Photo Plus

Manual focus through the viewfinder

You’re not on your own when focusing manually – the camera will still tell you whether an object is in focus

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Trying to manually focus through the viewfinder can be challengin­g – if your eyes are anything like mine, at any rate. It can be hard to discern where the sweet spot of sharpness is as you turn the focus ring, especially if you’re shooting with a wide-angle lens where pretty much everything looks sharp most of the time! The trick here is to use the focus indicator in the bottom of the viewfinder; this becomes a solid green dot when the camera detects that the object covered by the active AF point in the viewfinder is in focus. The AF point that detects focus will also blip red.

There are a few things to bear in mind: to activate the function, you’ll need to keep the shutter release halfpresse­d as you focus. It makes sense to manually select a single AF point so that you can target areas more precisely. If there’s not enough light or contrast for the AF sensor to detect focus, the viewfinder indicators won’t appear.

A lens’s ‘focus throw’ – the extent to which its focus ring has to be rotated to shift the focus from its minimum distance to infinity – is something to consider when focusing manually. Lenses that have a short focus throw can make manual focusing quicker, but those with a long focus throw – typically macro lenses and telephotos – enable you to adjust the focus distance in smaller increments. This is certainly of more use when it comes to close-up photograph­y, where even tiny changes in the focus distance can have a huge impact on which sliver of the subject pops into focus.

 ??  ?? the solid focus indicator will appear in the bottom of the viewfinder when the area covered by the active af point is in focus
the solid focus indicator will appear in the bottom of the viewfinder when the area covered by the active af point is in focus
 ??  ?? this is the one time that i’d recommend activating the in-focus beep, as it can be easier to react to a sound rather than looking for a green dot
this is the one time that i’d recommend activating the in-focus beep, as it can be easier to react to a sound rather than looking for a green dot

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