focus peeking, or not?

[brickftl]

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I've always used it because it's only with live view and doesn't appear when using rangefinder focus.

But Thorsten thinks otherwise. He says:

Focus Peaking > off is to avoid a red outline around sharp edges. If you use a 21mm, 24mm, 28mm or 35mm f/1.4 the focus peaking will obstruct your view by giving you red outlines before the picture is in actual focus (as the lens is crisp enough for Focus Peaking to turn on, but far from perfect focusing). Turning it off, now you see the image as it is, without any disturbing lines. Much easier to see when something is in focus!. The rule looking at a preview of a photo is that, “when it looks right, it is right”.

Thoughts?

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[jgeenen]

There is no perfect answer. Focus peaking chimes in when a certain level of contrast is reached on image edges. There is always a range between „close to focus“, „in focus“, and „already out of focus“ that is being marked. The saying „not to see the forest for the trees“ perfectly describes the situation - because so much is marked in red, you cannot detect the edge of maximum sharpness.

on the other hand - flicking back and forth with magnification and looking for the hair of difference between sharpness and softness can be terribly slow and distracting - and if you eyesight isn’t perfect, you might even overlook the focus point.

so, you might get an advantage with focus peaking because it is fast (but less accurate) or with focus magnification because it is precise (but comparingly slow), it all depends on the scene. I find focus peaking is working with longer focal lenses (50+, but not too bright- f/1 has often less contrast then f/2) or close focus (less than 1m). Wide angles at medium distances (the typical street photography scenario) are difficult to handle with focus peaking. I personally prefocus with the rangefinder and use the screen only for composition.

 

[lct]

Focus peaking is a useful tool in LV mode. Works well with or w/o focus magnification. If the red color bothers you as it does for me, you may wish to try the white color instead. Happy snaps

[steve edmunds]

my problem with focus peaking is that lots of areas light up from infinity to fairly close points of the image? so how do you know which part is the focus point?

[Elliot Harper]

I turn on the black and white in high contrast and the focus peak in red. It’s much easier to see red in black/white images.

 

[Elliot Harper]

6 hours ago, steve edmunds said:

my problem with focus peaking is that lots of areas light up from infinity to fairly close points of the image? so how do you know which part is the focus point?

Maybe your aperture is too small? There is no perfect solution to this 

[lct]

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9 hours ago, steve edmunds said:

my problem with focus peaking is that lots of areas light up from infinity to fairly close points of the image? [...]

You may wish to use focus magnification and/or choose a wider aperture, unless the rangefinder works better for you.

[Chris W]

yeah, I have found that using focus peaking images can still be a little out offices. I always use focus magnification now on my SL2-S.

On my M10 I just use the traditional rangefinder with no live view and no focus aids.

[jankap]

14 hours ago, steve edmunds said:

my problem with focus peaking is that lots of areas light up from infinity to fairly close points of the image? so how do you know which part is the focus point?

These are the areas, where the picture is sharp, independent of the adjustment of camera and lens. Where the meaning of sharp is translated to contrasty. A focus point gives an indication of the distance the rangefinder measures from the camera to a point in the subject. At that distance the plane is sharp if camera and lens are adjusted  or not sharp if not. No indication which zones to a certain point are equally sharp.

Edited August 13 by jankap

[DadDadDaddyo]

The good news is that Leica have provided us with a switch to turn peaking On when it's wanted and Off when it isn't. 

Imagine if they hadn't let one turn it off ..

[don daniel]

Am 12.8.2025 um 22:07 schrieb brickftl:

But Thorsten thinks otherwise. He says:

Focus Peaking > off is to avoid a red outline around sharp edges. If you use a 21mm, 24mm, 28mm or 35mm f/1.4 the focus peaking will obstruct your view by giving you red outlines before the picture is in actual focus (as the lens is crisp enough for Focus Peaking to turn on, but far from perfect focusing). Turning it off, now you see the image as it is, without any disturbing lines. Much easier to see when something is in focus!. The rule looking at a preview of a photo is that, “when it looks right, it is right”.

Thoughts?

I hate to admit it, but Thorsten is right on this one.

[IkarusJohn]

I appreciate that this is in the M11 thread.

With the M10-D, when using the Visoflex (obviously), it is not possible to turn the peaking off (very annoying).  It is available also on my TL2 and my SL.  Useful, to a point, with longer lenses, but frankly in my experience it is a waste of space.  I’m absolutely with Thorsten on this.

