Focus Screens -- Nikon F

[Andrea B.]

Wait, what? A Sony AF point will light when in focus?? How do you set it to do that???

I do not see any AF points on the screen at all??

[bjornthun]

Wait, what? A Sony AF point will light when in focus?? How do you set it to do that???

I do not see any AF points on the screen at all??

I use "flexible point Small", I hope that's what it's called in English, with a native E mount lens.

Edit: works in all AF modes.

[Andrea B.]

I have flexible point with small, medium or large choices on the a7R. But I never see the focus point on screen with my manual lens. It must only work with Sony lenses. When I press the magnifier button, I see the magnifier rectangle which I can move around. But it is never changes size and never lights up.

Oh well.

[bjornthun]

I have flexible point with small, medium or large choices on the a7R. But I never see the focus point on screen with my manual lens. It must only work with Sony lenses. When I press the magnifier button, I see the magnifier rectangle which I can move around. But it is never changes size and never lights up.

Oh well.

This is for AF lenses, when doing autofocus, then the AF bracket lights up when focus is achieved by the AF lens.

For MF lenses, the magnifier works with different magnifications, approx. 5x and 10x.

I'm sorry if I misread your original post. I usually use native AF lenses and think along the lines they work. I actually like focus by wire, so the native lenses work nicely as MF glass in my opinion, with much better focus throw than Nikon Ai-S of AF lenses. Nikon Ai, not Ai-S, still have the best "feel" though, due to their usually long focus throw.

[dslater]

So far metering seems no to be affected. I'll evaluate this aspect more in detail over the next days though.

Fine-tuning the meter by global adjustment(s) is found under the Custom Settings menu, the heading is 'Metering/Exposure'. For the Df it is option (b2). Other Nikons will have something similar. You can set the adjustment for all metering modes separately.

Hi Bjørn,
  I know where the adjustment is in the menu. My question is what is your procedure for determining what the adjustment should be?

Thank you

[Bjørn Rørslett]

Trial and error.

It works.

[arthurking83]

..... I found the screen to be perceptibly much brighter than I had expected......

Could you quantify this in any way especially compared to say a stock screen.
It doesn't matter too much tho, I think I've resigned myself to getting a K version too .. and then switch between each type(I have the S already) as my mood takes me.

The S screen is visibly darker than stock on the D800E, especially when used with 'slow' f/2.8, or slower, lenses.
The problem is I can't quantify the amount as I need to replace the screen to view it in each situation, so no (easy) way to compare side by side.
I don't stay in regular touch with the only other (physical) person I known that has a D800 to compare side by side.

If I were to guess, I'd say that the difference between S type(a Canon screen type) and a stock screen could be as much as 2 Ev darker than a stock screen with an f/2.8 lens fitted.
I have noted before that I have a Katzeye(with Optibright) for my D300 and it was notably brighter than the stock D300 screen!
And that there is a major difference between D300+Katzeye and the D800+Stype screen. More than 2Ev.

.... When I had a DSLR, it wouldn't even tell me which AF point(s) that it used during AF tracking, so it was difficult to know what the AF tracking was "thinking".

Curious as to which DSLR that didn't display a focus square during tracking?
If Nikon, I'd have guessed that from the D300 and onwards all Nikon cameras capable of tracking also show the focus square as you track with it.
And remember the D300 is a 10 yo camera now.

D300's AF tracking is very hit and miss if the subject being tracked is not massively obvious from it's surroundings. D800 is a lot better in holding the subject.
Both those cameras DO show the AF square in use for AF tracking tho. 

[David H. Hartman]

I was looking after this screen as well, so I'm very interested in your findings.

The K-3 screen was the standard screen for the Nikon FM3a and the type 3 screens were the brightest screen available for the FM and FE family of cameras. As the brightest the are probably the least desirable for super speed lenses. I never use one but my guess is they are similar to the Red Dot screens for the F3HP. The original K, B and E screens for the FE are the dimmest of this type. I have some experience with those in an FM2. The screens I used most were the E-2 and K-2 in the FM2n and FE2. If I still used those camera I'd have a few or the original E screens to use with my 50/1.2 Ais. The type 2 screens was a good compromise for someone who's fastest lens was a f/1.8.

