Need tips on focusing

[rerem]

Originally Posted by Stryker

Hmmm, now that you mention it my Nikon does give a beep even in MF. I was wondering why it does that. I will see if I can get it to beep when I take these macros next time, before clicking.

I wear glasses too, pretty strong ones as well, but I played with the diopter adjustment next to the view finder and I have now set it to where what I see in the viewfinder is more or less what comes out in the photograph.

Yeah,I used to have first rate eyes but age stole that away. A couple of my 90's vintage Pentax's (35 mm) have diopter adjust and being able to look at a bright viewscreen with no glasses is just a treat.

[kasey]

many people comment about the DOF in many of my macro shots, i take most of them at f16 or f22. most are also done on a tripod. if these f stops slow the shutter speed to much for a flower waving in the breeze i pick it and take it indoors!

on my camera when i manual focus (and i hate it) when the spot i want is in focus the green focus light comes on in the viewfinder. see if your camera does this for you as it helps a lot.

it also may be possible to chance focusing screens to get one that is easier for you to tell when you have sharp focus, many years ago with my pentax mx which was a totally manual camera we changed the focus screen to a split focus screen and it was much easier -- the top and bottom half line up.

[Stryker]

Originally Posted by kasey

if these f stops slow the shutter speed to much for a flower waving in the breeze i pick it and take it indoors!

That is something I am tempted to do most of the time, but somehow the tree hugger in me says "No!" every time. Moreover, the background will look too artificial if shot indoors, that OOF green looks so much better if natural.

Originally Posted by kasey

it also may be possible to chance focusing screens to get one that is easier for you to tell when you have sharp focus, many years ago with my pentax mx which was a totally manual camera we changed the focus screen to a split focus screen and it was much easier -- the top and bottom half line up.

I know the type you mean, most of the older manual film SLRs used to have this kind of viewfinder. I have not seen one on a DSLR and I didn't even know that you could change the viewfinder in a camera. How does one go about this? Will Nikon do it for me? Anyone done this with their camera?

[dubleK24]

Hi stryker

I just purchased the Tamron 90mm Macro myself yesterday. I have a Nikon D50 and it can auto focus with it, so your D40 should as well. You have to pull the focus ring parallel to the lens away from the camara to get it in AF mode. Not sure if anyone has mentioned this yet, but you should give that a try, although you have recieved some really good manual focusing advise.

[daft_biker]

Autofocus for macro? Perhaps if your eyes are so bad manual focus is impossible but it's just not possible to do "serious" macro with AF due to DoF being so limited and half of the DoF being infront of the point of focus.....AF tends to lock onto the nearest part of a subject so you waste half of your DoF if you use AF.

By serious macro I mean carefully controlled DoF used for differential focus effects, typically shooting at less than 1:1 magnification to get the required DoF. True macro is shooting at 1:1 or greater.

As for using wide angles and tubes to shoot roses and long lenses having less DoF.....makes no odds other than angle of view and working distance. At any given magnification and (effective) aperture DoF is the same regardless of focal length. E.g. you can get 35mm and 200mm lenses that will both focus close enough to give 1:1 magnification and both will give the same DoF. Increasing magnification reduces DoF (which is why I expect the 300mm on bellows gave limited DoF).