Manual Focus through LCD screen = BAD

Hey All

Phew! I am new to this forum and for a second I thought it was only photography!

Well I am a video guy. Pretty Much only that. After having my Canon XH-A1 for a couple years, I REALLY wanted something smaller. So I saved up for the Canon Rebel T2i / 550D.

LOVE the camera. The only thing is, I constantly see in post that the subject(s) are blurry just a little bit. This is definatly because while trying to manually focus, in addition to everything else, the LDC screen isnt all THAT detailed.

It seems like I will think something is in focus on the LiveView, but then on my computer it is obviously focused wrong!

It has caused some very bad and awkward situations when handing someone the finished product and the once-in-a-lifetime moment is blurred.

How can I fix this... Just practice? Or what?

Thanks in advance!

Practice and better lenses. The lenses you have are not going to have good smooth manual focusing. The 50 1.8 especially has a horrible focus ring for video.

Also get an aftermarket viewfinder that attaches and magnifies the screen.

Do those viewfinders help? I find it a little outrageous to pay up to $70 for one. And yeah I hate both the 50 and the kit lens for video. The rings are so choppy

Well the viewscreen loops don't have to cost $70. I got mine for less than $40 and it's OK. Of course the more you spend on those, the better they work. Mine has plastic magnification lenses and while it is light wieght, the image could be a bit clearer. The glass units help with that a lot. The Zacuto ones are probably the best, but they are expensive. Take a look on Amazon for one.

It also helps a bit with stability as it adds a third point of contact.

The Hoodman brand is quite acceptable...

Tether tablet like Motorola Xyboard using USB cable - you'll get 10" screen

This is what you need:http://www.amazon.com …TF8&qid=1329098​626&sr=8-1
I use this kit on my Infra Red camera (T2i) for handheld shooting and it works great. RedRock Micro also makes a bracket that attaches to the bottom of the camera to hold the hood from underneath to leave the hotshoe open. http://www.amazon.com …TF8&qid=1329099​095&sr=1-4
I would stay far away from any cheap kits as the optics tend to be pretty bad. There's no point in buying a cheap kit and not being able to tell if the scene if focused correctly because of a poor lens in the loupe.

LCDVF is a great loupe

Having a monitor/electronic viewfinder with focus peaking will help you immensely though. That's only if you're willing to shell out the money, most good ones will cost as much as, if not more, then your camera.

Yes, an LCD viewfinder is invaluable in that it improves your ability to focus accurately and it provides a 3rd point of contact with the camera to improve stability. I wouldn't think $70 (or less) would be too outrageous if it prevents ruining someone's one-in-a-lifetime memory, as you say. Also, I assume you know the trick where you hit the magnification button to manually fine tune focus just before hitting the Record button? Or half-depress the shutter release to autofocus immediately before recording? Or use the highest possible f-stop to obtain maximum depth of focus? All of these will help you hit focus consistently.

Probably the BEST advice for improving focus would be to load Magic Lantern on your camera. ML has several incredibly useful tools for manual focus, including focus peaking, magic zoom (a sort of real-time picture-in-picture zoom), and more.

If you're a video guy, then Magic Lantern is something you really should run on your T2i. It has a focus peaking feature that will really help.
You can magnify your image on the LCD to make sure your focus is on when framing your shot.
The Swivi external monitor ( http://www.bhphotovide​o.com …External_Monito​r_for.html ) will give you a 5.6" screen and has a focus peaking function built into it. The 3" LCD on the T2i is just too small to be sure of focus without some form of loupe.

OK so first off I might want to consider investing in one AROUND $70 or so but $189?? Thats too much for me right now.

I have heard alot about Magic Lantern, but I really don't know what it is or how to install it.

I think that going with one of the Zacuto's on Amazon would be my best bet.

If you can't afford $189, Zacuto is definitely out of your price range. Zacuto Z-Finder Pro is $375 on Amazon.

Magic Lantern can be found on Wikia.com. Just do a Google search using key words "Magic Lantern T2i". It's a bit confusing to load the first time, but there are threads here and elsewhere that provide some guidance. The ML wiki site itself has good install instructions. Hint: you might want to have 2 SD cards when you load ML - one for ML and one clean (no ML). Not a requirement, but it's nice to have an unadulterated system to fall back on if needed. The more you learn about ML, the more you'll understand.

You will certainly find Magic Lantern very useful.

Any loupe (even a £15 eBay special) is better than nothing.

Don't forget that you can also zoom the view before hitting record. This makes a big difference and wasn't something I realised initially.

OK so I looked into Magic Lantern on their Wiki. There was a download link for the Unified 550D firmware. It seems like jailbreaking a phone or something like that where there are all these code names and procedures and everything.

Does anyone here HAVE ML installed or something so that they could give me a very clear and detailed instruction on how to do it.

I know you have to put it on your card, but do you have to get a program to boot your card? And are there different options you can get for ML?

This is very confusing at the moment, seeing as I just heard about it yesterday. Im sure once I get it and become more comfortable with it, it will make more sense.

If I remember correctly:-

Format a card in the camera and then, on your computer, load all the ML files onto the card root.

You insert the card, turn the camera on and set the camera to M then enter the menu, go to setup, and install new firmware. That's pretty much it and ML does the rest.

You need all the ML files on all your cards and when you reformat the card in the camera it asks you if you want to retain the files.

The only frustration I have found so far is when you save your various ML set-up preferences it saves them to the card so, when you put in a new card, you have to reconfigure your camera to include those preferences if you haven't used the card previously.

What they don't tell you is, once installed, you call up the ML menus by pressing the waste bin button on your camera.