Ray Sachs
Legend
- Location
- Not too far from Philly
- Name
- you should be able to figure it out...
This will probably be of interest to almost nobody, but it's bigly (big league?) of interest to me, so I'll share it just on the off-chance anyone else is interested...
First, the "problem". This isn't a huge problem - I've worked around it without much trouble on both the original RX1 I owned and the new RX1R II, but it's far from the easiest manual focus system to use for zone focus. First, the manual focus distance always resets to infinity when the camera is turned off and back on. And the focus ring totally focus by wire - no tactile feedback at all. And the ring seems to be speed sensitive, so if you turn it really quickly, you can overshoot your target and have to fine tune a couple of times. Also, the electronic distance scale is pretty bad. It's only visible when you're actually turning the focus ring, and on my copy of the new camera, my most commonly used 2 meter focus distance is actually in focus when the distance scale says I'm focussed to 1 meter. I don't think this was the case with my copy of the original RX1, but regardless, you can't trust it and better test it to find the distance on the scale you really want to use. So, in short, zone focus can work and work well, but the camera was clearly not designed with this type of use in mind and there are many others that handle this take much more easily. BTW, most of this is true of the Nikon Coolpix A as well, but for some reason, the Coolpix just works better in this mode. Maybe because the focus ring isn't speed sensitive and the distance scale is always showing when the camera's in MF mode. It just works more easily...
BUT, there's a great workaround. There's a ring located just behind the focus ring that has two marked positions and is used to move the camera from a normal focus range to a much closer near-macro range. It works to literally move the lens assembly forward and backward and it's totally mechanical - it does the same thing when the camera's turned off as when it's on. It has two marked settings, the standard position is marked for 0.3 meters - infinity and the other is marked 0.2-0.35 meters. Here's a photo of the ring.
IMG_1555 by Ray, on Flickr
If the camera is powered on in manual focus and defaults to it's infinity focus, you can actually turn this mechanical ring to get it to focus at various points between macro and full infinity. And you can turn it with focus peaking or magnification showing, so you can find it's precise location for a given focus distance, like one meter or two meters. So, what I've done is made a small white mark at the point where the lens is focussed at 2 meters, which is the focus distance I almost always use with zone focus - I'll sometimes focus a bit closer in really tight quarters, but in most situations with any sort of decent aperture (i.e., not wide open), a 2 meter focus distance gets me decent focus on everything from 3-4 feet out to farther than I need to worry about. So, if I have (or move) that setting to my white dot, I can turn on the camera in MF mode and I'm instantly set. As seen below... If I'm shooting mostly street I don't really have to touch this ring or the focus ring. I just have to be sort of careful not to accidentally knock the focus ring and change the electronic focus off of it's default infinity setting. This is totally accurate and repeatable and, frankly, awesome. It takes the RX1 from being a usable but pain-in-the-butt zone focus camera to a wonderful one. It's not as cool as a true mechanical lens or even the way Leica does it on the Q or the push-pull semi-mechanical focus rings on some Olympus and Fuji lenses. But it's still wicked cool and makes a great street camera an even greater street camera...
IMG_1556 by Ray, on Flickr
If this is relevant to even one other person, great! If not, well, just a few wasted minutes and electrons. I saw this trick on DPR during the long gap between owning the first and current RX1 and had forgotten about it, but someone brought it up again recently and I tried it. Great little hack!
-Ray
First, the "problem". This isn't a huge problem - I've worked around it without much trouble on both the original RX1 I owned and the new RX1R II, but it's far from the easiest manual focus system to use for zone focus. First, the manual focus distance always resets to infinity when the camera is turned off and back on. And the focus ring totally focus by wire - no tactile feedback at all. And the ring seems to be speed sensitive, so if you turn it really quickly, you can overshoot your target and have to fine tune a couple of times. Also, the electronic distance scale is pretty bad. It's only visible when you're actually turning the focus ring, and on my copy of the new camera, my most commonly used 2 meter focus distance is actually in focus when the distance scale says I'm focussed to 1 meter. I don't think this was the case with my copy of the original RX1, but regardless, you can't trust it and better test it to find the distance on the scale you really want to use. So, in short, zone focus can work and work well, but the camera was clearly not designed with this type of use in mind and there are many others that handle this take much more easily. BTW, most of this is true of the Nikon Coolpix A as well, but for some reason, the Coolpix just works better in this mode. Maybe because the focus ring isn't speed sensitive and the distance scale is always showing when the camera's in MF mode. It just works more easily...
BUT, there's a great workaround. There's a ring located just behind the focus ring that has two marked positions and is used to move the camera from a normal focus range to a much closer near-macro range. It works to literally move the lens assembly forward and backward and it's totally mechanical - it does the same thing when the camera's turned off as when it's on. It has two marked settings, the standard position is marked for 0.3 meters - infinity and the other is marked 0.2-0.35 meters. Here's a photo of the ring.
If the camera is powered on in manual focus and defaults to it's infinity focus, you can actually turn this mechanical ring to get it to focus at various points between macro and full infinity. And you can turn it with focus peaking or magnification showing, so you can find it's precise location for a given focus distance, like one meter or two meters. So, what I've done is made a small white mark at the point where the lens is focussed at 2 meters, which is the focus distance I almost always use with zone focus - I'll sometimes focus a bit closer in really tight quarters, but in most situations with any sort of decent aperture (i.e., not wide open), a 2 meter focus distance gets me decent focus on everything from 3-4 feet out to farther than I need to worry about. So, if I have (or move) that setting to my white dot, I can turn on the camera in MF mode and I'm instantly set. As seen below... If I'm shooting mostly street I don't really have to touch this ring or the focus ring. I just have to be sort of careful not to accidentally knock the focus ring and change the electronic focus off of it's default infinity setting. This is totally accurate and repeatable and, frankly, awesome. It takes the RX1 from being a usable but pain-in-the-butt zone focus camera to a wonderful one. It's not as cool as a true mechanical lens or even the way Leica does it on the Q or the push-pull semi-mechanical focus rings on some Olympus and Fuji lenses. But it's still wicked cool and makes a great street camera an even greater street camera...
If this is relevant to even one other person, great! If not, well, just a few wasted minutes and electrons. I saw this trick on DPR during the long gap between owning the first and current RX1 and had forgotten about it, but someone brought it up again recently and I tried it. Great little hack!
-Ray