Manual focus seems more difficult than it should be.

[Cineski]

While shooting with my Contax 645 I have been having significant trouble getting focus on my subjects eyes.  I shoot with the 80 and 140 and while doing portraiture I've notice that it's very difficult for me to tell when I've focused correctly.  Viewing the scans after a shoot enhances this problem.  I'm getting a decent keeper rate, but I do see a great deal of room for improvement.  I have a split field diopter installed but focus and recompose does not work well when shooting wide open in medium format.  Are there any techniques I should work on or any other advice?  Thanks.

[Morgan_Moore]

You need to divide your problem into two parts

1) is you mirror/chip alignment good

take some shots of a ruler or suchlike

if they are out of focus your camera has issues - many do

OK the tech is good


2) your eyes are so good that you can look into a dark 645 size box and resolve high enough that the focus is good when you enlarge the image on your screen 100%?

They are better than mine

I would consider..

a slightly deeper F stop

bracketing focus by a mild rocking of the hips if you are shooting handheld

S

[marcmccalmont]

I have found that a good focusing screen makes a world of difference
try Bill Maxwell  Maxwell Precision Optics
his Hilux process works great for manual focus
Marc

[Rob C]

You need to divide your problem into two parts

1) is you mirror/chip alignment good

take some shots of a ruler or suchlike

if they are out of focus your camera has issues - many do

OK the tech is good


2) your eyes are so good that you can look into a dark 645 size box and resolve high enough that the focus is good when you enlarge the image on your screen 100%?

They are better than mine

I would consider..

a slightly deeper F stop

bracketing focus by a mild rocking of the hips if you are shooting handheldS

I assume you are joking here; hand-held and concerned about focusing on eyes don't go together! Without a tripod (good one) or at least a bipod, it's all a guess and a prayer at the very best...

Rob C

[lowep]

Even when I used to shoot film with Mamiya 7 hand held focus was not a problem.

Now whenever I shoot digital hand held with a Contax 645 focus and camera shake is always a problem.

When I shoot digital with a Contax 645 on a tripod with mirror up and cable release and a stationary subject then focus and camera shake is no problem.

Just too bad results from Contax 645 with MFDB on a tripod with mirror up and cable release look so %$#@! good otherwise I would have gone back to film long ago as am no S&M fan.

[lowep]

"your eyes are so good that you can look into a dark 645 size box and resolve high enough that the focus is good when you enlarge the image on your screen 100%?"

this is one advantage of the Contax 645 autofocus system - even though it is slow and the focussing spot is big compared to an eyelash it can nail focus that is good when you enlarge the image on your screen 100%

[Cineski]

Thanks for the thoughts, everyone.  As for stopping down just for sufficient depth of field, I honestly don't want limitations to tell me what I must do (although on my last shoot I stopped down a stop for manual focus error).  I want to tell the limitations what to do.  Also, my Contax doesn't have any auto focus issues because with the split diopter focus I can tell the focus is spot on.  Only problem is I don't use focus and recompose when shooting wide open because the focal plane is so thin @ f/2 it usually shifts too much when recomposing.  I just got another 2 rolls back from a shoot I did in Albuquerque and the keeper rate was very high.  A few out of focus shots but mostly keepers.  I did consciously stop down to f/2.8 from f/2 but those few f/2 shots I did are just sooooo darn purdy ;-).  I would consider another focus screen at some point to help:  Something that's brighter and snappier.  That'll have to wait until I find my 45mm lens.  I paid some big bucks for the split focus screen and I'd still like that option if I got a different focus screen at some point.  Any additional thoughts on different focus screens?  I'm used to auto focus in 35mm where focus and recompose doesn't effect focal points too much.  It's a new learning curve for me where before I could really concentrate on my subjects and now I'm concentrating much more on my gear which I don't like.  It's worth the effort, though, as I've completely fallen in love with medium format photography.

[lowep]

"I don't use focus and recompose when shooting wide open because the focal plane is so thin @ f/2 it usually shifts too much when recomposing"

so what do you do - don't recompose, cross your fingers, or ??

[Morgan_Moore]

mild rocking of the hips

I assume you are joking here;

Not at all.

