NormanTheGr8 Loc: Racine, Wisconsin

I use FoCal also and love it

therwol Loc: USA

I prefered a microprism screen like the J screen on the Nikon F. You need a straight line to focus on with a split image focusing aid. I would always have to tilt the camera to focus on an eyelid. Some subjects just didn't have a straight line in them.

JD750 Loc: SoCal

Thanks that is good info! My legacy SLR had a microprism focus circle. I liked it. I have little experience with the split view focus tool. Some say it is more accurate. But your info definitely puts a * by that claim.

therwol Loc: USA

Just to mention this, the "split image" finders in rangefinder cameras are quite different. They show two images of the whole scene, and as you focus, they converge and diverge. When one is superimposed over the other exactly, the image will be in focus. I have an old Crown Graphic press camera I haven't used in years. The rangefinder had to be calibrated to the lens being used in two ways. Different focal length lenses used different cams that moved the lever on the rangefinder. You also had to make sure that the lens board locked in place in exactly the right spot on the focusing rails. There were little stops on the rails that you pulled the lens board against before locking it in place. Those little stops could be moved. This is actually analogous to fine tuning the focus of a lens on a modern DSLR, though quite different in execution. You could compare the rangefinder results with the results on the ground glass back. You know, the kind you use with a black cloth over your head. Those were the days (For me. I know a lot of people still use large format cameras.)

JD750 Loc: SoCal

This is great information. Thank you for that detailed explanation. I have not used that method but your well detailed example gives me the understanding of how it works. Yes I was thinking before I read it, similar to a modern autofocus tuning system. Technology changes but the fundamental basic elements that are important, do not change. Focusing is and will always be, one of those basic elements.

And Technology is marching forward, as happened with technologies in the past, mirrorless format is now muscling DSLR format out of the mainstream.

MauiMoto Loc: Hawaii

We have live view for that.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

I love my mirrorless (Fuji) Camera also, but not because it’s mirrorless, because it’s N excellent small camera with high quality optics. Took well less than an hour for a one-time calibration of 8 lenses on my DSLR - not very exhausting.

JD750 Loc: SoCal

A few but not all DSLRs have WYSIWYG live view. Count yourself lucky if you do.

But I still give advantage to the EVF over live view because I don’t have to contend with ambient light, like bright sunlight for example, when looking thru my EVF. So live live view is good if you have it, but not as good as live EVF.

JD750 Loc: SoCal

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