I have recently gotten a Phase One DF+ body.
I use it with my Mamiya DM33 digital back, works good.
At this time, I only have a few manual focus only M645 lenses.
- QUESTION -
I was wondering how everyone achieves critical focus with MF only lenses.
I have the standard focusing screen, and without magnification, I find it VERY difficult to achieve critical focus.
- QUESTION -
Do the old microprism focusing screens work with this body?
Welcome to the Phase One family. Phase One now owns Mamiya and Leaf (the two partners involved in your kit).
Various thoughts...
For many kinds of shooting focus-confirmation (which is available even for manual focus lenses) works quite well. It will indicate a range (the bullet point will illuminate for a small range of radial positions of the focus ring) so just jog it to both sides of that range and then land in the middle and you're very likely to be in perfect focus.
The flip down magnifier can help, though it does prohibit seeing the full frame.
On more recent backs the CMOS live view at 100% is a great way to check/set fine focus with a manual lens.
Practice makes perfect; it's a new kit to you, so give yourself a chance to acclimate to the new kit before expecting yourself to meld with it perfectly. More time behind that viewfinder will improve your manual focusing with it; I can't tell you in advance if it will improve it to a 95% hit rate or improve it to a 50% hit rate, but it will improve it; that will depend a lot on you, your eyes, your definition of a "hit" and the style of shooting you do.
For closer focus distances consider the "lean" method where, after a rough focus, you lean your body toward or away from the subject (we're talking about small movements of a cm or two) rather than trying to rack the focus ring. This can often lead to a more and less distracted view and an easier ability to pull the trigger at the moment the focus is perfect, at least for some people.
By the way, we are still able to ship from our eStore such as the refurbished P1 lenses:
https://www.dtcommercialphoto.com/product-category/refurbished-backs-bodies-lenses/refurbished-phase-one-lenses/. Older manual focus lenses are a great way to flesh out your lens line at a low cost, but for your most used 2-3 lenses I'd really suggest (over time) investing in the more recent autofocus versions.
