It"s been very helpful. I love manual focus but for real today I received my first vintage, manual lens a Tokina 135 f2.8, and now I saw the real difference. It is a fantastic lens on my D750 and I am amazed by results. Thank You for the video
Thank you for your kind words Gabriel - much appreciated! I have the Tokina 100mm macro lens, and in terms of value for money, not many lenses comes close. Hope the 135 will serve you well!
Dear Frederick, I have the following combo- D750+50f1.8+24-70f2.8 AND a dumbo. Thank you for explaining things slowly and practically. My confidence has stepped up. Many thanks- Jacob, India.
Very useful indeed. I’m starting to shoot with manual lens. It is great fun but I leaned that I have to skilfully press the shutter button or use short shutter speed in order to get sharp image. Thank you for sharing.
Glad I found you! I just bought a used 55mm 2.8 macro lens for my D750 and was having a little trouble used to the manual focus...this video really helps me. THANKS
EXCELLENT! EXCELLENT VIDEO! I have never used the Range Finder of Nikon cameras until I have viewed your video... Yesterday, I did a flower 🌹 shoot and I was amazed of the results... I have used a tripod, a focus rail and a remote shutter release. I did the Manual Focus with one hand while holding the Remote Shutter Release button depressed half way depressed....The Focus Rail allowed me to move front to back...AWESOME! Thanks for the video...This video is NOT only for beginners...Thank You Very Much...😎🦠😷🇺🇸
if I am using a none AF Lens no need to change the positon of AF/M on my camera, focusing ring is allready free to move, only AF lensesI have to change the position on my Lens to mke the focusing ring free
Hello hello Frederik...Great video...! Good to see, how others use their cameras. Tip:...At 4:00: The focusing triangles point the way you need to turn the Focus ring. (Eye - Left hand coordination)
Hi Jakob, good to hear from you again! Thanks for the tip! You are absolutely right - you can see the arrows as simply showing which way to turn the focus ring. I guess this is a simpler way to remember it than the movement of the focal plane! Great input :-D
Thanks for the video. As you mentioned, AF is indispensable for wildlife and sports, but when I'm out on the street or taking artistic photos, I really prefer MF. One problem with newer lenses though, is that they aren't very pleasing for manual focus and can be difficult to adjust in small increments. I'm also definitely not a fan of MF on mirrorless - those cameras are built for AF, and do a good job in that regard. Regarding the circle/triangle focus assist indicator in the viewfinder, I interpret it as follows: < left arrow means "turn the focus ring to the left (anticlockwise). > right arrow means "turn the focus ring to the right (clockwise).
Than you for sharing! Yes, MF can be a blessing! The AF on my ML with the 105 macro lens seems to love focusing on the background- so even here I find MF useful from time to time.
Thank you for this video - really helpful. I have found that sometimes the white dot between the two pointers flickers wildly and I find it difficult to hold it still when turning the lens. How can I stop this happening as presumably the focus in the shot will not be 100% accurate, thank you. Stu
Hi Stu, in my experience the focus dot flickers flickers when you are very close to perfect focus. So you'll probably see that it jumps back and forth between the dot and one of the arrows. Just be patient and turn the focus ring a little more (or move the camera a bit back or forth). Another case is when there is too little contrast in the scene - try to move the focus point to a something that has stark contrast ie the transition from light to dark happens very abruptly. Hope this helps! Best Frederik
Great content, thank you. I have a little tip that I find very useful in some circumstances and that is the ability to use focus peeking. When I say focus peeking, it‘s a very basic form! If you go into the effects mode and go to the colour sketch mode it gives you the focus peeking highlighted areas. Find your focus, simply flick back to manual and take your photo. It’s not ideal and a bit fiddly but it works and I’ve found it very useful on some occasions.
