Magic Focus

[garry23]

In a previous post I buried a request related to Magic Zoom, hence I'm sure if was lost.

In Magic Zoom, which is a a critical tool for photographers like me with manual lenses, ie clearer focus confirmation than focus peaking, especially in bright sun, we have three ways to show focus.

The one I believe needs 'enhancing' is the green bars method.

I challenge anyone to 'see' the green bars, which I assume are top and bottom of the focus frame.

May I request that the bars be made a lot 'thicker' or that a big green dot be made to appear in the MZ window when focus is achieved.

[dubzeebass]

Great request and I agree!

[garry23]

Sorry forgot to also say how about an audio indicator as well?

[Marsu42]

May I request that the bars be made a lot 'thicker' or that a big green dot be made to appear in the MZ window when focus is achieved.

+1, I seldom use it, but I also had the problem to see them while outdoors

[engardeknave]

I got a $30 hood loupe (I think from Cowboystudios) for LV use outside and I can't recommend it enough.

[garry23]

Agree. I bought a Hoodman: fantastic.

But I would still humbly suggest making focus confirm easier to see, eg thicker green bar, or green dot or audio or all three.

BtW my CamRanger focus peaking and focus confirm is much easier to use, but then again if is $300 more than ML, and runs on an iPad screen.

[nanomad]

May I request that the bars be made a lot 'thicker' or that a big green dot be made to appear in the MZ window when focus is achieved.

Sounds reasonable.

Can you provide a picture of the "new" desired green bars width?

[garry23]

Nanomad

Rather than me specify this may I suggest it be user selectable, within limits.

For example 1,3 or 5 pixels wide.

Everyone has differnt eyesight and I think user preferences are what makes ML a great tool.

[chris_overseas]

I'm taking a look at fixing this since I find those bars difficult to see too. Here's what I've found so far:

• The top and bottom bars are currently two pixels high.
• When not in focus, the outside row of pixels (ie the one furthest away from the zoom box) is black and the inside one (adjacent to the zoom box) is white.
• When focus is achieved, both rows in the bar change to the same thing. The catch is, this isn't actually green but rather a dotted line that alternates between white and green every two pixels. I suspect this is the major reason it is so hard to see clearly rather than the thickness of the lines (eg compare the level indicator - when that changes from white -> green it's very obvious).
• The green bars are always enabled, even when one of the split screen options are selected instead. I don't think that's a bad thing and I'll probably leave it that way.

I'm going to try changing the lines to 100% green to see what they then look like at two pixels high. If that doesn't appear clear enough still then I'll gradually increase the thickness of the green bars until it feels about right. I don't think it's a good idea to add yet more configuration options for this, the ML menus are already too complex as it is and a sensible default for this should be fine.

[garry23]

Chris

Great information, I'm afraid my eyesight, even with a Hoodman, could not see that level of detail.

BTW I find the LV focus tools, like MZ and focus peaking, a great substitute when I don't have an iPad with me. My preference for achieving critical focus, especially with my Tilt-Shift lens, is to use my CamRanger-iPad set up. The difference is very clear, if you forgive the pun.

As an example I'm just sitting down for breakfast in New Mexico having had an early morning capturing some architectural photography with my 5DIII, 24mm TS-E, CamRanger and an iPad. Getting the shots was a pleasure.

As I say, I welcome getting the ML focus 'enhanced' as the in-camera LV is a good fallback.

Cheers

Garry

[a1ex]

The dotted line is a bug (good catch). Reproduced.

[chris_overseas]

garry23: take a look at the next nightly build, it should include a fix for this.

[garry23]

Chris

Cheers now usable.