Suggestion: Focus menu improvment

[Marsu42]

Am I the only one who thinks "wtf?" all the time when looking at the focus menu? The rest of the menus is neatly organized, but in the focus menu rather informational lines (like "Focus End Point") mix with settings, and rack/stack/bracketing options are all over the place.

If no one violently opposes, I'd integrate the following change in a patch:
* Move "Focus StepSize & Focus StepDelay & Rack Delay" the menu that is @"Stack focus"
* Move "Focus End Point" down to the other informational lines
* Merge "Rack Focus" and "Step Focus" triggers because they are mutually exclusive anyway: You do Rack focus in video mode and stack/bracket focus in the photo modes, so ml should be smart enough to trigger the correct one itself.
* Maybe add a real "Reset distance" option because it's not intuitive that have to use SET on the distance like now

The change might break some existing stack/rack focus tutorials, but I don't think too severely, and you cannot make an omelet w/o breaking eggs :->

[ilguercio]

Yes, i agree with you and i'd love to see one more thing added, if you can do it.
I always try to use the focus patterns but if you don't have a particular setting for both the AF start and the focus point selection the selection of the points itself is pretty hard.
Since we have the diagram of the patterns already can't you integrate them directly in the focus patterns submenu? (like cropmarks, for instance) .
Or, at least, think of a way to call them so you don't have to see them if it's not possible?

[Marsu42]

Yes, i agree with you and i'd love to see one more thing added, if you can do it.
I always try to use the focus patterns but if you don't have a particular setting for both the AF start and the focus point selection the selection of the points itself is pretty hard.
Since we have the diagram of the patterns already can't you integrate them directly in the focus patterns submenu? (like cropmarks, for instance) .
Or, at least, think of a way to call them so you don't have to see them if it's not possible?

I don't quite get it - you want an option to cycle through the patterns and preview of the current pattern in a submenu like cropmarks? If so, that goes beyond a restructure of the focus menu, you should do a feature request for that. It makes sense to me, but I wouldn't implement it myself since I concentrate on focus stacking/bracketing atm.

[ilguercio]

I don't quite get it - you want an option to cycle through the patterns and preview of the current pattern in a submenu like cropmarks? If so, that goes beyond a restructure of the focus menu, you should do a feature request for that. It makes sense to me, but I wouldn't implement it myself since I concentrate on focus stacking/bracketing atm.

Yes, i mean that since with my current AF start and point selection i can still select the patterns but can't see them change in real time and i have to AF to check if i chose well.
Looks like not many users share my suggestion, i find it quite useful and quick.

[Marsu42]

Looks like not many users share my suggestion, i find it quite useful and quick.

Imho it certainly would be useful and would defeat the need to af to see what the pattern is - but as I wrote you should do a feature request in the correct section, that'd make it more likely for someone to implement it. I currently only do what I really miss badly from ml myself.

[nanomad]

The focus menu definitely needs some love, feel free to overhaul it