Hi Garry - Thanks for the tip! Assume you then shoot in live view to get the real time effect? And that you also shoot in raw so you can remove the effect in post processing?
frederikboving hi Frederik, I don’t use this method all the time by yes basically obtain focus in live view using the effects mode in color sketch and when I’ve found fucus using the peeking that appears I move my settings back to manual mode and then take the shot as normal. As I say it’s a little bit fiddly but so much easier when on a tripod. It does work really well when it’s difficult to use the viewfinder to get focus. Give it a go 👍
Ah! Got it! Did not think of moving back to manual mode after obtaining focus. Yes, that will work, and yes I think "a third hand" (= tripod) is useful so you don't move the camera after obtaining focus. Once again, thanks for the tip!
frederikboving hi Frederik I forgot to mention that I use back button focus so my shutter button is deactivated from focus, if you don’t use back button focus you’ll need to make sure your camera is set to manual focus to deactivate the af when back in manual mode.
Good video useful when you start with manual lenses. I love to shoot manual lenses and as I travel a lot there are build like a tank compair to new plastic lenses with such a good image quality. I started with the 50mm f/1.4 AI Then bought two of the 135mm f/2.8 AI And wide angle with my 28mm f/2.8 AI-S I live those manual lenses it gives you more feeling and passion for what you’re photographing you take the time
thank you for the effort and the sharing. do you ever use manual focus using the D750's live view? if so, there does not appear to be any focus confirmation in the lower left corner. the only way to get focus is via looking at the rear lcd screen to "see" if you are in focus. the + button on the lower left of the D750 will jump to a closer view of the intended subject but still, there is no focus confirmation in live view. has that been your experience. again, thanks. thumbs up.
Hi, I have tried to focus manually as well after reading your post and I have reached the same conclusion: no focus confirmation dot in the bottom left of the screen. I think it is because the focus system requires the mirror to be down in order to work, so in live view mode it cannot operate as the mirror is up. I have also tried to hit the "info" button many times and you get many options, but unfortunately not a focus dot. I guess the best option is as you write to zoom in via the "+" button (you can go CRAZY close) and use the zoomed view to obtain focus.
OMG thank you Sir! I have been trying to manually focus base on my seeing (90% misses) or using the live view (precise but slow and inconvenient). Only now I know what those < o > symbols are about! Thanks a zillion!
Hi Daniel, do you mean compatible with the F-mount? In that case, stay clear of pre-AI lenses at it should work. You can see the history of Nikon lenses here: www.dpreview.com/articles/6287665194/understanding-old-nikon-lenses-ai-ai-s-af-and-af-s
@@danielfraga Daniel, no worries, please keep the questions coming. I am sure we can communicate well if we give it a try - my Portuguese is not that good either :-D
Uh, I always get sweaty palms when I read about the installation of the K3! I know it is probably easy and not that dangerous, but my appetite is currently limited for such operation.
@@frederikboving The key is knowing exactly how to do it! Unfortunately the only way to know is to do it! The instructions are very vague .. But very easy on the D7100. The D750 was a different kettle of fish. - It is actually very simple, but you need to know exactly how to use the tool. I scratched the original screen on my first attempt :-( A new 'original' screen is now on the way to me, in case I ever need to take out the K3 screen. Oh, by the way, if you want to use your DK-17M on your D750 I can post you a NEPS1 adapter. I have acquired a bunch of them. It is a perfect solution, but the fit is not as secure as the official eye-piece. However, thin strips of black tape wrapped around the perimeter of the NEPS1 keep it firmly in place.
@@snoogly Thank you Snoogly! It is very kind of you. I currently have my DK-17M on my D700 and I have just ordered one more and that is intended for my D4 (on its way). So I think I will stick with that setup for now, but thank you for the offer.
Is this the lens you've got: www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/28mm-f28-afd.htm? It is very important that the lens has an "AF" in its name or that you can see the little head from the mechanical autofocus on the rear of the lens. If that is the case, then the answer is yes. The D800 has an AF motor built into it, so if your lens has mechanical auto focus, then you will have AF with the D800. Hope this helps.
