Manual Focus Lenses and focusing/ liveview/ focuspeaking

[mo]

I guess this question could go here or in the DSLR section but my camera is the K-01.

I took the K-01 out with Angenieux 28/3.5 attached.I know its an old lens with bad coating and it is a pain to focus with, even when it was on the K200D and I was using its viewfinder.
I took the Angenieux out as I wanted to try a few landscape images and was totally devastated with my lack of ability to clearly see what was in focus when looking at the back screen of the K-01.I just could not see the detail in the screen it was too dark.I mean it was hard to separate the shadow from the subject...all the fine details you can usually see when taking a photo looking through a viewfinder. It was a cloudy/dull winter day and I guess that does not help ...I was looking for that sort of mood that's why I was out with the camera.

I could focus close up or take basic flower shots using the back screen with other lenses.But found not being able to see the back screen when just taking a "normal" image frustrated me.I am still getting used to the K-01 and have tried a few settings in camera to help the situation (bump up the brightness of the screen...that did not help)....so I am still in the New camera learning curve.

My question is this, those of you who have only the back screen of the camera as the focusing aid,should I be able to use just the back screen in this situation on a cloudy dull day or should I look into getting another focusing aid?.... OR am I purely just going through a learning curve and not worry too much at this time?

Do different lenses on the camera make viewing with a back screen easier or harder? Thanks for any thoughts or experiences.

I do think I need to try another lens in the same conditions other than the Angenieux and compare notes.

[Aanything]

obviously the relatively low light and (i suppose) low contrast from the lens make the focusing even more challenging.
All the focusing aids (focus peaking, magnified view) are useful, but there are light conditions in which the screen is just too hard to see.
For these situations, on my nex, I use this Click here to see on Ebay: it's great because it's cheap, it eliminates reflections and annoying ambient light, and also magnifies the screen, so it's a great help.
I don't know if there's one for the k01 as well, but I've seen many for many models, and also some "universal" ones.

[mo]

Thanks,it is good to know it was not just me or the lens (it does suffer from low contrast but the detail it captures is why I persevere) I do know there is an aid out there for the K-01, someone linked to one in another post that I will have to find again..

[miran]

Does your camera have focus peaking and magnified view? Is the "sensitivity" adjustable? I find that often when using lenses that have low contrast and/or sharpness I need to bump up the focus peaking level on my NEX. And vice versa. When there's a lot of contrast I need to turn it down for it to be useful. Also more often than not it is necessary to use magnified veiw for precise focusing, especially when you don't have a lot of separation between the subject and background.

[Rick1779]

I usually use only the lcd with focus peaking and magnified view and I don't have problems with them, it happens sometimes that I have to set the lcd brightness to "sunny day" on the nex to see better

[cooltouch]

My Canon doesn't have focus peaking (that's only on the NEX, right?), but it does have Live View. One of the things I like about it is it boosts the image in low-light situations so it is legible in the viewfinder, although things can get really noisy if it is a very dim image. But in order to view it like this, I must set the camera in Aperture Priority mode. Have you tried setting your camera to different exposure options, see if this makes a difference in the way the screen displays the image?

[Lloydy]

On the NEX you can change the focus peaking colour, which I do quite often as light conditions change. I generally use red, sometimes yellow and very occasionally white. Doing that I get by in most situations.

[mo]

Thank you all so much...I have to get acquainted with my settings a little better.The K-01 does have focus peaking, as far as I can tell you can only have it with white as the color for the outline...that did not help in my situation.

You have given me a few things to check in my manual to see if the K-01 has the equivalent of what is being mentioned.In the settings there is an option called "Quick zoom" it has the options x2,x4,x8,x16 I will turn this on and see what happens. I will work my way through your suggestions and get back to you with what I find out.

[Attila]

Click here to see on Ebay