topic An idea for lenses with focus by wire in EF & RF Lenses

An idea for lenses with focus by wire

pedz — Fri, 29 Aug 2025 15:17:37 GMT

I realize that this is a community forum but I thought I would talk about the idea I had here first and see what others thought.

The pain point is the RF 100-500mm lens. The focus ring is close to the body. It is not a light lens so I tend to hold it with my left hand out towards the end where the zoom ring is. Then to use the focus ring, it is rather slow and awkward to move my hand up close to the body. It is so close to the body that it doesn't provide much support against the tendency for the weight of the lens to pitch down.

I was taking pictures of dragonflies that had landed close by. The auto focus is often frustrating for me and so I was trying as an experiment to magnify the view (with the magnifying glass button) and then focus precisely what I wanted in focus. So... that was the "pain" that I was suffering. And I had an idea today.

If the lens is focus by wire, the control could be put anywhere. For example, any of the control dials on the body could be used for focus. This could also solve the problem when the focus gets "stuck" on the background. A quick flip of one of the control dials could be used to "unstick" the focus. It would also solve the problem where each lens has the focus ring somewhere different it seems. Having it on a control dial consistently would help the muscle memory.

For lenses that do not have focus by wire, the feature / option would just not work.

Re: An idea for lenses with focus by wire

FloridaDrafter — Sat, 30 Aug 2025 01:37:23 GMT

I have my focus ring sensitivity set to "Varies with rotation speed", so I can use a rapid thumb movement to quickly move focus by just moving my thumb a short distance, then slow down to get precise. Usually, AF catches hold and precision with MF isn't needed. The RF 200-800 also has the MF ring placed near the camera, it doesn't seem as close as the 100-500, but it is proportionately.

If you want to give that a try, it's in the Green "Customized controls when shooting" menu as "RF lens MF focus ring sensitivity". Select that and you will see two options and you will pick "Varies with rotation speed".

I cradle the the lens on my palm with my index and middle finger pointed to the front of the lens with my ring and pinky on the right side. My thumb rests in front of the focus ring.

Newton

Re: An idea for lenses with focus by wire

K_ozdragon — Sat, 30 Aug 2025 06:43:54 GMT

You can setup the touch screen or joystick to adjust focus manually, but only in MF mode. A few models have a setting for AF + MF with joystick. It depends on which model you have. I would imagine it could be made universal with firmware updates for all models.

Re: An idea for lenses with focus by wire

pedz — Wed, 25 Mar 2026 17:41:31 GMT

Can you give me more specifics on this? I currently have an R7, R5MkII, and an R1. I'm looking for such a feature in the R1 manual and haven't found it yet.

Re: An idea for lenses with focus by wire

K_ozdragon — Wed, 25 Mar 2026 20:50:14 GMT

The best way to control manual focus that I've found is using the focus ring with the proper settings on the camera. It's way more intuitive. I have an EOS R so the menus are likely different, but it's in the focus menu. You can ask chatGPT or most AI for the exact steps to set it up. Usually the way it works is as a seperate command after autofocus. I was having a hard time getting sharp focus on wildlife, or when shooting through things like branches where the autofocus would grab the branches. So I have mine set to autofocus, then magnify + manual focus with the focus ring. This has been SUPER handy for me. No more missed shots, & no more having to zoom & then search for my subject. I just point, hold the shutter at half, then turn the focus ring to zoom in right on point, & adjust my focus to perfection. No fooling around with the back of the camera. You really want to be zoomed in to judge the proper focus manually.

On my camera it's in the AF settings, then the 4th menu under "lens electronic MF". Once in this menu, there's multiple settings. Mine is on - One Shot > enabled (magnify). If you just do the enabled without magnify, it will switch you into manual focus as soon as you turn the focus ring.

If you're intent on setting it up using the joystick or rear dial, I believe there are similar settings in the menu. It's been a minute, so I don't recall where they're at. Or you can reset your control bindings to focus on each dial. Honestly my recommendation is to avoid messing with that & set it up as described above. It's a huge benefit & something I wish I knew sooner.

As far as OP problem, this should fix it too. One my EOS R, the magnification button requires the info button to be pressed afterwards for it to zoom in. Handling this is clumsy & you end up moving the camera off your subject, then it's impossible to find once zoomed in. Having it automatically zoom after focus lock, then manually adjust, is so much easier. The autofocus gets you 99% of the way there, then you can lock in your focus manually all in one motion.

Re: An idea for lenses with focus by wire

pedz — Fri, 27 Mar 2026 01:22:03 GMT

Thank you... My original point was that everything you describe in the first paragraph would be nice if it could be done with one of the dials on the camera body. With the 200-800 zoom, it is a heavy lens and the focus ring / control ring is very close to the base of the lens (i.e. very near the camera). Especially when zoomed out, the leverage of the weight pulling the lens down while trying to hold it up is very hard to do.

I too suffer from having a hard time shooting birds in the bush and I have it set up as you describe but I just wish it would be nice if the focus control was on the body and controllable with the right hand rather than with the left hand right next to the camera body.

I've never seen manual focus controllable from anywhere besides the focus ring.

Re: An idea for lenses with focus by wire

K_ozdragon — Fri, 27 Mar 2026 01:38:40 GMT

Have you tried rebinding the the dial key? I checked the control ring, but there was no option on my camera. It's typically further out than the focus ring.

Re: An idea for lenses with focus by wire

pedz — Fri, 27 Mar 2026 13:34:01 GMT

I've looked "everywhere" that I can think of on the R7, R5MkII, and R1 and I can't find it anywhere.