I’m no expert, but I added a vintage zoom Sigma 100-300 f/4.5-6.7 to experiment - In Non-CPU lens data, I set focal length at 100mm, maximum aperture F6.3 and it works perfectly👌
Right. I think neutral position is around 2 o'clock, so that the little white line that breaks the arch points in that direction. The manual page 29 shows what I think is neutral position.
Hi, I think Ken Rockwell has all the answers for you: www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/50mm-f12-sharpness.htm There are lenses you need and lenses you want! This one I just wanted :-D
I didn't know that old non-CPU Nikkor lenses could provide ALL metadata, especially aperture, from Nikon bodies to Capture-One, Lightroom… This I believe is important. As an amateur/rookie/beginner you start accumulating and accumulating photos on your Hard Drives and all that metadata probably will help you a little sorting things out. It is very frustrating when you like a photo you have taken and you do not know, for example, its aperture, which is what happens when you put old Nikkor lenses on Fuji bodies with an dumb adapter.
Hi Mateu, good to hear from you! Yes, of you set up the non-CPU vintage lens on your D750 you can get the aperture and focal length as part of the EXIF information. But only if it is a prime. For zoom lenses it cannot give the focal length unfortunately. But I know you prefer primes, so that is less of an issue for you :-D And agreed - EXIF information is gold when sorting your pictures.
Another mistake I made: don't consider buying vintage M42/Minolta/Yashica-Contax… lenses with the goal of dumbly adapting them to your FX camera. Because of the distance between the flange and the FX sensor, as far as I know, all these lenses cannot focus to infinity. Which makes them almost useless except for some minimal distances. If you want all focus range you need not a dumb and cheap adapter but another one with a corrective lens with the consequent loss of image quality. Luckily there are enough old good Nikkor glass out there.
@@frederikboving Thank you for the quick answer. It's weird I don't see it at all with few of my AIS lenses, I just see general area where focus points should be. As I don't have any AF lenses at the moment, does that maybe rely on previous AF settings being single point?
@lifter035 If your camera is in manual focus mode (MF) it should work. But let me test it and get back to you. Can you help me: does your AIS lens have CPU contacts?
This is the best video on manual focusing on the Nikon D750. Very detailed, great explanations, and extremely thorough.
Thank you jack!
Though I have had a D750 for a long, I never realised that the circle-triangle symbols for focussing manually. Useful video.
Thank you for sharing this and good 👍 to know the video was useful 👌
It"s been very helpful. I love manual focus but for real today I received my first vintage, manual lens a Tokina 135 f2.8, and now I saw the real difference. It is a fantastic lens on my D750 and I am amazed by results. Thank You for the video
Thank you for your kind words Gabriel - much appreciated! I have the Tokina 100mm macro lens, and in terms of value for money, not many lenses comes close. Hope the 135 will serve you well!
Dear Frederick, I have the following combo- D750+50f1.8+24-70f2.8 AND a dumbo. Thank you for explaining things slowly and practically. My confidence has stepped up. Many thanks- Jacob, India.
Thank you for your feedback Jacob! Great to hear that the videos helped you 👌 hope your confidence will continue to grow!
Thank you Sir!
Very useful indeed. I’m starting to shoot with manual lens. It is great fun but I leaned that I have to skilfully press the shutter button or use short shutter speed in order to get sharp image. Thank you for sharing.
Thank you Kenny - glad you found the video useful! Best of luck with manual focus!
Glad I found you! I just bought a used 55mm 2.8 macro lens for my D750 and was having a little trouble used to the manual focus...this video really helps me. THANKS
Thank you!
EXCELLENT! EXCELLENT VIDEO!
