A pleasent surprise - Manual Focus.

Okay, so I was deterred away from manual focus after getting my 30D (actually XT) and using the kit lens and later-on my Sigma 70-300 APO macro. Manual focus was not too fun with either of these lenses, and I said "there is no way I'm ever getting a 2x teleconverter for any of my lenses that do not auto focus with a 2x on." Then I got the 85 1.8 and 70-200 F4L. Manual focusing is so easy and actually fun to do. The distance scale really helps out, and in all honesty, it's a lot easier then I ever expected, perhaps the kit lens just is a extraordinarily crappily built lens. Now I have no fear of getting extension tubes for my lenses (85 1.8, 50 1.4 and 135 f2.0L shouldn't do too bad if I get all of them), and no fear in getting the 100mm Macro (maybe no point in tubes then, but anyway, people say you need to use manual focus for macro, and I was scared of that.)

Really shows how big of a difference a well built lens can make when it comes to manual focus.

yeah, and it's nice because it's full time manual, so you don't have to hit the switch.

bolantej wrote in post #2182199
yeah, and it's nice because it's full time manual, so you don't have to hit the switch.

Yup. I also had a nifty fifty which left me with something to desire. But these two lenses are just so smooth, you can have quite a bit of fun just twirling your manual focus ring around, haha.

Remember that AF is much less important for macro work. When I stack all my tubes the AF pretty much becomes useless, and even MF is hard, the easiet way to focus is by moving the camera back and forth till you like the effect, as the exact focal point is often a matter of aesthetics anyway.

It's really nice on the 85 1.8 because of all the dang light too! Oh and the FTM. FTM is as good as sliced bread.

Mr. Clean wrote in post #2183607
It's really nice on the 85 1.8 because of all the dang light too! Oh and the FTM. FTM is as good as sliced bread.

FTM? You people and your acronyms *shrug.*

JaGWiRE wrote in post #2184074
FTM? You people and your acronyms *shrug.*

FTM- Full Time Manual focus. Allows you to leave the lens in auto focus mode but still use the manual focusing ring without damaging the focusing mechanism.