Question regarding focus peaking with the Rokinon 7.5

So I went on a hike with my brother for his 40th birthday. This was the first time we actually got to just hike, and geek out with our cameras without having other people there to try and hurry us along.

He brought the Rokinon 7.5 which I tried on my E-M10. I could not, for the life of me, get focus peaking or even magnify to work at all. It worked fine on my 12-40, but not on the Rokinon. Also, it worked sometimes on my brother's G6, but if he lens swapped and swapped back it would not work.

Anyone have this issue and does anyone have an idea how to fix it? Thanks!

Bhima78 said:

So I went on a hike with my brother for his 40th birthday. This was the first time we actually got to just hike, and geek out with our cameras without having other people there to try and hurry us along.

He brought the Rokinon 7.5 which I tried on my E-M10. I could not, for the life of me, get focus peaking or even magnify to work at all. It worked fine on my 12-40, but not on the Rokinon. Also, it worked sometimes on my brother's G6, but if he lens swapped and swapped back it would not work.

Anyone have this issue and does anyone have an idea how to fix it? Thanks!

Click to expand...

The 7.5 is not a lens you want to focus using peaking, but solely magnify. DOF is so huge, even wide open, that you think something is in focus, but it isn't quite as sharp as it can be.

In fact, it can be focused in two ways:

1. Stop down to say 5.6 or a bit more, and just find the spot were is in focus from a few feet all the way to infinity, or

2. Double check focus with magnify before tripping the shutter.

I follow option 2. I have magnify assigned to Fn2 button, and use it all the time to really reach critical focus with any MF lens, especially the 7.5

To use manual lenses on an OMD camera, you need to program a button that enables focus peaking.

I don't think it would work that well on a fisheye. It sees so much and everything is small, so like the previous responder, I suggest magnification mode.

For non-electronically connected lenses, like the Rokinon, there's a menu setting in Panasonic cameras that has to be turned "on," and I think it's called "shoot without lens." I have no idea whether there is something comparable in Olympus bodies.

I usually set my 7.5 to f/4, turn the focus all the way toward infinity and then back it off just a smidge, and, voila!, pretty much everything is in focus (except maybe for really close things).

Here's a thread with tips by others on focusing with the 7.5: http://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/56097842

I was just playing with my 7.5 on my GX7 in my bedroom, and focus peaking was highlighting pretty much everything in the room. I don't see it as helpful for this lens.

--
Brent

Bhima78 said:

So I went on a hike with my brother for his 40th birthday. This was the first time we actually got to just hike, and geek out with our cameras without having other people there to try and hurry us along.

He brought the Rokinon 7.5 which I tried on my E-M10. I could not, for the life of me, get focus peaking or even magnify to work at all. It worked fine on my 12-40, but not on the Rokinon. Also, it worked sometimes on my brother's G6, but if he lens swapped and swapped back it would not work.

Anyone have this issue and does anyone have an idea how to fix it? Thanks!

Click to expand...

I just answered this for someone else asking why the MF features don't work on his E-M5 when he's using his Voigtlander 25mm. The answer is simple, it is a manual lens.

Assuming you have both MF Assist features set to on in the menus; if you have an AF lens mounted on your E-M10 and you set the E-M10 to MF, the moment you turn the zoom ring, Magnify and Peaking become active.

Now, look at the bottom of your Rokinon 7.5mm. There are no contacts and as a result, no communication between the E-M10 and the 7.5mm. You can spin the focus dial all day and the E-M10 doesn't have a clue.

The Solution: With a manual lens, you need to assign Magnify and Peaking to buttons to activate them in MF. On my E-M10, I have the Multifunction Feature assigned to Fn-2 and I have the Magnify option usually selected. I also assign Peaking to the Video button because I don't shoot video. With a manual lens mounted, I put the E-M10 into MF, press Fn-2 twice to select and activate Magnify, Press the Video button once to activate peaking, and focus. You can just assign Magnify to Fn-2 and save one button press.

I usually don't focus the 7.5mm because I just set the focus ring to the right spot on the distance scale and just about everything from two feet to infinity is in focus. But I also found out that when I use the snapshot feature on my 12mm f/2.0 or 17mm f/1.8, pulling back the focus ring sets the E-M10 into MF but does not activate either MF Assist feature. So I use the exact same procedure. I disagree with the other poster, because there are times when you will want to accurately focus the 7.5 on something closer and both magnify and peaking work quite well on this lens.

I agree that focus peaking is useless with this lens. For closeup subjects, I go to magnified focus, open up all the way, focus, and stop down to f/5.6. You can do all of that without taking your eye off the viewfinder. f/5.6 is three clicks of the aperture detent. This isn't a wonderful picture but gives you an idea what I mean:


1/20 f/5.6, focused as above. Camera supported on my left fist. Defished in Fisheye-Hemi.

Tom

brentbrent said:

For non-electronically connected lenses, like the Rokinon, there's a menu setting in Panasonic cameras that has to be turned "on," and I think it's called "shoot without lens." I have no idea whether there is something comparable in Olympus bodies.

I usually set my 7.5 to f/4, turn the focus all the way toward infinity and then back it off just a smidge, and, voila!, pretty much everything is in focus (except maybe for really close things).

Here's a thread with tips by others on focusing with the 7.5: http://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/56097842

I was just playing with my 7.5 on my GX7 in my bedroom, and focus peaking was highlighting pretty much everything in the room. I don't see it as helpful for this lens.

--
Brent

Click to expand...

bs1946 said:

I usually don't focus the 7.5mm because I just set the focus ring to the right spot on the distance scale and just about everything from two feet to infinity is in focus.

Click to expand...

Yup, I was out today and took a bunch of shots with my 7.5, and I don't think I touched the focus dial once. Here are two of those:











Brent

I'll try setting my cam to have a dedicated magnify button (though I detest the magnify feature on Oly cams... why can't they do the picture-in-picture box like Panasonic).

I assigned magnify to the video record button on my E-M10. Focus peaking was useless since it saw everything as being in focus. I've used cameras which bring up the magnify window as a picture in a picture and I much prefer the Olympus method.