I have never used the Range Finder of Nikon cameras until I have viewed your video... Yesterday, I did a flower 🌹 shoot and I was amazed of the results... I have used a tripod, a focus rail and a remote shutter release. I did the Manual Focus with one hand while holding the Remote Shutter Release button depressed half way depressed....The Focus Rail allowed me to move front to back...AWESOME!
Thanks for the video...This video is NOT only for beginners...Thank You Very Much...😎🦠😷🇺🇸
Thank you MrTanker - glad the video was helpful and thank you so much for your positive feedback - it really appreciated !!
frederikboving My honour!😎😷🦠🇺🇸
I watched several vids and not one mentioned switching from AF to M on the camera body! You included a very important fact. Thank you.
if I am using a none AF Lens no need to change the positon of AF/M on my camera, focusing ring is allready free to move, only AF lensesI have to change the position on my Lens to mke the focusing ring free
Hello hello Frederik...Great video...! Good to see, how others use their cameras. Tip:...At 4:00: The focusing triangles point the way you need to turn the Focus ring. (Eye - Left hand coordination)
Hi Jakob, good to hear from you again! Thanks for the tip! You are absolutely right - you can see the arrows as simply showing which way to turn the focus ring. I guess this is a simpler way to remember it than the movement of the focal plane! Great input :-D
frederikboving Indeed! It makes a lot of sense knowing which direction to go versus guessing...😎😷🦠🇺🇸
Great content, thank you.
🙏🏻
Thanks for the video. As you mentioned, AF is indispensable for wildlife and sports, but when I'm out on the street or taking artistic photos, I really prefer MF. One problem with newer lenses though, is that they aren't very pleasing for manual focus and can be difficult to adjust in small increments. I'm also definitely not a fan of MF on mirrorless - those cameras are built for AF, and do a good job in that regard.
Regarding the circle/triangle focus assist indicator in the viewfinder, I interpret it as follows: < left arrow means "turn the focus ring to the left (anticlockwise). > right arrow means "turn the focus ring to the right (clockwise).
Than you for sharing! Yes, MF can be a blessing! The AF on my ML with the 105 macro lens seems to love focusing on the background- so even here I find MF useful from time to time.
Great video. Manual focus and verifying manual focus is a necessity for night photography (e.g. starry landscapes).
🙏🏻👍
Superbly explained, thanks
Glad you liked it
Great video, very well explained . Thank you so much
Thank you for your kind words! Much appreciated! Take care! 🙏
Great basic tips on manual focus - appreciate the help!
Thank you Gary - glad it was helpful!
Thank you for this video - really helpful. I have found that sometimes the white dot between the two pointers flickers wildly and I find it difficult to hold it still when turning the lens. How can I stop this happening as presumably the focus in the shot will not be 100% accurate, thank you. Stu
Hi Stu, in my experience the focus dot flickers flickers when you are very close to perfect focus. So you'll probably see that it jumps back and forth between the dot and one of the arrows. Just be patient and turn the focus ring a little more (or move the camera a bit back or forth). Another case is when there is too little contrast in the scene - try to move the focus point to a something that has stark contrast ie the transition from light to dark happens very abruptly. Hope this helps! Best Frederik
@@frederikboving Hi Frederik. Thank you for your reply, very helpful. Stu
Great content, thank you. I have a little tip that I find very useful in some circumstances and that is the ability to use focus peeking. When I say focus peeking, it‘s a very basic form! If you go into the effects mode and go to the colour sketch mode it gives you the focus peeking highlighted areas. Find your focus, simply flick back to manual and take your photo. It’s not ideal and a bit fiddly but it works and I’ve found it very useful on some occasions.
