question on focusing for lx3 / Hexar AF users

[ampguy]

For those with an LX3, how does the manual focus work, compared to the Hexar AF?

The HAF has kind of a 3 mode (MF) button for AF, Inf., and manual stepped focus with sep. + and - buttons of some arbitrary preset distances up to 20m which covers close ranges to infinity at virtually all apertures.

The AF (in AF mode) is supposed to have like 290 steps of focus level, but it would be impossible in MF mode to get to a hyperfocal distance quickly if it weren't the way it was, with just a handful of MF focus steps to jump to quickly and of course the 1 press to infinity/AF is very useful.

How does the LX3 handle MF focusing vs the Hexar?

 

[lars]

I don't know how many focusing steps the LX3 has, but when you adjust focus (via the joystick) a vertical distance display appears. In it is a yellow line that indicates the focus point. The thickness of that yellow line indicates the depth-of-field. Kinda cool.

 

[ampguy]

Thanks Lars

Thanks Lars

That does sound cool. This LX3 really sounds interesting!

I don't know how many focusing steps the LX3 has, but when you adjust focus (via the joystick) a vertical distance display appears. In it is a yellow line that indicates the focus point. The thickness of that yellow line indicates the depth-of-field. Kinda cool.

 

[squirrel$$$bandit]

Manual focus is not its forte. But you can do it, and it works very well. For street, you may want to scale focus--at the widest setting, depth of field is really enormous, esp. if you stop down a bit. Shutter lag is nonexistent, as opposed to a camera like the Fuji F30, which I believe you own, Ted.

 

[ampguy]

Thanks

Thanks

Sounds really nice, but the max ~60mm fl, wild distortion at the wide end, and noise starting at 400/800 in low light, high price for a digicam, and the loads of features I wouldn't use has me scratching my head, for now at least

The F30 has no discernible lag to me, with over 15000 photos on mine, and thousands on the f31fd, f40fd, and f50fd, but I use the "H" cards, single focus point, and turn off the led focus beam assist.

Manual focus is not its forte. But you can do it, and it works very well. For street, you may want to scale focus--at the widest setting, depth of field is really enormous, esp. if you stop down a bit. Shutter lag is nonexistent, as opposed to a camera like the Fuji F30, which I believe you own, Ted.

 

[lars]

So if you set the manual focus to a specific distance you can shoot as many shots as you care at that pre-set distance?

Yes.

If you leave the camera on, LCD off, will the lens remain at that pre-selected distance? For how long?

You can set the timeout before it goes into sleep mode to either 2, 5 or 10 min.

Will the camera go into a standby mode after a specific amount of time or will it shut itself off?

It never fully shuts itself off because the power switch is a slider so when it's on, it stays in the on position. Pushing the shutter button will bring the camera back to life. BUT this isn't very useful for us street shooters who like the camera on at all times. See, when it goes into sleep mode, it will retract the lens, and when the lens extends again upon waking up, it will ALWAYS default to the max wide focal length, and if you're in MF mode, it will ALWAYS default to infinity focus. This can be annoying if you're always shooting fairly close at f/2. For outdoor street shooting, if you leave your aperture at f/4, the DOF scale on the camera shows that at 24mm (35 equiv), everything from just over 6ft to infinity will be in focus.

If it goes into standby after a period of non-use, will pressing the shutter button half way bring it out of standby and will the pre-selected manual focus distance still be set?

Yes to the question of wakening it up. No to the question or retaining the MF preset distance.

Are the custom set-up buttons programmable for selected manual focus distances? (i would guess no-way)

No way. ;-)

BTW, here are a couple of shots showing how the focus scale and DOF indicator work:


At f/2.0, the yellow focus distance bar is relatively thin.


At f/6.3, the yellow focus distance bar is much thicker.

larsbc

 

[squirrel$$$bandit]

The F30 has no discernible lag to me, with over 15000 photos on mine, and thousands on the f31fd, f40fd, and f50fd, but I use the "H" cards, single focus point, and turn off the led focus beam assist.

I can never manage to do street with that thing--everyone is out of the frame by the time the shutter opens. Perhaps I'd been leaving on the focus assist...