Ray Sachs
Legend
- Location
- Not too far from Philly
- Name
- you should be able to figure it out...
Just replaced the focus screen in my DF...
I've been using mostly manual focus lenses on my DF, MUCH to my surprise - I wouldn't have guessed I'd be doing this when I bought it. But I've got two Zeiss and three Voigtlander MF lenses at the wide end and a couple of Nikon telephotos in the portrait range. And, really, the only AF lenses I own are the 24-120, which I use occasionally, the 70-300 used almost never, and the Nikon 50 f1.4 and 85 f1.8 used every now and then.
I've never been dis-satisfied with the manual focus in the DF. The focus screen is OK and the little green "electronic rangefinder" dot at the bottom of the finder is remarkably accurate, if not all that easy to see while concentrating on the image. I'd been reading about aftermarket focus screens that had been adapted to the DF and other Nikon DSLRs from stock Canon and Nikon screens, made for older film SLRs I believe. There are a couple of sites that sell them - focusingscreen.com is the only one I'm aware of that adapts them specifically for the DF.
I'd been a little nervous about doing surgery on my camera like this, but finally decided to give it a try after reading about some user experiences on DPR. I ordered a Canon Ec-B type screen with a matte finish and a split circle in the center, like so many old film SLRs I used to use. The screen arrived yesterday and I set about installing it.
I made one really bad mistake and I thought I might have really messed up the camera - when I thought I was taking out the original screen, I was actually removing the little metal clip that holds the whole assembly in place. That's supposed to pop open to allow you to remove the screen, but it's not supposed to come out of the camera. But with enough light (and it took a strong set of LEDs!) I was able to find the little holes the ends of this clip fit into and very painstakingly get it back in place. Thus very well acquainted with the cavity of the DF, the new screen went in really easily and then locked down with the re-installed metal clip. They provide a shim in case focus with the new screen is slightly off, but I didn't need it. I think if the old screen was in the right place, the new one will be as well...
And the bottom line is it's really a huge pleasure to have a real manual focus screen in the camera with a split image circle in the center. Manual focus is quicker and easier. I still use the green dot to confirm focus, but I can concentrate on the framing and get extremely close using the split circle and have everything extremely close before I look down at the green dot for that last little micro-adjustment. And, frankly, as I get used to it, I'll probably stop using the green dot for a lot of shots because the split circle is precise enough, as it always was with my film SLRs...
I know you can do this same type of thing on any of the Nikon full frame DSLRs it looks like just about any SLR or DSLR from any maker, from a quick glance at the site. I'm really thrilled with the way MF works on the DF now and, if anyone else is thinking about anything similar, I can now highly recommend it. Aside from the one dumb mistake I made, installation was quite easy, and the results are well worth it... And it doesn't have any impact on the camera's ability to auto-focus.
-Ray
I've been using mostly manual focus lenses on my DF, MUCH to my surprise - I wouldn't have guessed I'd be doing this when I bought it. But I've got two Zeiss and three Voigtlander MF lenses at the wide end and a couple of Nikon telephotos in the portrait range. And, really, the only AF lenses I own are the 24-120, which I use occasionally, the 70-300 used almost never, and the Nikon 50 f1.4 and 85 f1.8 used every now and then.
I've never been dis-satisfied with the manual focus in the DF. The focus screen is OK and the little green "electronic rangefinder" dot at the bottom of the finder is remarkably accurate, if not all that easy to see while concentrating on the image. I'd been reading about aftermarket focus screens that had been adapted to the DF and other Nikon DSLRs from stock Canon and Nikon screens, made for older film SLRs I believe. There are a couple of sites that sell them - focusingscreen.com is the only one I'm aware of that adapts them specifically for the DF.
I'd been a little nervous about doing surgery on my camera like this, but finally decided to give it a try after reading about some user experiences on DPR. I ordered a Canon Ec-B type screen with a matte finish and a split circle in the center, like so many old film SLRs I used to use. The screen arrived yesterday and I set about installing it.
I made one really bad mistake and I thought I might have really messed up the camera - when I thought I was taking out the original screen, I was actually removing the little metal clip that holds the whole assembly in place. That's supposed to pop open to allow you to remove the screen, but it's not supposed to come out of the camera. But with enough light (and it took a strong set of LEDs!) I was able to find the little holes the ends of this clip fit into and very painstakingly get it back in place. Thus very well acquainted with the cavity of the DF, the new screen went in really easily and then locked down with the re-installed metal clip. They provide a shim in case focus with the new screen is slightly off, but I didn't need it. I think if the old screen was in the right place, the new one will be as well...
And the bottom line is it's really a huge pleasure to have a real manual focus screen in the camera with a split image circle in the center. Manual focus is quicker and easier. I still use the green dot to confirm focus, but I can concentrate on the framing and get extremely close using the split circle and have everything extremely close before I look down at the green dot for that last little micro-adjustment. And, frankly, as I get used to it, I'll probably stop using the green dot for a lot of shots because the split circle is precise enough, as it always was with my film SLRs...
I know you can do this same type of thing on any of the Nikon full frame DSLRs it looks like just about any SLR or DSLR from any maker, from a quick glance at the site. I'm really thrilled with the way MF works on the DF now and, if anyone else is thinking about anything similar, I can now highly recommend it. Aside from the one dumb mistake I made, installation was quite easy, and the results are well worth it... And it doesn't have any impact on the camera's ability to auto-focus.
-Ray