An idea for lenses with focus by wire

[pedz]

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.

[FloridaDrafter]

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

[K_ozdragon]

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.