Sharper Pictures With Manual Focus?

[ving]

my eyesight is perfect to near enough to perfect and i dont want to poke myself in the eye to see if lesser eyesight makes a difference.

generally speaking if your AF lens is good quality and fast the AF should be accurate. manual focus might work just with practice and good eyesight) as well but no where near as fast. that said my macro is 100% manual focus. i also have an old manual 50mm which is manual... funnily enough.

[Carlos G]

I'm new in this forum and I think manufacturers should make DSLRs cameras with: interchangeable focusing screens or a multipurpose focusing screen with split image included, as old SLRs. I strange my old OM1 with it's screens with diagonal and horizontals splits centers. I don't know if it's quickier but I am sure it's sharpest.
If cameras comes with AF and MF settings, they should come with better focusing screens.
Meanwhile, I use the viewfinder and sound, electronic helps for when it's in focus, but in dark places, it's very difficult. Everybody should have 2.8, 2 or 1.4 very expensive lenses. This lenses with the new standard APS format, are smallest and shouldn't be so dear as old same class lenses, expecially if they are built with too much plastic and designed and constructed with computers and robots.
For example, there are no film transport and you pay for a camera, more than a SLR of the same category, years ago, having less mechanical parts.
But this should be in other forums. The industry must win money for continuing giving us, better technologies.

[Major_Small]

Originally Posted by ving

manual focus might work just with practice and good eyesight) as well but no where near as fast. that said my macro is 100% manual focus. i also have an old manual 50mm which is manual... funnily enough.

Not in my experience - I can generally focus much faster than AF. Then again I suppose that comes with practice. You don't need perfect eyesight either, so long as you have a diopter that can correct for the amount your eyesight is off by. As long as you can see your hand in front of your face, your eyesight should be good enough to focus with

[k9mom]

I've got a P&S (Canon Powershot S3 IS) and I am really, really trying to improve my shots using MF, but I am getting SO frustrated. On the S3 IS, there is a MF (manual focus, though sometimes I think it should stand for something else, something which conveys my frustration!!!!) button that you press, then you adjust the focus using the toggle button. It magnifies in the LCD display window to help you see the image point you are trying to focus on. But even when I think it looks its sharpest in the magnified display window, the photos come out fuzzy, fuzzy, fuzzy. I see so many incredible photos here on DPS, even some taken with S3s, and I wonder what the heck is so wrong with me that I can't get any decent shots. Maybe I'm trying too hard or maybe I should just stick to AF instead of using the manual settings. Aarrgh.

[IcyMirage]

are there such focusing screens for canon 400D's? I'd really like to try it... do you have to get that diopter thing exactly right when using such a split screen? cause besides my -1 eyesight, I also have a cylindrical thingy, so I cant get the viewfinder right...

[inkista]

The problem with using a split-circle focus screen in an AF camera, is that with a slower lens (smaller max. aperture), the center of the screen to go black. And that plays havoc with the AF/AE system, especially if you're using the center AF/AE point. Even the Katz-Eye (which comes in enry-level body flavors) is known to cause spot-metering to freak out.

Most pro camera bodies actually do have interchangeable focus screens--5D, 40D, 1DsIII, and 1DIII all have Canon-brand focus screen options. But, iirc, none of them are split-circle.