All images - Sony NEX-C3 Voigtlander 28mm f/2 Ultron
Following on from yesterdays excursion with the Nikon 10-24mm zoom, I went out with the Voigtlander 28mm f/2 Ultron lens on the NEX-C3 to have a more leisurely look at the possibilities for using zone focusing with MF lenses using the peak focusing feature.
For some things like the shot above, it works very well. The focus peaking is a series of highlights which moves across the screen showing the area of the image thats in focus.
This is an imagingresource video of how it works.
The images of the stonework above was shot at f/2 and it enabled very precise focus, very quickly.
Again the above shot was easy and quick. Again at f/2 I wanted the flowers to be in focus and as much of the rest as was possible at that aperture.
Where it does give a false impression is where things are head on. The following shot was at f/16, so it wasn't much of a problem.
However if you are looking for part of the image to be in sharp focus, it can sometimes be tricky to see exactly where this is. With more practice and looking at the results, I should be able to guage more accurately, how its going to turn out.
So is it a more useful method than using the lenses DOF scale and the hyperfocal distance? Well for close objects it probably is. It saves having to do a distance estimate and it does graphically show the areas of acceptable focus. Plus for critical focusing, there is always the option of using the magnification screen.
