DSLR focus screens

I'm looking at getting a DSLR, maybe the D20 when they hit the streets, as
my first -real- digital camera. I shot with a friends D10 last weekend and
found that it, like most autofocus cameras I've used, didn't agree with me
where the focus plane should be most of the time.

No biggie there but when I was trying to manually focus the lenses, the
focus screen seems to be optimized for brightness, not for manual focusing
and it was hard for me to see the exact plane of focus quickly, at least
not as well as I can with the Maxwell focus screens I'm used to in my
medium format cameras. My question is can the focus screen be fairly easily
changed by the user (like my OM cameras) on any of these DSLRs or is it
"built in" to the camera such that this isn't possible? Is the nikon the
same in this focus screen respect as the canon?

I'm sure people brought up on auto focus cameras don't understand what I'm
talking about! :-) And no need to reply with a "I never have any problems
with using auto focus"...

TIA for any help as this was the main issue I had using one of these.
--

Stacey

Kibo informs me that Stacey stated that:

[crappy focus screen on DSLRs]
No biggie there but when I was trying to manually focus the lenses, the
focus screen seems to be optimized for brightness, not for manual focusing
and it was hard for me to see the exact plane of focus quickly, at least
not as well as I can with the Maxwell focus screens I'm used to in my
medium format cameras.

I'm right with you on this one. I grew up with manual focus, & the fact
that my beloved 10D has a non-interchangable focus screen is possibly my
biggest beef with that model. The fact that I mostly shoot in poor
available light makes that lack particularly annoying.

Speaking of which, are there any 1DMkII users here who can comment on
what it's like for manual focussing? And are the screens interchangable?

--
W
. | ,. w , "Some people are alive only because
\|/ \|/ it is illegal to kill them." Perna condita delenda est
---^----^---------------------------------------------------------------

Kibo informs me that Stacey stated that:

[crappy focus screen on DSLRs]
No biggie there but when I was trying to manually focus the lenses, the
focus screen seems to be optimized for brightness, not for manual focusing
and it was hard for me to see the exact plane of focus quickly, at least
not as well as I can with the Maxwell focus screens I'm used to in my
medium format cameras.

I'm right with you on this one. I grew up with manual focus, & the fact
that my beloved 10D has a non-interchangable focus screen is possibly my
biggest beef with that model. The fact that I mostly shoot in poor
available light makes that lack particularly annoying.

Speaking of which, are there any 1DMkII users here who can comment on
what it's like for manual focussing? And are the screens interchangable?

--
W
. | ,. w , "Some people are alive only because
\|/ \|/ it is illegal to kill them." Perna condita delenda est
---^----^---------------------------------------------------------------

"Stacey" wrote:

No biggie there but when I was trying to manually focus the lenses, the
focus screen seems to be optimized for brightness, not for manual focusing
and it was hard for me to see the exact plane of focus quickly, at least
not as well as I can with the Maxwell focus screens I'm used to in my
medium format cameras.

FWIW, the 300D + 50/1.4 is easier to focus than my Maxwell-equipped
Rolleiflex, and a _lot_ easier to focus than my Mamiya 645 + 35/3.5.

I suspect that the speed of the lens has a lot to do with itg. Also, I
suspect that the 300D is a better screen for manual focus than the 10D
screen, and the 20D may be equal or better to the 300D.

My question is can the focus screen be fairly easily
changed by the user (like my OM cameras) on any of these DSLRs or is it
"built in" to the camera such that this isn't possible? Is the nikon the
same in this focus screen respect as the canon?

The focus screens are not interchangeable in the low-end dSLRs. The 1D2 and
1Ds have interchangeable screens.

I'm sure people brought up on auto focus cameras don't understand what
I'm
talking about! :-) And no need to reply with a "I never have any problems
with using auto focus"...

I screwed myself the other day. Crawled out of bed at 4:00am and dragged
cameras and tripod to catch the sunrise over Ohnishi Port (a tiny port on an
island in Japan's Inland Sea), and completely forgot that 35mm lenses focus
past infinity.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarg!

