X100v OVF

jjcha wrote:

Jay A wrote:

Second, a very irritating fact about focusing with the OVF is the fact that if you use the corrected frame option (and you should so that you are positioning the camera correctly in order to compensate for parallax error), you cannot even see a correctly placed corrected frame until you first press down the shutter release to focus.

This is really interesting - you move around the AF point when using the OVF? I've never really considered this style of acquiring focus -- I only use center point with the OVF. I guess I'm just curious as to the advantages of using the OVF + moving around the AF?

For me, as a street photographer, the main benefit of the OVF is speed and not wanting to use the AF joystick. It's faster for me to center focus and recompose than move the AF around. Once you're moving the AF point around, the speed advantage of the OVF is kinda lost, at least for me, so I'm curious as to what it does for you?

From your thoughts, I wonder if the Leica Q isn't for you. I hear you though on wanting to see outside the framelines, which is an advantage of an OVF over nearly every EVF, with the exception of the Leica Q.

If you're really into that and want the EVF, I can recommend shooting 35mm on a Leica Q2, as the sensor and EVF still "sees" the 28mm view, but captures a jpg with the 35mm crop or records a 28mm RAW with a default crop of 35mm.

When you turn on the "corrected focus frame" option, you see 2 sets of frame lines for the focus point. One is the one you have set to have the camera use as its focus point, and another (showing only the edges of the frame) shows where the camera will actually focus due to parallax error. It moves depending on how close or far you are from the subject that you are focusing on. So say, you focus on a subject 10 feet away, you will see both focus frames. If you then refocus on something 6 feet away, the corrected frame will have moved slightly. So again, this second frame is telling you exactly where the camera will focus which is not necessarily behind the frame you have chosen to use.

The problem is that this corrected frame does not adjust for parallax error until you actually press the shutter release half way (or the back focus button if you use that instead). So to see it in its correct spot, you have to do this, and THEN do it again to focus using that exact frame. So focusing then become a 2 step process (unless you estimate where the frame will appear, as has been suggested). On the other hand, focusing using the EVF is always a 1 step process. Press half way and it focuses where your focus point is. Nothing needs to be calculated because there won't be any parallax error when using the EVF.

Being that the EVFs have gotten much better over the years, it seems that there really is much less need for the OVF at all. When I owned the X100 I preferred using it as the view through EVFs in those days was just not very good.

If I could afford a Leica Q2, I wouldn't be in this forum.