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Scott,
I have just found your web site and will be forever
thankful. I have been reading the questions and your
answers. One questions I do have is this. Under equipment
you listed that you truly liked your zoom lens. Do you
find this lens less sharp than a fixed length. Lately I
have been very discouraged. I have two fixed focal
lengths that bring in very sharp pictures... I also have
two very expensive zooms that don't seem to come close,
whether on auto or manual focus. Should there be this
much of a difference... it appears to me that the fixed
lenses have more detail in them. I mean, is it me. I love
these zooms for candids at weddings.. they are fast and I
usually do not miss a thing, but sometimes it can be very
deceiving as to what is in focus. All my equipment is 35
mm. One last question.... have you ever used a magnifier
for over the eyepiece, to help with focusing? I am
considering buying one. I am one of those people who
unintentionally hold there breath and it will make your
vision blurry sometimes. And there are times I take
pictures for several hours and my eyes get tired. Would
appreciate any information you can give me or advice.
Thank you, Julieann
Hi Julie:
The sharpness issue for lenses is really a non issue at
all. Photographers as a group tend to love to talk about
lens sharpness. The truth is, unless you really have a
badly built, off brand lens, any focusing problem is most
likely coming from you. My lenses are all for medium
format rather than 35 mm but the same rules apply. Are
there differences in lenses? Sure there are but they are
really small differences that you would have a hard time
detecting unless you enlarged the neg. to a large size.
The differences are just not worth discussing. You didn't
say but if you don't have split screen focus, you are at
a disadvantage. Split screen allows you to focus very
precisely. I also encourage people to stay away from auto
focus. Trusting a chip to focus for you is not my idea of
being a photographer. The mechanism could also possibly
be malfunctioning. When it comes to something as
important as focus, I want to control precisely what IS
and IS NOT in focus. If your zoom is a one touch zoom
(focus and zoom on the same ring) it is easy to lose
focus while you are zooming, especially if the focus
changes during the zooming action. On my 105-210 Mamiya
zoom, the zoom and focus are separate and fixed. I can
zoom in and out and the focus remains constant. It's a
great feature that really gives you creativity and speed.
I have indeed used an eyepiece at one time. A magnifier
is helpful to focus on distant objects but the eyepiece I
preferred was one that slipped over the view port on the
back of the camera. It would unscrew to allow insertion
of small magnifying lenses. What I did was take my older
glasses and grind down the right lens and mount it into
this eyepiece. I have astigmatism so it was necessary to
rotate the eyepiece when I rotated the camera for a
vertical or horizontal image. To maintain the proper
rotation of the lens relative to my eye, I simply put a
drop of liquid paper at the top of the piece that held
the lens. All I had to do was rotate the eyepiece 90
degrees to keep the dot pointing to the ceiling and I
could see remarkably well without having to wear my
glasses. I dislike wearing glasses but I insist on
critical focus.
Finally- please breathe. Get into the habit of breathing
normally when making images. When it's time to make an
exposure, gently let the air out and squeeze the button
to make your exposure. At the low point of your exhale
you will be really still. Never hold your breath in or
out while doing photography. You will become more shaky
as you strain to keep from breathing. Once you practice
letting the air out and squeezing the button at the
bottom of the exhale, you will be able to hand hold some
pretty long exposures. I have done down to 1 second
before with minimal movement. Half second is fairly
reliable with this procedure, so do remember to breath!
: )
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