It's too dark for AF, and too dark to see the focus scale, and too dark to
focus manually with the f/2.8 lens on the camera. (Exposures were in the 15
second range.)

The MF film shots came out fine.

David J. Littleboy
Tokyo, Japan

"Stacey" wrote:

No biggie there but when I was trying to manually focus the lenses, the
focus screen seems to be optimized for brightness, not for manual focusing
and it was hard for me to see the exact plane of focus quickly, at least
not as well as I can with the Maxwell focus screens I'm used to in my
medium format cameras.

FWIW, the 300D + 50/1.4 is easier to focus than my Maxwell-equipped
Rolleiflex, and a _lot_ easier to focus than my Mamiya 645 + 35/3.5.

I suspect that the speed of the lens has a lot to do with itg. Also, I
suspect that the 300D is a better screen for manual focus than the 10D
screen, and the 20D may be equal or better to the 300D.

My question is can the focus screen be fairly easily
changed by the user (like my OM cameras) on any of these DSLRs or is it
"built in" to the camera such that this isn't possible? Is the nikon the
same in this focus screen respect as the canon?

The focus screens are not interchangeable in the low-end dSLRs. The 1D2 and
1Ds have interchangeable screens.

I'm sure people brought up on auto focus cameras don't understand what
I'm
talking about! :-) And no need to reply with a "I never have any problems
with using auto focus"...

I screwed myself the other day. Crawled out of bed at 4:00am and dragged
cameras and tripod to catch the sunrise over Ohnishi Port (a tiny port on an
island in Japan's Inland Sea), and completely forgot that 35mm lenses focus
past infinity.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarg!

It's too dark for AF, and too dark to see the focus scale, and too dark to
focus manually with the f/2.8 lens on the camera. (Exposures were in the 15
second range.)

The MF film shots came out fine.

David J. Littleboy
Tokyo, Japan

Big problem with AF systems when you can't rely on them to focus, resorting
to MF is limited by lack of a decent screen. Interchangable screens are
useful, as per EOS 3 but I've seen no mention of one on the D20.

Depth of Field scales on lens are also sadly missed....

"Stacey" wrote in message
...
I'm looking at getting a DSLR, maybe the D20 when they hit the streets, as
my first -real- digital camera. I shot with a friends D10 last weekend and
found that it, like most autofocus cameras I've used, didn't agree with me
where the focus plane should be most of the time.

No biggie there but when I was trying to manually focus the lenses, the
focus screen seems to be optimized for brightness, not for manual focusing
and it was hard for me to see the exact plane of focus quickly, at least
not as well as I can with the Maxwell focus screens I'm used to in my
medium format cameras. My question is can the focus screen be fairly
easily
changed by the user (like my OM cameras) on any of these DSLRs or is it
"built in" to the camera such that this isn't possible? Is the nikon the
same in this focus screen respect as the canon?

I'm sure people brought up on auto focus cameras don't understand what
I'm
talking about! :-) And no need to reply with a "I never have any problems
with using auto focus"...

TIA for any help as this was the main issue I had using one of these.
--

Stacey

Big problem with AF systems when you can't rely on them to focus, resorting
to MF is limited by lack of a decent screen. Interchangable screens are
useful, as per EOS 3 but I've seen no mention of one on the D20.

Depth of Field scales on lens are also sadly missed....

"Stacey" wrote in message
...
I'm looking at getting a DSLR, maybe the D20 when they hit the streets, as
my first -real- digital camera. I shot with a friends D10 last weekend and
found that it, like most autofocus cameras I've used, didn't agree with me
where the focus plane should be most of the time.

No biggie there but when I was trying to manually focus the lenses, the
focus screen seems to be optimized for brightness, not for manual focusing
and it was hard for me to see the exact plane of focus quickly, at least
not as well as I can with the Maxwell focus screens I'm used to in my
medium format cameras. My question is can the focus screen be fairly
easily
changed by the user (like my OM cameras) on any of these DSLRs or is it
"built in" to the camera such that this isn't possible? Is the nikon the
same in this focus screen respect as the canon?

