Any Tips for Focus Peaking?

[TXForester]

I received a used E-M10 today. I know about the size comparison with my GF2, but I never saw one in the wild. I am pleased. Not too small, but small and light enough for my everyday carry.

Are there any tips to getting more consistent results with focus peaking? I've tried it a little today, and seems that the highlights show up in front and behind the plane of focus as well as where I want focus to fall.


Thanks for any help.

 

[biomed]

All of the highlighted areas should be in focus. Try playing with the aperture and see if the depth of the highlighted area changes.

 

[Huss]

I gave up on focus peaking with my omd 10mk2, penF, Leicas, Nikons etc
Because there was too great a depth that registered as in focus. And the way it worked was
dependent on subject, contrast, lighting etc.
What i do instead is get into the ballpark with full view, then hit magnify to fine tune.

 

[emayoh]

While the OP is from 2016, I will add that the #1 focus peaking tip that has changed things for me has been to set the camera to shoot in a black-and-white mode and then make sure the focus peaking color is not white. (for me on Fujis, red works great) If you shoot in Raw format, you will still get color images in post processing if you want them.

 

[shawn]

While the OP is from 2016, I will add that the #1 focus peaking tip that has changed things for me has been to set the camera to shoot in a black-and-white mode and then make sure the focus peaking color is not white. (for me on Fujis, red works great) If you shoot in Raw format, you will still get color images in post processing if you want them.

Yes, that works really well. Also, if the camera offers it adjust the peaking amount depending upon your F stop and focal length. IBIS/OIS also can help as the contrast of the scene is more consistent with small camera movements.

Shawn

 

[peterm1]

If I can get away with it (it depends on how contrasty the image is) my approach is generally to set focus peaking sensitivity to low (if the camera allows that - not all do) and to make sure I use a highly visible color - red is usually best unless your subject is the same color. I find that when FP is set with a too high sensitivity, it is just not accurate enough (as you describe) and so only use this sensitivity in low contrast settings where there is no option to do otherwise. I have a preference for shooting with fairly large apertures which can complicate things a bit as it places a premium on finding the point at which focus really does in fact peak.

If the shooting situation allows it, I will also often use FP to find approximate focus and then enlarge the image to do the rest by eye. I do find that I very often need to tweak focus using this two-step method indicating that relying on FP would not have given me optimal sharpness. To achieve this incidentally, I make sure I have a hot button within reach of my thumb if possible (i.e. if this is able to be programmed into the camera). This way there is no need to remove the camera from the eye or change my grip- speeding up what is inherently a slightly slow process. Modern cameras generally flick the screen / finder back to full subject view when the shutter button is pressed. Some older cameras do no necessitating a second button press which is annoying. The best I have found to date is the Leica Q system - the image both jumps to magnified view and FP switches on when the lens focus ring is rotated with no buttons being needed for the operation. From memory I think my Olympus OMD EM5 has a similar arrangement when a compatible M4/3 system lens is used but MF is turned on in place of AF (which is just as well as it is old enough to lack FP).

In short, there is no doubt in my mind that while FP helps, it is not the answer in all situations. I keep saying that perhaps the best / fastest compromise I have found ever is the system used by Nikon DSLRs. (Though the Leica Q system works very well too). In the nikon DSLR system when the image is in focus a green dot simply lights up in the viewfinder. I do not know how this works with non "chipped" i.e. vintage lenses but my experience is that it does. So long as you know which focus point you are using it almost never goes wrong - turn the focus ring, when the green dot lights up it's in focus,then just fire. At the same time I am looking through the finder to see if the image looks sharp of course. But other than this no thinking is needed. And it is the quickest system out there IMHO for manually focusing with DSLRs. It's a mystery to me why mirrorless systems do not at least offer it as an option. I guess it is just not new enough nor high tech enough to be marketable.

I note the tip about shooting in black and white. Good idea assuming it works as described so I will certainly try it as I often shoot in JPG / RAW in any event.

 

[maryland_fotos]

The green dot of the Nikon DSLRs, and SLRs like the F5 or F6, works perfectly with the older, non-chipped lenses, whether AI or non-AI mount. That dot is sorely missed in the mirrorless world.

 

[shawn]

The green dot of the Nikon DSLRs, and SLRs like the F5 or F6, works perfectly with the older, non-chipped lenses, whether AI or non-AI mount. That dot is sorely missed in the mirrorless world.

At this point there really isn't a reason why it is still missing. On Nikon DSLRs it was just working off the PD AF points and was lighting the dot when the light at those points were in focus. No chip on the lens required.

Now that mirrorless has on sensor PD AF points they know when a point is in focus too without having to hunt/dither the lens to check for contrast to determine AF.

Shawn

 

[Doug]

The green dot of the Nikon DSLRs, and SLRs like the F5 or F6, works perfectly with the older, non-chipped lenses, whether AI or non-AI mount. That dot is sorely missed in the mirrorless world.

Same with Pentax dSLRs, a nifty way to use some AF tech with MF lenses!