For anything remotely telephoto (50mm and up), I find magnification better if focus is critical, and for wides (35mm and wider), the OVF on my M cameras is the only viable option as it is unaffected by the dpeth of field.

[steve edmunds]

18 hours ago, Elliot Harper said:

Maybe your aperture is too small? There is no perfect solution to this 

thanks but that means focus peaking does not work in that its not effective at say F11

[steve edmunds]

15 hours ago, lct said:

You may wish to use focus magnification and/or choose a wider aperture, unless the rangefinder works better for you.

i sometimes work on a tripod with my M262 and Q2  and that means i manually focus both cameras but the Q2 focus peaking is just lots of red if i am at F11-16 but clearly that is a limitation with that method of focus.

[lct]

Depends on focal length of course but even at slow apertures, focus magnification can help together with focus peaking. Here a crop at f/11 with M11 + Super-Angulon 21/3.4. I have no experience with Q cameras though.

[jaapv]

22 hours ago, jankap said:

These are the areas, where the picture is sharp, independent of the adjustment of camera and lens. Where the meaning of sharp is translated to contrasty. A focus point gives an indication of the distance the rangefinder measures from the camera to a point in the subject. At that distance the plane is sharp if camera and lens are adjusted  or not sharp if not. No indication which zones to a certain point are equally sharp.

Not the areas where the image is sharp but where contrast is above a certain level. This corresponds with DOF i.e. acceptably sharp. The really sharp spot is in the plane of focus which is approximately in the middle of the zone indicated by the peaking. 

[Elliot Harper]

14 hours ago, steve edmunds said:

thanks but that means focus peaking does not work in that its not effective at say F11

Focus peak works on every aperture. But with small aperture like F11, the focal plane is big and lots of things especially far away subjects are in focus at same time, the peaking is too sensitive and you won’t be able to tell the difference.

I found focus peaking is practically useless for the aperture smaller than f5.6

[lct]

What i find interesting in focus peaking + focus magnification is that peaking is more visible on areas in focus than at the limit of the zone of acceptable sharpness. Useful for macro or closeups like this snap at f/16 with M11 + Ultron 35/2 + Leica macro adapter, full frame and crop.

Edited August 14 by lct

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[pgk]

On 8/12/2025 at 9:07 PM, brickftl said:

I've always used it because it's only with live view and doesn't appear when using rangefinder focus.

But Thorsten thinks otherwise. He says:

Focus Peaking > off is to avoid a red outline around sharp edges. If you use a 21mm, 24mm, 28mm or 35mm f/1.4 the focus peaking will obstruct your view by giving you red outlines before the picture is in actual focus (as the lens is crisp enough for Focus Peaking to turn on, but far from perfect focusing). Turning it off, now you see the image as it is, without any disturbing lines. Much easier to see when something is in focus!. The rule looking at a preview of a photo is that, “when it looks right, it is right”.

Thoughts?

Given that the most precise focus system for the set of focal lengths stated is the rangefinder, I'm a bit baffled by the idea of trying to use focus peaking instead. There are always exceptions of course, when subject matter is unsuited to the rangefinder, but rangefinders work very effectively for wide-angle lenses which can be difficult to precisely focus on both dSLR and EVF cameras. Accurate wide angle focus is one of the strengths of Leica M cameras so why use another, inferior system to focus them?

[JoshuaR]

My experience has been that:

• With lenses 35mm and wider, focus peaking can be useful if you're already shooting with a lot of depth of field. So, on the Q cameras, I'd often shoot at f/5.6 or f/8, using manual focus with focus peaking. It was incredibly easy to see what general region of space was in focus. Basically I was zone focusing, with the zone highlighted in red. I found this useful—although I can zone focus without it, so really it was an unnecessary aid.
• Meanwhile, if I'm shooting a wide-angle lens with the aperture is wide open, focus peaking isn't that useful, because the actual focus point is lost somewhere in the peaked zone.
• On the other hand, with lenses 50mm and longer, peaking becomes more useful, especially when shooting wide open.
• But overall, I find a good EVF more useful. On my SL2-S, which has an extraordinarily good EVF, I often shoot my 50mm, 75mm, 90mm, and 135mm lenses wide open, without focus peaking; the EVF is so clear that I can see what's in focus with my eyes alone, more accurately than with peaking. 

So I find that I'm like Thorsten: I just don't find focus peaking to be a useful feature.