If I want to shoot wide open (for the look) I know that critical focus is a massive issue and therefore 'bracket' my focus by subtly moving my body knowing that I will get less keepers but a couple that are spot on

S

[lowep]

maybe rocking hips is easier than crossing fingers while shooting unless you have three hands

[Cineski]

Actually rocking of the hips is a good technique.....when you're shooting wide open with digital and you can throw a good amount of those shots away.  When I say wide open, I'm meaning the f/1.2-1.8 range and the rocking of the hips is essentially racking focus around the face until it hopefully lands on the subjects eyes.  At least one of the shots the focus will have racked to the eyes for your keeper shot.  Lots of wedding photogs use that technique since they're mostly shooting with 5D's of some variant with subpar focus  and they're dealing with very limited amounts of time.  I started shooting film to (among many reasons) get away from shooting more than I need.

[Cineski]

What I do has been to manual focus the composed shot.....hence the issues I feel I'm having.  I got some emails from Maxwell and since I have an extra Contax focus screen laying around I might send that to him at some point.  Pretty steep price but if it solves the problem with focusing a composed shot I'm all for it.

"I don't use focus and recompose when shooting wide open because the focal plane is so thin @ f/2 it usually shifts too much when recomposing"

so what do you do - don't recompose, cross your fingers, or ??

[Dustbak]

This is exactly where the TF functionality of Hasselblad really shines. Shooting wide open is really easy, the number of keepers I get are huge.

Before this I composed, AF, recompose and moved my upper body slightly back (in almost all cases this is the right direction). I also stopped down a bit more to compensate. I now feel I don't have to do this anymore.

[Ben Rubinstein]

This is exactly where the TF functionality of Hasselblad really shines. Shooting wide open is really easy, the number of keepers I get are huge.

Before this I composed, AF, recompose and moved my upper body slightly back (in almost all cases this is the right direction). I also stopped down a bit more to compensate. I now feel I don't have to do this anymore.

It is an incredible advance with the obvious question of 'why did no one think of this before'.

[David Schneider]

Wondering what mf camera you have the Maxwell screen in? 

[DennisWilliams]

I assume you are joking here; hand-held and concerned about focusing on eyes don't go together! Without a tripod (good one) or at least a bipod, it's all a guess and a prayer at the very best...

Rob C

My entire portfolio is handheld and when lashes are meant to be in focus, they are.  I rarely guess and I never pray.

[Cineski]

Well, all this Hassy talk and they don't even have support for film anymore.  Neither does Mamiya with the new bodies which boggles my mind with the amount of people now shooting medium format film going up and new medium format films from Kodak released.  I would hope they plan on "allowing" film to be used with their new bodies in the future.

[Dustbak]

Hassy makes a body meant to be used with film in the form of the H2F. They also have a dedicated digital back for it. You can have almost all the goodies of the H3/H4. I reckon the number of people that still use film is declining so rapidly that it is economically not feasible or at least not interesting.

[bcooter]

I am biased on this because I've used the Contax' for a long time and love the simplicity of real f stops and real manual shutter speeds with no menu.

I also use them wide open, sometimes really wide open with a boris tilt shift and thought I don't posses any kind of superhuman eye focus, I find with the standard screen and a lot of use, you find focusing to be much easier than you originally think given the finder with a prism appears somewhat small by today's standards.

80mm at around 1.4


Boris Tilt Shift


If you shoot horizontal and have the waist level finder then the view is huge and focusing is more than easy.

I also think the auto focus is quite good and rather ingeniously designed for full figure talent but then again I've used the cameras a long time.

45mm contstant fast movement as this was a frame from a still video



I'm also not a fan of split screen finders.  They can be accurate but to me get into a mindset of always framing to focus.

My only suggestion is to get used to it, don't expect that crystal clear snap, just look at the part of the subject you want to focus without recomposing and it will eventually become a natural process.

And BTW you can shoot all the film or digital you want.  Film backs are cheap and since the camera is out of produciton there is not firmware to update or worry about.


IMO

BC

[Cineski]

Sorry, I should have been more specific.  All this talk of Hassy's True Focus technology which doesn't exist on the older bodies.

Hassy makes a body meant to be used with film in the form of the H2F. They also have a dedicated digital back for it. You can have almost all the goodies of the H3/H4. I reckon the number of people that still use film is declining so rapidly that it is economically not feasible or at least not interesting.