sdQ/H at night... omg... :)

[danski0224]

Well, I thought it would come out bad, but it is quite the opposite.

It was a little windy, so that sucked.

The whole thing is just ever slightly out of focus. I don't know if it is due to the wind or if the lens did not focus properly.

Attempting to manually focus was hopeless as the review image was blurry, so I had to trust the auto focus... which can be an issue. Lens used was the 70mm Art macro. I will have to try again with a different lens.

I took a similar series, after sunrise, with the same lens and similar wind conditions (same outing), and that came out OK.

Would not have had any issues with the fp-l for the same shot (unless it is wind related).

13 image panorama, done with OOC jpeg files, reduced to under 30k pixels wide, then reduced to 3k pixels for here.




sdQ/H and 70mm macro, portrait panorama. 13 images.



--
Moments in Time, a work in progress.... https://www.flickr.com/gp/142423236@N08/965cs3

 

[D Cox]

Maybe take a small torch and your reading glasses and use the distance scale on the lens ?

 

[danski0224]

I know that the lens will have an infinity indicator, but I have found that it isn't really accurate to go by. A tiny bit either way is out of focus, and an electronic focus lens does not, in my experience, have a hard stop.

It is obvious when reviewing at 8x magnification that a tiny twist of the focus ring can make a big difference. Even with the fp-l, I have to use illuminated signs to judge focus because the building edges do not normally show up enough for the zebra patterns to work. Unfortunately, the Quattro is significantly worse with focus aids in the same conditions, IMHO.

I have had success using the infinity stop on my manual Pentax 645 lenses.

--
Moments in Time, a work in progress.... https://www.flickr.com/gp/142423236@N08/965cs3

 

[xpatUSA2]

I have had success using the infinity stop on my manual Pentax 645 lenses.

I've read that older manual lenses with the hard stop are accurate enough for most purposes and that many electronic lenses go over infinity to aid auto-focus ... hard stop or not.

All my M42 lenses Zeiss, Helios, Asahi) seem to be good and I do subscribe to Merklinger's views about focusing at infinity:

DOF Revisited

http://www.trenholm.org/hmmerk/TIAOOFe.pdf

 

[danski0224]

I've read that older manual lenses with the hard stop are accurate enough for most purposes and that many electronic lenses go over infinity to aid auto-focus ... hard stop or not.

All my M42 lenses Zeiss, Helios, Asahi) seem to be good and I do subscribe to Merklinger's views about focusing at infinity:

http://www.trenholm.org/hmmerk/DOFR.html

http://www.trenholm.org/hmmerk/TIAOOFe.pdf

I'll have to look at those. I am inclined to suspect wind resonance on the tripod. The shot taken later had much shorter exposure times and are in focus.

I probably need to pack the wood tripod next time.

 

[Scottelly]

I've read that older manual lenses with the hard stop are accurate enough for most purposes and that many electronic lenses go over infinity to aid auto-focus ... hard stop or not.

All my M42 lenses Zeiss, Helios, Asahi) seem to be good and I do subscribe to Merklinger's views about focusing at infinity:

http://www.trenholm.org/hmmerk/DOFR.html

http://www.trenholm.org/hmmerk/TIAOOFe.pdf

I'll have to look at those. I am inclined to suspect wind resonance on the tripod. The shot taken later had much shorter exposure times and are in focus.

I probably need to pack the wood tripod next time.

Here's my two cents worth.

8x magnification for manual focusing works great at night, when there are points of light in the scene, because you can focus on them by moving the focus ring until they are as small as you can get them. One way to manual focus at infinity is to auto-focus in the daytime on somthing far away (such as a distant building), and shoot a photo of it. Note where the focus is on the focus ring (maybe even mark with something, such as a piece of tape). Later, when it's dark, you can set the lens to that exact same point, and if you got the focus right in the daytime it will be right in the nightime.

Are there times when there is no wind? Shooting at such a time would be a good way to fix the problem.

I've shot my SD Quattro H several times at the beach at night (but maybe on still nights). Some of the exposures were as much as 30 seconds long. It can work well. Sorry I don't have an example image for you. Maybe I'll go shoot a city scene with my 70mm f2.8 EX macro on my SD Quattro H tonight, and let you know how it goes. I might even shoot some BTS video, and post that for you to see how I do it. I have a battery powered work light that I can use to light up the scene, so you can see what's going on in the video.

 

[danski0224]

The big issue was that the stuff in the viewfinder was mushy, for lack of a better description. Even the lights or signage or illuminated windows. Live view looked bad but when the photo review screen popped up, it looked good.

I have noticed the same sort of thing with the fp-l, away from some sort of illuminated object to focus on, just not as bad.

Just have to try again.

 

[digi2ap]

Could be worth trying with the focus peaking?

 

[danski0224]

Focus peaking doesn't work in dim conditions. I have it set "on".

 

[Scottelly]

Focus peaking doesn't work in dim conditions. I have it set "on".

I've never had good luck with focus peaking, so I don't even try to use it anymore. I find the 8x magnified view to be best. I'm surprised it didn't work for you. Do you move the focus point around, so one of the distant lights is in the center of the x8 view, when using it? That's what I do, and it seems to work quite well. It should not look blurry. BTW, when I am shooting at night I use all manual settings (manual ISO set to 100, manual shutter speed, and manual aperture, set wide open, when I am focusing). I even use manual white balance settings (all the time - not just at night).

I can imagine that the wind could have been causing your blur in 8x magnified view. If there is any movement of the camera that will cause the view through the viewfinder or on the rear screen to be blurred, and that situation is just magnified with 8x magnified view.

 

[sattva]

Well, I thought it would come out bad, but it is quite the opposite.

Indeed! Quite impressive actually!

It was a little windy, so that sucked.

The whole thing is just ever slightly out of focus. I don't know if it is due to the wind or if the lens did not focus properly.

Attempting to manually focus was hopeless as the review image was blurry, so I had to trust the auto focus... which can be an issue. Lens used was the 70mm Art macro. I will have to try again with a different lens.

The DOF calculations and corresponding chart for the lens will get you sorted...and no need to look in the viewfinder too! [The blur due to wind and tripod shake has to be addressed separately.]

13 image panorama, done with OOC jpeg files, reduced to under 30k pixels wide, then reduced to 3k pixels for here.


sdQ/H and 70mm macro, portrait panorama. 13 images.

I would very much like to see the higher resolution photograph...it is quite something!

Thank you for sharing and best regards,

Sattva

 

[Roger]

Well, I thought it would come out bad, but it is quite the opposite.

It was a little windy, so that sucked.

The whole thing is just ever slightly out of focus. I don't know if it is due to the wind or if the lens did not focus properly.

Attempting to manually focus was hopeless as the review image was blurry, so I had to trust the auto focus... which can be an issue. Lens used was the 70mm Art macro. I will have to try again with a different lens.

I took a similar series, after sunrise, with the same lens and similar wind conditions (same outing), and that came out OK.

Would not have had any issues with the fp-l for the same shot (unless it is wind related).

13 image panorama, done with OOC jpeg files, reduced to under 30k pixels wide, then reduced to 3k pixels for here.


sdQ/H and 70mm macro, portrait panorama. 13 images.

Greetings

I think it's really good. I see no issues with the image.

Enjoy

Roger J.