Re: [Leica] Follow focusing (WAS: Thanks!! OT Nikon F5)

[Simon Lamb <s_lamb@compuserve.com>]

Harrison

snip:  if you are doing this focus lock thing then know
when to engage it and such...one question on the focus lock...if shooting a
rapidly erratically moving subject as a football player how do you know
where to lock focus to?

As with any top level SLR you can focus lock using a focus lock button or simply set
focus and switch to manual mode so that the AF ceases to continuously focus.  Then,
as you say, swing to the pre-focussed area and there is your shot.

I was talking about the F5 function called Focus Lock-On.  This means that if you
are panning a moving object, the camera will know the focussing distance because the
D-type lens will tell the camera what it is, then if an ancillary subject crosses
the field of view (or you pan across an intermediate object) the AF will not
re-focus on the object that just entered the field of view but stay with the
original subject.  So, if you are tracking a person walking down the street and a
bus passes through the viewfinder it will appear blurred because the F5 will not
focus on it.  When the bus leaves the field of vision the original subject will
still be in focus (or so close that the AF will nail it within a few milliseconds).

Thanks for the info on your scanning set-up.  The max res on the Coolscan is 2700,
is the Sprint Scan higher?

Simon

Harrison Mcclary wrote:

> once upon a time Simon Lamb wrote:
>
> > The focus Lock-On on my SLR will not refocus if something comes between the
> > camera
> > and the subject (at any focal length).  It stays focussed on the subject as it
> > knows
> > from the distance information provided by the D lens that you do not want the
> > intruding element to be in focus.  It sounds iffy but it works superbly.
>
> This I do not know about...to shoot with AF after shooting with MF requires
> you to learn how to shoot all over again as you have to become aware of
> where your focus point is, if you are doing this focus lock thing then know
> when to engage it and such...one question on the focus lock...if shooting a
> rapidly erratically moving subject as a football player how do you know
> where to lock focus to?  I know on the older lenses when shooting
> professional baseball I would sometimes pre-focus to 2nd base a set the
> focus stop there then when a play happened there all I had to do was spin
> the focus till it stopped and fire...is the focus lock the electronic
> version of the old focus lock?  if so I do not think that would work for
> something like football or wildlife, of course I could be totally
> misunderstanding the focus lock thing you are talking about.
>
> On my EOS cameras I have the focus to activate when I press a button on the
> back of the camera, not the exposure button this helps to control when and
> how the camera focuses and keeps everything from being dead center frame as
> I can focus and recompose....of course that does not work on sports.
>
> > Thank you for sharing your experience.  One last question - how do you scan in
> > your
> > images to look that good.  I use a Coolscan LS30 and I cannot get that
> > quality.
>
> I use a Polaroid Sprint Scan.  I scan at top resolution then drop it back
> for web publishing.  Those images were compressed using PROJPEG plugin, now
> I use Fireworks for web images.  The Deion shot may have been a Photo CD
> image, but my Polaroid gives better results than the Photo CD does.
>
> Oh and only the net cutting photo was made with Leica and that was an R6 and
> 180 elmarit.  The others were all shot with an old Canon F1 and 400 2.8L FD
> version...still the same principals apply to manual focus as it would with
> the R8.  I used to use an R8, R6 and lenses but had so many problems and
> such a poor response from Leica on the problems that I went back to Canon.
>
> --
> Harrison McClary
> http://www.mcclary.net