One of the many subjects I enjoy photographing are automobiles and motorcycles.
Twice a year here in Paris there is a large gathering of cars and bikes. In trying to capture the overall atmosphere of the event I like to photograph the vehicles at rest and in motion.
Over the years I've become somewhat dependant on autofocus when working with cars moving on the road. I thought I'd lost the ability to accurately track a vehicle and come away with a very sharp image.
However, I've noticed that sometimes an AF lens will lock on to something that I don't want. For instance the AF system can lock onto the foreground or background, particularly if the subject's contrast is lower than the surrounding area. This has happened to me even when I set an AF point (such as center) to try and limit the AF to "seeing" the subject.
This mis-focus state happens surprisingly often and after some car events I have found many images that were less than sharp where I intended it to be. It didn't matter if I used a DSLR or a mirrorless camera.
Which got me to thinking about trying old manual focus lenses and learning to work with my Sony mirrorless cameras "focus peaking" function. It would take practice and these car events happen only twice a year. Practicing on cars driving on the street outside of these events is problematic as people here don't like their picture taken and will call the police. I'd have to just jump in and see what I could do during la traversee de Paris itself.
Fortunately I had a glimpse of what might be possible when I photographed vintage automobiles in front of les Invalides. As some of the cars were in motion I snapped a few images while trying to keep the "focus peaking" properly over the subject. It was a little complicated because those old 35mm film days muscle memories of focusing on race cars had atrophied. But I came away with enough very sharp images that I was rather happy.
A month later I found myself snapping photos of quickly moving cars on la place de la Concorde. My setup was a Sony A6000 camera, a Lens Turbo II focal reducer, and a lovely Nikon Nikkor 85mm f/1.8 K pre-Ai lens. The focal length of the lens seemed to be about "right" for reaching out and capturing images of event participants. Interesting cars were coming from all directions and I worked the manual focus ring like a madman trying get the right "focus peaking".
Once I got home and was able to review the outcome I realized I lost perhaps 5 of the hundreds I took due to the lack of critical sharpness! And two slightly out of focus images I was really interested in keeping were easily sharpened up using a "smart sharpen" function during image processing. That "hit rate" far exceeds anything I've ever experienced with AF lenses. It didn't matter if I shot the 85mm at f/5.6 (where there is a bit of depth of field) or wide open (where I really need to "nail" the focus to keep things sharp).
I'm pleasantly surprised and the outcome pleases me. I can feel those old muscle memories about how to work manual focus lenses in quickly changing situations coming back. It's a good feeling.
But it brings a question: Why am I _still_ wrangling over what to take to Nice during the winter? You see, there will be a Carnival there and it will be yet another quickly changing environment. For whatever reason I'm still a bit worried about taking my old Nikkors in place of the AF optics. What to do? Fortunately I have a few months to sort it all out.
Twice a year here in Paris there is a large gathering of cars and bikes. In trying to capture the overall atmosphere of the event I like to photograph the vehicles at rest and in motion.
Over the years I've become somewhat dependant on autofocus when working with cars moving on the road. I thought I'd lost the ability to accurately track a vehicle and come away with a very sharp image.
However, I've noticed that sometimes an AF lens will lock on to something that I don't want. For instance the AF system can lock onto the foreground or background, particularly if the subject's contrast is lower than the surrounding area. This has happened to me even when I set an AF point (such as center) to try and limit the AF to "seeing" the subject.
This mis-focus state happens surprisingly often and after some car events I have found many images that were less than sharp where I intended it to be. It didn't matter if I used a DSLR or a mirrorless camera.
Which got me to thinking about trying old manual focus lenses and learning to work with my Sony mirrorless cameras "focus peaking" function. It would take practice and these car events happen only twice a year. Practicing on cars driving on the street outside of these events is problematic as people here don't like their picture taken and will call the police. I'd have to just jump in and see what I could do during la traversee de Paris itself.
Fortunately I had a glimpse of what might be possible when I photographed vintage automobiles in front of les Invalides. As some of the cars were in motion I snapped a few images while trying to keep the "focus peaking" properly over the subject. It was a little complicated because those old 35mm film days muscle memories of focusing on race cars had atrophied. But I came away with enough very sharp images that I was rather happy.
A month later I found myself snapping photos of quickly moving cars on la place de la Concorde. My setup was a Sony A6000 camera, a Lens Turbo II focal reducer, and a lovely Nikon Nikkor 85mm f/1.8 K pre-Ai lens. The focal length of the lens seemed to be about "right" for reaching out and capturing images of event participants. Interesting cars were coming from all directions and I worked the manual focus ring like a madman trying get the right "focus peaking".
Once I got home and was able to review the outcome I realized I lost perhaps 5 of the hundreds I took due to the lack of critical sharpness! And two slightly out of focus images I was really interested in keeping were easily sharpened up using a "smart sharpen" function during image processing. That "hit rate" far exceeds anything I've ever experienced with AF lenses. It didn't matter if I shot the 85mm at f/5.6 (where there is a bit of depth of field) or wide open (where I really need to "nail" the focus to keep things sharp).
I'm pleasantly surprised and the outcome pleases me. I can feel those old muscle memories about how to work manual focus lenses in quickly changing situations coming back. It's a good feeling.
But it brings a question: Why am I _still_ wrangling over what to take to Nice during the winter? You see, there will be a Carnival there and it will be yet another quickly changing environment. For whatever reason I'm still a bit worried about taking my old Nikkors in place of the AF optics. What to do? Fortunately I have a few months to sort it all out.
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