Focusing with a fast 50mm

I tried that, too. ; Then I spoke to a Nikon rep who told me that the focus varies with the focal length on my zooms. ; This is apparently a "feature" of some, but not all, zoom lenses.

To help focusing your 50mm, the thing that comes to mind is a viewfinder magnifier. ; Do a Google search to see what comes up for your camera.

Another option is a different focusing screen, such as the ones from Katz Eye optics. ; I don't have one, but there are a couple of threads here that discuss them.

 

Parfocal lenses can do that, most zooms can't. ; It's more noticable (that it can't) with the larger aperture lenses since when you zoom in, you're going to get a smaller aperture, which has a larger depth of field. ; Also, you'd get a wider depth of field with the consumer lenses....

anyway

Your biggest problem is going to be that on a dark ride, not only are you using a very small viewfinder (small sensor to begin with) you also have your focus distance changing as your ride is usually moving (depending on the attraction), so you have to compete with the movement of the ride v. changing the focus.

I'll second what ddindy mentioned: look for a viewfinder magnifier for your Pentax. ; It should replace your eyepiece and then zoom in on the center of the viewfinder. ; Nikon's can flip up out of the way to get the whole frame when you need it.

 

The viewfinder magnifier will help. ; Ironically, I have the Pentax viewfinder magnifier on my Sony A300 (perfect fit!) which definitely helps. ; I want to say it's something like Pentax ME-53.

On the other hand, maybe you ought to consider, at least for dark rides and those types of situations, to use autofocus. ; Though you like MF, the AF will often give you a better chance in such an environment to get focus quickly while moving, and also to refocus or track focus if necessary while on a moving ride. ; If you use spot or center focus, you should be fine. ; Focus has not been an issue for me with my 50mm F1.7 on dark rides or low light situations while moving...I use spot auto focus wide open at F1.7 and it's been dead-on every time. ; Just an idea.

 

Can you explain please? ; I'm not sure what part on the camera you are referring to as being able to flip out of the way to get the whole frame. ; Are you referring to the rubber piece that slides over the viewfinder?

 

http://www.nikonusa.com/Find-Your-Nikon ... ifier.html

This replaces the eye piece, and then the whole thing can flip up to give the normal FOV.

 

I see (no pun intended), you were referring to the Nikon equivalent add-on for magnifying the viewfinder. ; At this point, I have no desire to take on manual focus except in exceptional situations (I sometimes manual focus when setting up for fireworks).

My old film dSLR had a different viewfinder that made it real easy to manual focus where you had the two half circles that you aligned up to help tell you when you were in focus

 

That is what LV is for. ; It lives for it. ; Since you can zoom in during LV.

 

I must embarrassingly admit that I haven't figured out LV yet

 

Practice! ; It's actually easier with Nikon's method (turn the dial); Canon's first generation on the Edsel was a menu option, but you could program it to the thumb wheel center button.

 

I was using LV to focus for fireworks, since you can zoom in on the image without actually zooming the lens.

 

Reminds me of the Zeiss 50/1.4 last summer. ; While the in viewfinder confirmation and digital rangefinder on the display is nice, it's too hard to MF on some rides...