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Manual focusing - digital screen vs groundglass


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Which is easier - to focus manually on a digital screen, and I mean either in a viewfinder or on a small display screen at the back of the camera, or to focus manually using the groundglass on a film camera such as an Arri with mirror shutter -- and in both cases using a lens such as from a still camera that might not have accurate focus marks. Let us assume daylight conditions with a good amount of light. I'm guessing it is so much easier with digital. One trick with focusing back in my Super 8 days with zoom lenses (such as on the Canon 1014 xl-s) was to zoom in to maximum telephoto, focus, then zoom back out to wide angle or whatever. With manual focusing of, say, Nikon lenses (such as the 17-35mm f2.8), is this focusing technique practical ... or does the focus change on these Nikkors when you change the focal length? Many thanks for any advice.

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Depends on the camera, doesn’t it? 

In general, I would say it’s easier to find critical eye focus on an HD viewfinder or monitor. Mainly because most digital cameras and monitors have focusing aids like focus peaking and a 1:1 punch-in mode, where the camera can show you a zoomed-in portion of the image without needing to reframe the shot. 

In contrast, eye focusing off of a ground glass can be affected by low light conditions and a heavy filter pack, low contrast lighting, smoke and haze on set, mirror shutter flicker, and just plain ol’ eye fatigue. Some of these factors can still be a problem on a monitor, but it’s somewhat offset by the monitoring tools.

Also, older cameras and smaller formats with reflex viewfinders that don’t allow as much light thru the viewfinder optics as modern 35mm cameras can be a factor. That said, in ideal conditions, a reflex viewfinder can be great.

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You can’t rely on zooming in to find focus and then zooming back out to your frame if you are shooting with non-parfocal zoom lenses. Which is most photo zooms.

In such lenses, the critical focus point will be different at each focal length. So your best option is to first establish your frame, and then focus the lens without touching the zoom ring again. In this case, focusing off of a monitor would be a distinct advantage.

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On 7/5/2020 at 9:55 AM, Jon O'Brien said:

Which is easier - to focus manually on a digital screen, and I mean either in a viewfinder or on a small display screen at the back of the camera, or to focus manually using the groundglass on a film camera such as an Arri with mirror shutter -- and in both cases using a lens such as from a still camera that might not have accurate focus marks. Let us assume daylight conditions with a good amount of light. I'm guessing it is so much easier with digital. One trick with focusing back in my Super 8 days with zoom lenses (such as on the Canon 1014 xl-s) was to zoom in to maximum telephoto, focus, then zoom back out to wide angle or whatever. With manual focusing of, say, Nikon lenses (such as the 17-35mm f2.8), is this focusing technique practical ... or does the focus change on these Nikkors when you change the focal length? Many thanks for any advice.

It can sometimes be helpful if you have a sound guy swinging a boom pole, to mount a laminated paper focus star on the pole near the mic and focus on that just before the boom guy and you are checking the frame edge. 

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Can't beat focus assist on a digital camera. Optical viewfinders, where they're really great, don't hold a candle to focus assist. Also with a digital cinema camera, you're seeing the final image, but with an optical viewfinder you may not see what you're getting thanks to something being out of calibration. 

Edited by Tyler Purcell
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