Hi Garry - Thanks for the tip! Assume you then shoot in live view to get the real time effect? And that you also shoot in raw so you can remove the effect in post processing?
frederikboving hi Frederik, I don’t use this method all the time by yes basically obtain focus in live view using the effects mode in color sketch and when I’ve found fucus using the peeking that appears I move my settings back to manual mode and then take the shot as normal. As I say it’s a little bit fiddly but so much easier when on a tripod. It does work really well when it’s difficult to use the viewfinder to get focus. Give it a go 👍
Ah! Got it! Did not think of moving back to manual mode after obtaining focus. Yes, that will work, and yes I think "a third hand" (= tripod) is useful so you don't move the camera after obtaining focus. Once again, thanks for the tip!
frederikboving hi Frederik I forgot to mention that I use back button focus so my shutter button is deactivated from focus, if you don’t use back button focus you’ll need to make sure your camera is set to manual focus to deactivate the af when back in manual mode.
Garry Murphy Noted. I also shoot with back button focus and assume the rest of the world does the same :-). Thanks for the tip once again Garry!
You save my life!!!!!very useful advise!!!
Thank you for your kind words! Much appreciated! Take care! 🙏
Good video useful when you start with manual lenses.
I love to shoot manual lenses and as I travel a lot there are build like a tank compair to new plastic lenses with such a good image quality.
I started with the 50mm f/1.4 AI
Then bought two of the 135mm f/2.8 AI
And wide angle with my 28mm f/2.8 AI-S
I live those manual lenses it gives you more feeling and passion for what you’re photographing you take the time
Hi Kurt and thank you for sharing! Agreed - manual lenses are more involving in the shooting process. And wow you got a collection of them!
thank you for the effort and the sharing. do you ever use manual focus using the D750's live view? if so, there does not appear to be any focus confirmation in the lower left corner. the only way to get focus is via looking at the rear lcd screen to "see" if you are in focus. the + button on the lower left of the D750 will jump to a closer view of the intended subject but still, there is no focus confirmation in live view. has that been your experience. again, thanks. thumbs up.
Hi, I have tried to focus manually as well after reading your post and I have reached the same conclusion: no focus confirmation dot in the bottom left of the screen. I think it is because the focus system requires the mirror to be down in order to work, so in live view mode it cannot operate as the mirror is up. I have also tried to hit the "info" button many times and you get many options, but unfortunately not a focus dot. I guess the best option is as you write to zoom in via the "+" button (you can go CRAZY close) and use the zoomed view to obtain focus.
It seems to me, you are a nice man.
And the video is quite good, thanx
🙂
This was very helpful, thank you a lot!
Thank you for letting me know Igor! 🙏🏻
OMG thank you Sir! I have been trying to manually focus base on my seeing (90% misses) or using the live view (precise but slow and inconvenient). Only now I know what those < o > symbols are about! Thanks a zillion!
🙏🏻🤗
This video was so helpful
Thank you David!
How cano i identify the year of Nikon lenses are compatible?
Hi Daniel, do you mean compatible with the F-mount? In that case, stay clear of pre-AI lenses at it should work. You can see the history of Nikon lenses here: www.dpreview.com/articles/6287665194/understanding-old-nikon-lenses-ai-ai-s-af-and-af-s
@@frederikboving tks ! Sorry for my bad english i,m from Brazil.
@@danielfraga Daniel, no worries, please keep the questions coming. I am sure we can communicate well if we give it a try - my Portuguese is not that good either :-D
Have you tried a different focusing screen? I use a K3 screen now, and I find it a lot more user friendly than the traffic lights.
Uh, I always get sweaty palms when I read about the installation of the K3! I know it is probably easy and not that dangerous, but my appetite is currently limited for such operation.
@@frederikboving The key is knowing exactly how to do it! Unfortunately the only way to know is to do it! The instructions are very vague .. But very easy on the D7100. The D750 was a different kettle of fish. - It is actually very simple, but you need to know exactly how to use the tool. I scratched the original screen on my first attempt :-( A new 'original' screen is now on the way to me, in case I ever need to take out the K3 screen. Oh, by the way, if you want to use your DK-17M on your D750 I can post you a NEPS1 adapter. I have acquired a bunch of them. It is a perfect solution, but the fit is not as secure as the official eye-piece. However, thin strips of black tape wrapped around the perimeter of the NEPS1 keep it firmly in place.
