infinity heading towards the AF setting.  I ran a number of tests with camera on tripod. I get the sharpest focus when I manual focus trees way off in the distance using F 11 and same shutter speed.  Using the zone method the trees are not as sharp using zone method when I view both photos @ 200% in Lightroom.

Is OIS a factor?

Thoughts?

 

Regards

Steve

I struggle to envisage a situation where one would want to use zone focus on an AF camera like the Q. 

 

4 hours ago, Steve19958 said:

Discovering Q3 is best suited for AF and or hyperfocal focusing.

Zone focusing is a workaround for manual focus cameras when it is impractical to focus by the focus aids in the viewfinder. This will virtually never apply to an autofocus camera.

[Smogg]

4 hours ago, jaapv said:

I struggle to envisage a situation where one would want to use zone focus on an AF camera like the Q. 

 

Zone focusing is a workaround for manual focus cameras when it is impractical to focus by the focus aids in the viewfinder. This will virtually never apply to an autofocus camera.

Apparently you rarely do reportage photography. The focus and recompose technique doesn't always work when there are a lot of people constantly moving around in the frame. Autofocus may suddenly focus on the background or the closest object, and not what you want. In such a situation, zone focus on a closed aperture is the most reliable thing.

[jaapv]

Human recognition? That rules out  focus on the background or a close object. AF will recognize multiple moving people. You could even use car or motorcycle recognition if that is your thing. The Q3 will possibly pick up these features from Panasonic in due course. However I prefer spot focus in such situations. Not uncommon in wildlife photography with branches interfering. 

[Smogg]

2 minutes ago, jaapv said:

Human recognition? That rules out  focus on the background or a close object. 

There are a lot of people in the frame, 5-6 people, who constantly overlap each other and sometimes go out of the frame. Intelligent person recognition will not help, the camera will jump around different people and the photographer will simply go crazy.
It was not for nothing that brilliant people came up with snap focus on the Ricoh GR, which is actually an analogue of zone focus.

[Smogg]

In such a situation, I take a Leica M, a 28 lens and I am sure that I will shoot everything I need. With an autofocus camera I will be much slower and miss a lot of important shots

[Steve19958]

These older eyes are not like they were in the 1960's when photography became a hobby.  

With todays auto focus it aids me. AF is not perfect neither is my vision. 

[jaapv]

3 hours ago, Smogg said:

In such a situation, I take a Leica M, a 28 lens and I am sure that I will shoot everything I need. With an autofocus camera I will be much slower and miss a lot of important shots

Me too😉 only I would use the Summilux 24, my alltime favourite indoor lens. But I would still be mostly focusing actively. 

[PeterKelly]

I think zone focusing still has merit in candid street photography where the moment or catch is more important than critical focus.

As others have said the huge megapixel world of today's cameras is a far cry from what we were happy with in the  film days and even the early digital days. Pixel peeping is the norm now but in my opinion the story that the photograph tells us is more important than critical focus.

Or perhaps it's that my 75 year old eyes can't tell the difference............

[Ranstedt]

On 6/10/2024 at 8:46 AM, jaapv said:

I struggle to envisage a situation where one would want to use zone focus on an AF camera like the Q. 

Fast moving street photography. I can miss shots in the time it took to aim my lens and activate the shutter. Introducing AF in these situations only makes me miss more shots. Many of my shots require split second reaction times.

[jaapv]

I guess that the issue is whether AF is fast enough to make this argument moot. I think it is. Given that AF on the Q3 functions @ 4 fps, we can assume that the AF reaction time is well below 1/25th of a second. 
If 1/25 of a second makes a difference to your photography, I lift my hat to you. 

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Hallo,

Look here: Leica Q

[mark r.]

Prefer the Q2 alot because I can set the hyperfocal manually and know where it is f/5.6 or f/8. Zone focus is far left of infinity mark on mine and hyperfocal from 10 - 100 feet, it's middle of left infinity ring; takes testing over and over again and taking notes in my exper. then after all that testing, you just know it