[JJChan]

Arthur
My post further up this thread with the view through viewfinder was shot with D600 normal screen and the K3 screen on D800E. Camera was set to manual and fixed exposure so theoretically comparable brightness.

I don't think there's as much as 1EV difference between stock and K3 screen so it's pretty bright.

David's post about FE2 makes sense to me - I don't get a lot of darkness with new K3 screen compared to FE2 screen on lenses >f4

If you like I'll try to do more shots through the vf with a slower lens than the Noct. If anyone can give me pointers on how to do this better?

JJ

[David H. Hartman]

i would like to make an article on how to shave the usual K screen to fit DX next month

If I were fitting a screen to a DX camera I would first test a K, K-2 and a K-3 screen in an FM2,FE2 or FM3a with the fastest lens one will use. Unless there is some kind of Voodoo I don't know about the original K screen from the FE will be best for fast lenses when focusing on the matte screen surface.

The split image rangefinder is a compromise. In my experience if a lens, say an 80-200/4.0 AIS or a 200/4.0 AI/AIS Micro is on the camera if my eye is well centered I won't have problems with rangefinder blackout. If the lens is an f/4.5 lens like my 80-200/4.5 non-AI of years back rangefinder blackout is a problem. I got sick of rangefinder blackout and adopted the E screen in the '80s as I could focus anywhere on the screen and I didn't have to recompose which takes time and shots can be missed.

I don't think the standard K screens look anywhere close to the edges of an f/1.4 or even f/1.8 lens. It they did then rangefinder blackout might start f/2.8 or f/2.5. I wonder what the accuracy of a A, K or P screen really is.

Maybe a K-3 screen is a reasonable compromise if one uses the split rangefinder. I think I'd want an E-2 screen.

Anyway my 2 cents here is test and see which screen is most suitable.

Dave

In my experience centering

[Bjørn Rørslett]

My other Df with stock screen is no longer operational, so hard to to compare to the new K3-modified Df body. Impression is the K3 is bright, but not as bright as the stock screen. Difference is not dramatic though. The nearest compatible "film" system at hand was an FM2 with K2 screen. This is slightly brighter than the K3/Df, but as the finder magnifications are not equal, it's hard to tell what level of difference I am seeing.

The main point being however I now can focus my fast f/1.2 & f/1.4 lenses manually with ease even outside the centre area with focusing aids.

[David H. Hartman]

Does anyone know what's going on with F5 screens? I see light broken up into red, green and blue. I don't remember this on the F4 or any previous models.

Dave

[David H. Hartman]

The main point being however I now can focus my fast f/1.2 & f/1.4 lenses manually with ease even outside the centre area with focusing aids.

What about a B-3 screen? Are fast lenses easy to focus on the matte surface of the type 3 screens or is it easy because of the split image rangefineder? If I were going switch the focus screen in my D800 I'd want B screen (B-3 or B-2). I finally came to prefer a camera without a focus aid and used E and B screens.

Dave

[Bjørn Rørslett]

The fast wideangle lenses like a split-image screen ....

In the old days, I tended to prefer the "E" type screen.

[Øivind Tøien]

The B-3 screens for FM-3a is the base for the Katzeye all matte screens that I have. In my experience it is very easy to focus on those screens (http://nikongear.net/revival/index.php/topic,539.msg26915.html#msg26915). The largest aperture lens that I have is the 50mm f/1.8 where the impression of the blurred areas is very close to the final capture (for the non-Optibright version only). I suspect that the Canon S screen in my D7100 (for the time being, waiting for the last available all matte Katzeye to be manufactured for me) has even more blurring effect, perhaps even a little exaggerated, but it is not easier to focus than the Katzeye screens, the micro-contrast of the focused areas may even seem higher and snap into focus easier on the Katzeyes. As also mentioned earlier the S-screen is markedly darker, which could be due to more blurring effect, but also could have something to do with the optimization of the Fresnel lens of the screen to typical exit pupils positions optimal for Canon, not Nikon bodies. Interestingly both FM-3a B3 and K3 screens are in stock at B&H.