busmaster2 Loc: College Point NY

While most of my lenses are auto focus, I find it just as fast to manual focus. I have a couple of native e mounts that focus fast enough under the right conditions I always feel that there's something missing from the process when I let the camera do most of the work. I like the tactile feel of turning the focus ring, adjusting the various settings, and getting things "just so". My a77 is very fast focusing and for that reason I use it for the few times things are moving fast. But even so, and using the laea4 adapter in the a7ii, I always go back to manually focusing my Minolta lenses. Just my thoughts.

A100 with Sony 70-300 (the cheap one)

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carl hervol Loc: jacksonville florida

I agree.

busmaster2 Loc: College Point NY

That's the longest pipe I've ever seen anyone smoking!

ebbote Loc: Hockley, Texas

Very good Busmaster.

rdmesser2 Loc: Central Florida

I only use manual focus for stars and moon. Camera works better than my eyes. It gets harder to see to focus manually every year. Still use it on my film camera but not always the best. Age will make you appreciate auto focus.

carl hervol Loc: jacksonville florida

If you are referring to my picture it is some kind of horn .

carl hervol Loc: jacksonville florida

I'm 72 and still use manual focus.

busmaster2 Loc: College Point NY

I'm 65 and still do as well. As far as the horn goes it's just that you look so mellow I was wondering how big a bowl that thing had and what you were smoking😅.

I have a few old Zeiss lenses that I wouldn't trade for anything. The 180 2.8 sonnar is a beast but what pictures it produces. It's only single coated and meant for medium format, but wow!
Despite all the hoopla about the newest equipment between those Zeiss and minoltas I can't think of any reason to get anything new. Great glass is just...

Nikonian72 Loc: Chico CA

Absolutely!

charles brown Loc: Tennesse

My hands and eyes can't work as fast as auto focus anymore.

SharpShooter Loc: NorCal

Bus, I can't figure out why people come on here and make/boast those kinds of claims. Sure, if you use gobs of DoF and only chase bugs or do still-life, sure you can get away with that sort of stuff. But like all the manual proponents, it's always pretty easy to spot the slow shooters, they make those claims, like its a superior way to shoot. It's not. It's pretty obvious many have never shot with super fast lenses wide open or you would know that it's virtually impossible to focus manual unless you're using LV at high magnification.
It's ok to shoot anyway you want whether it works or not, just don't come on here making high and mighty proclamations like it's a good or the best way to shoot when it's not. So what if you prefer it, the reason pretty much every working pro immediately embraced AF is because there is absolutely no way a human can manually focus as quickly and accurately as a contrast detecting system.
Just because it works for you doesn't mean it works better.
If you use old manual lenses then you have no choice but there's a reason that they aren't worth anything and are a dime a dozen....., nobody that can afford real lenses doesn't use manuals anymore!!!! ;-)
SS

busmaster2 Loc: College Point NY

That's probably true for me, yet I can't quite get used to the idea of the camera focusing for me. I find myself double checking. Granted my cameras have focus peaking which makes it much easier...you could be almost be blind and still get things right.. (God forbid!!)

Basil Loc: New Mexico

My old Canon T-70 had a split-image focus screen in the view finder that would assist in manual focusing. An edge of the subject being focused on would be miss-aligned when out of focus. You would just focus the lens until the split image was in alignment. It made manual focus pretty easy. I miss that feature on my digital camera.

carl hervol Loc: jacksonville florida

I have the nikon 70/200 2/8 vr2 and i still use manual

Peterff Loc: O'er The Hills and Far Away, in Themyscira.

I don't see the problem here. Like many I learned with manual focus systems. Now I have digital auto focus systems, but I also have some old manual focus lenses adapted to my DSLR.

I enjoy and relish the manual focus lenses, they are very good for some things, and better than autofocus for a few things. However the modern autofocus lenses are the things I pack as standard equipment. The manual focus lenses are for sloooow days!

Pick the tools for the task at hand and go do it.

Why is there a debate about this?