Step by step Get to grips with focus peaking and more

Learn how to customise the manual focus assist options and boost your chances of a sharp focus

Peaking colour Focus peaking needs to be enabled in the camera menu, where you can tailor the peaking to the scene or subject you’re shooting. For instance, you can change the colour of the peaking highlights so that they contrast with colours in the image and are easier to see. Peaking level In addition to being able to change the colour, you can select different levels of peaking. There are typically two or three options available, such as high and low on this Fujifilm camera. A high level will produce a lot of highlights, while a low setting is more selective. Split image Some cameras have further Live View focusing aids. For instance, Fujifilm includes a colour ‘digital split image’ option in some recent X-series cameras. This is similar to old split image screens, where you rotate the focusing ring until the separate parts of the image line up. Magnify It can be hard to judge whether the image is truly sharp unless you magnify details in the Live View image. Using the split image or focus peaking to get things close before enlarging the image to fine-tune the focus position is the most efficient way of doing this.

Unlike an optical viewfinder, which shows a reflected image on the focusing screen that’s taken straight from the lens – an EVF is essentially a miniature Live View display showing the live feed from the camera’s imaging sensor. As a result, you aren’t faced with the same problems shooting in bright light or supporting the camera during an exposure. Of course, there’s the same risk of getting out-of-focus results if you move the camera after setting the focus distance.

Crucially, an EVF benefits from the same manual focusing aids as the main Live View display, such as being able to magnify a part of the image and ‘focus peaking’, which adds an overlay to show which areas of the picture are sharp. This means you don’t have to take your eye away from the scene in front of you while you focus. You also get a better guide to depth of field with an EVF (an optical viewfinder gets darker when you use a camera’s depth of field preview), so you can see which parts of the image will appear acceptably sharp beyond the point you’re focusing on.

It’s this step-change in the ease and flexibility of manual focusing that has given rise to the rebirth of manual-only lenses, particularly macro and fast-aperture primes, which can benefit from the precision afforded by magnifying details on the Live View display. A cottage industry has built up in this area, with a wide range of focus rigs – camera housings that enable the focus to be finely adjusted for cinematic focus-pull effects when shooting video – macro focusing rails and timelapse sliders available for anyone who wants to explore the creative potential of manual focusing.

Choosing a manual-only lens might seem odd when autofocus lenses can be focused manually. The trouble is, many AF lenses are designed with short focus travel – a small turn of the focus ring makes a big difference to the focus point position. While this enables faster focusing, it makes it hard to make small manual adjustments. That being said, some AF lenses have wider grips and electronic ‘focus-by-wire’ operation, enabling a longer focus throw for a more satisfying manual focus experience.