professionals shoot w/ MF?

the company I work for hired a pro photographer b/c we needed professional pictures so I got to talk with a pro.

I noticed him using manual focus 100% of the time and asked him isnt it hard to focus through the finder? and he said "you can always get better focus when you shoot with manual if you get the hang of it".

i tried it, and its impossible to me. I use MF with my rangefinder but I've never used MF on a SLR, not even on my grandparents old AE1 but not on an EF mount(edit** AND even on my grandparents old AE1 but not on an EF mount). does anyone else do this and achieve better focus? if so, I'm practicing MF.

Getting some kind of focus screen like a split prism REALLY helps.
I love the screen on my AE-1. It's easy to focus using it.

it depends on what you shoot, what lens, what focusing screen, and what viewfinder.

trying to MF a rebel with an f4 or slower lens would be impossible. But having a larger, brighter viewfinder would really help, a split focusing screen helps (like the ae-1) and faster lenses help.

That's hard period lol. I cant wait to get my hands on the 5D next month! I dont mind using MF but I just cant do it with the rebel xt.

I usually get more accurate focus with my 85/1.2 in manual mode (especially wide open), but with my other lenses they tend to have enough DoF to usually hit it close enough with AF.

Of course I have a 1DsMkII and the larger viewfinder and added the Ec-B split prism view finder first chance I got.

With my older 10D and even more so with the D60, manual focus was necessary for most occasions, except in bright light.

And just to show what the 5D feels like when you are using it.

haha, it may feel that way, but its still only 96% coverage

a full 100% to match the 1v and 3 etc would have been a ncie touch

Agreed. The above post contained no factual information.

thats the exact setup he was using. 1DsMkII+85 f1.2
maybe I'll try it with my parents EOS 7.

Man, I used a friend's hasselblad with the waist level viewfinder... jesus, I almost cried tears of joy manual focussing with that thing, no other viewfinder is ever going to seem big again sadly.

I'm actually contemplating a MF and digital back sometime in the future after playing around with it. THAT is something amazing

try LF sometime, nothing like seeing a 4x5 or 8x10 image. Though its upside down and backwards, but man you can see the detail.

ive never worked with a waist level viewfinder but the pictures i see of the viewfinder....whoa

That's... completely not true.

3 has a slightly larger viewfinder than the 5D...

And both of them are small compared to the ones that were made by contax or nikon.

Amen.

What sucks is that canon's whole lineup has finders of about .7 magnification, while some finders have as much as .95 magnification... I think minolta and contax aria.

Good thing BW film is cheap and the bodies are practically free.

The EOS 7 isn't going to give you a much different experience. You need to go into a shop and ask to have a look through a 1 series, or better still an old Olympus OM.

But basically his (the pro's) advice was erroneous. The fact is, SOME Pro's use MF most of the time, MOST Pro's only use it rarely (when using AF SLR's). The point of them being pro, is they know when it's necessary.

I've used some good bad and indifferent viewfinders in my time. However Manually focussing I couldn't capture motorsport as well as my 20d can using 2.8 lenses. BUT, when the light's too bad for AF, I resort to using trap focussing techniques (usually AF assisted though).