@@snoogly Thank you Snoogly! It is very kind of you. I currently have my DK-17M on my D700 and I have just ordered one more and that is intended for my D4 (on its way). So I think I will stick with that setup for now, but thank you for the offer.
Great video, thanks for this
Glad you liked it!
Excellent!
Thank you Jules!
Can I use manual lens (28mm 2.8D) on D800 autofocus mode?
Is this the lens you've got: www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/28mm-f28-afd.htm? It is very important that the lens has an "AF" in its name or that you can see the little head from the mechanical autofocus on the rear of the lens. If that is the case, then the answer is yes. The D800 has an AF motor built into it, so if your lens has mechanical auto focus, then you will have AF with the D800. Hope this helps.
Thank you very much!
Thank YOU very much!
I’m no expert, but I added a vintage zoom Sigma 100-300 f/4.5-6.7 to experiment - In Non-CPU lens data, I set focal length at 100mm, maximum aperture F6.3 and it works perfectly👌
Thank you for sharing 👍
I forgot to say I’m also using with lens adaptor (it’s originally for Pentax).
Thanks for your in depth video. Very helpful 🙌
what is the the neutral dial position of the viewfinder dial while focusing? I can't seem to set it right.
I'm talking about the diopter.
Right. I think neutral position is around 2 o'clock, so that the little white line that breaks the arch points in that direction. The manual page 29 shows what I think is neutral position.
I love manual lenses, have a few myself. I'm interested in the 50mm 1.2, but is it actually sharp? Looks soft at 1.2. How is it at 2.8?
Hi, I think Ken Rockwell has all the answers for you: www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/50mm-f12-sharpness.htm
There are lenses you need and lenses you want! This one I just wanted :-D
Ken Rockwell is a joke, I don’t trust his reviews, sorry.
@@TaipeiGeek Care to explain?
I didn't know that old non-CPU Nikkor lenses could provide ALL metadata, especially aperture, from Nikon bodies to Capture-One, Lightroom… This I believe is important. As an amateur/rookie/beginner you start accumulating and accumulating photos on your Hard Drives and all that metadata probably will help you a little sorting things out. It is very frustrating when you like a photo you have taken and you do not know, for example, its aperture, which is what happens when you put old Nikkor lenses on Fuji bodies with an dumb adapter.
Hi Mateu, good to hear from you! Yes, of you set up the non-CPU vintage lens on your D750 you can get the aperture and focal length as part of the EXIF information. But only if it is a prime. For zoom lenses it cannot give the focal length unfortunately. But I know you prefer primes, so that is less of an issue for you :-D And agreed - EXIF information is gold when sorting your pictures.
Another mistake I made: don't consider buying vintage M42/Minolta/Yashica-Contax… lenses with the goal of dumbly adapting them to your FX camera. Because of the distance between the flange and the FX sensor, as far as I know, all these lenses cannot focus to infinity. Which makes them almost useless except for some minimal distances. If you want all focus range you need not a dumb and cheap adapter but another one with a corrective lens with the consequent loss of image quality.
Luckily there are enough old good Nikkor glass out there.
Maybe stupid question but should I see focus point when manually focusing AIS lens as I do not see it on my D750? And can it be moved if so?
To answer short: yes and yes. You should be able to move it around with the arrows on the command wheel.
@@frederikboving Thank you for the quick answer. It's weird I don't see it at all with few of my AIS lenses, I just see general area where focus points should be. As I don't have any AF lenses at the moment, does that maybe rely on previous AF settings being single point?
@lifter035 If your camera is in manual focus mode (MF) it should work. But let me test it and get back to you. Can you help me: does your AIS lens have CPU contacts?
@@frederikboving no they are 28mm f2.8 and 35-70 f3.5
@@frederikboving the indicator with arrows works though