I'm sure people brought up on auto focus cameras don't understand what
I'm
talking about! :-) And no need to reply with a "I never have any problems
with using auto focus"...

TIA for any help as this was the main issue I had using one of these.
--

Stacey

In article ,
David J. Littleboy wrote:

I screwed myself the other day. Crawled out of bed at 4:00am and dragged
cameras and tripod to catch the sunrise over Ohnishi Port (a tiny port on an
island in Japan's Inland Sea), and completely forgot that 35mm lenses focus
past infinity.

Well, most EF lenses anyway. In total darkness, that gets to be a serious
pain in the arse.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarg!

It's too dark for AF, and too dark to see the focus scale, and too dark to
focus manually with the f/2.8 lens on the camera. (Exposures were in the 15
second range.)

This one's half an hour (f/2.8):

http://www.fastfoto.co.uk/Chris/LakeStars.jpg

Took it whilst on holiday in the US a couple of weeks ago. It doesn't get
that dark here in southern England. For that, I set the focus to infinity
whilst still indoors, and then very carefully took the camera outside.
Didn't want to risk using torchlight to set it in place, or I might have
destroyed my night vision and fallen in the lake. ;-)

In article ,
David J. Littleboy wrote:

I screwed myself the other day. Crawled out of bed at 4:00am and dragged
cameras and tripod to catch the sunrise over Ohnishi Port (a tiny port on an
island in Japan's Inland Sea), and completely forgot that 35mm lenses focus
past infinity.

Well, most EF lenses anyway. In total darkness, that gets to be a serious
pain in the arse.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarg!

It's too dark for AF, and too dark to see the focus scale, and too dark to
focus manually with the f/2.8 lens on the camera. (Exposures were in the 15
second range.)

This one's half an hour (f/2.8):

http://www.fastfoto.co.uk/Chris/LakeStars.jpg

Took it whilst on holiday in the US a couple of weeks ago. It doesn't get
that dark here in southern England. For that, I set the focus to infinity
whilst still indoors, and then very carefully took the camera outside.
Didn't want to risk using torchlight to set it in place, or I might have
destroyed my night vision and fallen in the lake. ;-)

I use the Oly E-10 and the manual focus awful. It uses fly-by-wire to
adjust....and the focus ring just spins...there are no stops. How can you
feel where you are? With my 35mm I could see a situation developing and
measure the distance with my eyes. Look down at the lens and set the
focus....raise the camera and shoot before the subject is spooked. What I
want is a digital OM2


"dylan" wrote in message
...
Big problem with AF systems when you can't rely on them to focus,
resorting
to MF is limited by lack of a decent screen. Interchangable screens are
useful, as per EOS 3 but I've seen no mention of one on the D20.

Depth of Field scales on lens are also sadly missed....

"Stacey" wrote in message
...
I'm looking at getting a DSLR, maybe the D20 when they hit the streets,
as
my first -real- digital camera. I shot with a friends D10 last weekend
and
found that it, like most autofocus cameras I've used, didn't agree with
me
where the focus plane should be most of the time.

No biggie there but when I was trying to manually focus the lenses, the
focus screen seems to be optimized for brightness, not for manual
focusing
and it was hard for me to see the exact plane of focus quickly, at least
not as well as I can with the Maxwell focus screens I'm used to in my
medium format cameras. My question is can the focus screen be fairly
easily
changed by the user (like my OM cameras) on any of these DSLRs or is it
"built in" to the camera such that this isn't possible? Is the nikon the
same in this focus screen respect as the canon?

I'm sure people brought up on auto focus cameras don't understand what
I'm
talking about! :-) And no need to reply with a "I never have any
problems
with using auto focus"...

TIA for any help as this was the main issue I had using one of these.
--

Stacey