Focus peaking - worth having?

I find I can rely on it for nailing the focal point, but I don't necessarily rely on it for judging overall DOF.

As implemented by Sony pain to set up for different scenarios and only marginally useful. Combined with focus mag it can be very precise. I usually have FP disabled on my camera.

Tim Crammond said:

I find I can rely on it for nailing the focal point, but I don't necessarily rely on it for judging overall DOF.

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What camera do you use with it Tim?

As far as I know there has never been a proper review of focus peaking systems and we tend to talk about them as if they are all the same. The same they are not. I have seen enough to know that they are not the same but not enough to be able to evaluate them as a general system.

For example the Sony Focus peaking (early version but I don’t think they have ever improved upon it) at its worst “ink blot” (everything (almost) peaked literally drowns the dof.

At its “find the flicker” extreme we are lucky to even find “a peak” let alone have it evidence enough to show any sign of what the dof is doing.

In between these extremes the Sony FP system works well enough.

Other systems vary a bit along similar lines, but not so much at the extremes as Sony. A good FP system should be capable of showing dof clearly but not enough to drown the screen in an ink blot of peaks.

Of course clear dof makes it harder to see point of precise focus - that is where the unique Ricoh Mode2 edge-enhanced system worked its wonders - dof indication and precise point of focus in one screen (judged by sharpness of the outlines). Mode1 was more conventional but showed dof flicker precisely. Of course the GXR-M was specifically made for MF lenses only and just had to have great focus peaking.

Being a Sony man in their first days of peaking I remember the statements “best peaking system”. Being simultaneously a Ricoh GXR-M man who also used Ricoh’s two modes of focus peaking at the same time I had to smother a smile.

That some have said that they prefer to use magnified screen alone rather than peaking assist is both a tribute to their eyesight and technique as it is a verdict on the lack of accurate peaking definition of the peaking system that they are using.

If anyone knows of a comprehensive test of the various focus peaking systems that have been offered I would be very pleased to see a link to it.

To this day I still wonder why no other company has gone the edge-enhanced focus peaking route. I can only imagine that FP was one of those features that every ML camera had to have and that once provided (any FP will do) it has never been important enough to be further refined.

scrane said:

As implemented by Sony pain to set up for different scenarios and only marginally useful. Combined with focus mag it can be very precise. I usually have FP disabled on my camera.

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I have just commented on this:

https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/64587792

The crazy demand for AF lenses and the rush by manufacturers to lock in users to their patent mount systems by providing ever better AF systems means that the bulk of the customers and all the manufacturers minds are fully in synchronisation.

AF is king and once we have provided some sort of FP for the fringe users we need do no more. Lack of refined FP has never lost a camera body sale. Just ask Sony.

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Tom Caldwell