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Manual Focus lenses on modern bodies?

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Anyone have any interest in manual focus lenses for modern bodies?

Voigtlander has some new lenses coming out that are fully manual, but report EXIF data back to the camera which is pretty sweet.
https://www.dpreview.com/news/2396798242/cosina-announces-development-of-three-voigtlander-e-mount-lenses
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Sitwon
277
Mar 29, 2018
I recently found a vintage lens in a thrift store for $8. Paid another $30 for a mount adapter. Ended up with a $38 fully-manual lens which has been a lot of fun. Now that I've tried it, I'm looking at what other cheap, manual lenses I can get.
I was initially apprehensive about the difficulty of manually focusing, but I found that it's not nearly as difficult as I had feared. Fuji provides some very helpful focus assist modes. Notably, you can zoom the center of the frame to easily check your focus, or use focus peaking highlights to show a colored fringe on the focused edges in your frame.
I really got lucky with this lens. The colors are just slightly flat compared to native glass, but the test shots I've taken look every bit as sharp as my Fuji lenses.
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giolee88
33
Jun 1, 2017
Focus peaking makes for a great focusing aid. Before that came around, I would pine for ways to add focusing screens to dslr bodies.
That being said, with the lenses I've tried, I've noticed that my results need to be punched up in post processing a bit more than images shot through modern lenses, because the coatings these days are better.
tmcarr
78
Jun 1, 2017
giolee88Totally agree.
BF_Hammer
717
Feb 27, 2017
Speaking as somebody who has bought a Nikkor 500mm reflex lens from the 1980s (which is a fully manual lens), I think it is actually more difficult to use these lenses on modern DSLR bodies than it was to use them on film cameras back in the day. I bought the "Dandelion" chip which can convert manual lenses to work with "A" mode auto-exposure, and give focus confirmation. I can say that having the auto-exposure work with any Nikon auto-exposure body is an awesome thing, but the modern cameras are harder to adjust focus manually than old bodies. The viewfinders in old cameras had split-prism viewfinders to assist with focus, while new bodies just have a focus confirmation box that appears, or else a little dot on the bottom of the viewfinder that turns on when you are focused on the selected box. It just is more fiddling-around where it was sort of easy to do with an old split-prism.
Modern camera bodies are built for autofocus lenses and vintage bodies are built to handle manual-focus lenses better. Just how it is.
tmcarr
78
Feb 27, 2017
A lot actually.
1. I can zoom in on the frame in real time to focus on exactly what I want. 2. There is a feature called "Focus Peaking" that draws a colored line where your depth of field starts and ends to help you place it where you want. It looks like this: http://byrdphoto.com/blogimages/2012/focus_peaking.jpg
Note that these features are not possible on a conventional DSLR due to the mirror blocking the sensor.
Vira
4117
Feb 28, 2017
Give it a try if you ever get chance, the focus peaking as tmcarr has said will help on mirrorless. Also EVFs are greatly improving, especially with fuji and sony which you may want to test out alongside manual lens.
Vira
4117
Feb 26, 2017
Certainly am! Manual lens are a joy to use and quite the learning curve too if one is too used to the auto focus system. Currently playing around with a retro remake of a classic old lens. The Petzval58, fantastic portrait lens to play and get creative with.
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I rarely look at the EXIF data for my photos as I remember what I used, but I understand its handy to have for many, since the current way requires manual or plugins to add the data, so Voigtlander stepping in the right direction for manual lens. Just hoping the new release are fairly priced like all their other lenses.
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