 

[Rayt]

I gave up on focus peaking with my omd 10mk2, penF, Leicas, Nikons etc
Because there was too great a depth that registered as in focus. And the way it worked was
dependent on subject, contrast, lighting etc.
What i do instead is get into the ballpark with full view, then hit magnify to fine tune.

I bought a Sony A7R because a friend said I can use my R lenses on it with peak focusing. I should have borrowed his for a test run. When nearly everything came out mis-focused I figured out the problem as you said. Magnification function is really great but not when you need to shoot fast. I give up and will go for a native lens with AF.

 

[nikon_sam]

When it's critical to be in perfect focus, focus with the lens wide open, then stop down and shoot...

 

[Michael Markey]

I bought a Sony A7R because a friend said I can use my R lenses on it with peak focusing. I should have borrowed his for a test run. When nearly everything came out mis-focused I figured out the problem as you said. Magnification function is really great but not when you need to shoot fast. I give up and will go for a native lens with AF.

I use my A7R2 with a Metabones V and Canon long glass .
It`s ok but if stuff gets confusing I switch to manual focus which ,given what I use the long glass for , is sometimes too slow.

I have two native lenses the 40 and 135 Batis and the AF is very fast and accurate plus you get access to the cameras full functionality .
This chap seems to have little problems with the AF with an adapter.
There is a lot of useful information in the comments .

https://www.flickr.com/photos/mike-mkvip/

 

[peterm1]

When it's critical to be in perfect focus, focus with the lens wide open, then stop down and shoot...

Just be aware though that if you are using a lens that suffers from focus shift this may shift the focus point as you stop down. If it shifts the point of focus more than can be compensated for by the extra depth of field you get from stopping down you may lose critical sharpness. by doing this. So experiment with each lens being used.

 

[shawn]

I bought a Sony A7R because a friend said I can use my R lenses on it with peak focusing. I should have borrowed his for a test run. When nearly everything came out mis-focused I figured out the problem as you said. Magnification function is really great but not when you need to shoot fast. I give up and will go for a native lens with AF.

It doesn't help with the A7R but with the series II cameras the other option is the Tech Art Pro which will allow AF with adapted lenses.

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https://www.flickr.com/gp/39387871@N06/7u0488

It works well but I mostly just use MF with peaking and magnification for my adapted lenses.

Thanks,

Shawn

 

[willie_901]

The live view image rendering could be influenced by the in-camera JPEG rendering parameters.

If you happen to use raw files, then experiment with different in-camera JPEG rendering parameters. Perhaps you can improve consistency.

It took me a while to adapt to focus peaking because the response depends on two independent variables - depth of filed and contrast. The peaking resonse with wide-angle lenses is usually less selective compared to longer focal length lenses.

 

[Huss]

I bought a Sony A7R because a friend said I can use my R lenses on it with peak focusing. I should have borrowed his for a test run. When nearly everything came out mis-focused I figured out the problem as you said. Magnification function is really great but not when you need to shoot fast. I give up and will go for a native lens with AF.

I bought adapters for my Oly m43 when I first got it because I thought I’d use my existing lenses on it. But it was so slow to nail focus that I switched to the Oly lenses and have not looked back. They are fantastic and seamless in use.

 

[plummerl]

I bought adapters for my Oly m43 when I first got it because I thought I’d use my existing lenses on it. But it was so slow to nail focus that I switched to the Oly lenses and have not looked back. They are fantastic and seamless in use.

I use my Oly OM 35-80mm f/2.8 with my Oly E-M1 and focus peaking. Shooting concerts (KEXP VIP shows), I'm able to shoot wide open very rapidly with the peaking. I've rarely had any shots without nailing the focus.

 

[Huss]

I use my Oly OM 35-80mm f/2.8 with my Oly E-M1 and focus peaking. Shooting concerts (KEXP VIP shows), I'm able to shoot wide open very rapidly with the peaking. I've rarely had any shots without nailing the focus.

Excellent photo. Does the EM1 have a better vf than my PenF?

 

[RichC]

I find focus peaking not only a huge distraction with it's garish colours but also unreliable. After trying it out, I decided it wasn't for me.

If I need to manual focus quickly, sometimes I just "eyeball" the focus with manual lenses as we do with old, simple cameras - with a bit of practice and if the depth of field is not wafer thin, this is pretty reliable but not bulletproof.

But my usual quick method is to use a viewfinder fault (well, shortcoming of the technology, really) where interference causes edges between objects that are in sharpest focus to shimmer slightly. This fault occurs in Sony A7 cameras (specifically my A7R II), so I can't say if it works with other cameras. If you shoot raw and don't care about JPGs, whacking the in-camera sharpness up increases the shimmer. More here: https://phillipreeve.net/blog/manual-lenses-sony-a7/#The_8220flicker_method8221

With that said, my preference is to use viewfinder magnification to nail the focus - if I have time, which I usually do.

It's worth mentioning that I find manual focusing an EVF so reliable that I've just sold my last autofocus lens as I hadn't used it for 18 months!