How to setup your camera for use with manual lenses

Today we take autofocus for granted, but that wasn’t always the case. During the mid-’80s, autofocus became mainstream, with the Nikon F3AF and Canon T80 standing out as two pioneers of the technology.

In a relatively short space of time, autofocus became an integral part of the lens building process. Now it’s rare to find a lens from a major manufacturer that is fully manual, Leica being the exception.

However, while almost all bar Leica have turned their backs on the manual world, many other manufactures including Zeiss and Schneider still produce outstanding premium manual lenses.

Of course most lenses have the option to switch to manual focus either on the body of the lens or in camera, if you want to find out more about how autofocus lenses can be used in manual then check out our feature here Manual focus: 3 modern technologies that make sharp images easier

Manual lens manufacturers often state that you can get a higher quality lens without the electronics required to shift lens elements. Through the lens design process, there’s also more scope to create a contrast or resolution lens. The manufacturers can get truly creative with the lens design, something that becomes far more complex once electronics are involved.

Alongside the premium lens manufacturers, there’s an increasing selection of budget and mid-range manual focus lenses; such as the Pergear 50mm f/1.8.

Then there’s the huge back catalogue of manual Focus DLSR lenses that you can pick up from charity shops, family members or a quick look at any online market place, often for free or next to nothing.

Manual focus lenses have a lot to offer. In this tutorial, I will look at those manual focus lenses that have been designed recently and will fit directly to your camera without the need for adapters or converters.

Whatever camera you own, popping a manual lens on the front of your body will completely change the way your camera works and feels.

Let’s take a look at what you need to do to make the most of your manual lenses. I’ll be using a Sony A7 III and outline the settings you need to adjust when using the Pergear 50mm f/1.8. While the settings will be differently named to those used on the Sony A7 III, delve into the menus of your camera, and you should find similar options.

Please note that not all cameras will have all of the features on offer from Sony. Likewise, some cameras will have further options that will increase your manual focus experience.

Select APS-C / Super 35mm

On the market at present, there are three main sensor sizes, ignoring larger medium and large format cameras, APS-C / Super 35mm, MFT and Full Frame.

Each of these sensors requires a compatible lens capable of 100% light transmission coverage through the lens onto the image plane. Essentially does the projected image passing through the lens cover the whole of the sensor?

This cone of light, as it is often termed, is known as the image circle, and each lenses image circle size is different. The main point being that the lenses image circle is big enough to cover the sensor.

Taking the Sony A7 full-frame camera range as an example, pop an APS-C lens onto and you’ll see a vignette around the edges. This is due to the APS-C lens transmitting a cone of light smaller than required to cover the sensor.

Pop a Full Frame lens onto an APS-C sensor, and the cone of light will be larger than the APS-C sensor so you won’t see any adverse effect.

Most Full Frame cameras will have a crop mode that enables you to use an APS-C lens with a full-frame body, essentially the camera crops into the image.

When you pop a modern lens onto a camera such as the Sony A7 III, the lenses and body’s electronics instantly recognise each other and communicate settings, such as focal length, aperture and Focus.

However, pop a fully manual lens with no electronics and the lens won’t have a clue what, if anything, is attached.

Here I’m going to take a look at the settings on the Sony A7 III that you need to adjust to ensure that the camera knows wether to crop or not.

Set to APS-C / Super 35mm
First stop is to let the camera know that the lens attached has no communication form; it’s what we could term a dumb lens. If you’re getting creative with making your lenses or a simple pinhole, then these settings are also the ones that you want.

Set to Live Exposure

One of the great features of digital cameras is that we can set the live view and EVF to show a well-exposed preview of the shot. This means that for composition purposes, we can always see what’s in and out of shot.

However, in the age of manual cameras, the lenses aperture adjustment would give you a good idea of whats going on. To get this effect on digital, we need to switch off the Live View Display effect.

We also need to pay more attention to the exposure level indicator. This level can be seen through the viewfinder or on the live screen as a numeric.

Switch on Peaking

Focus peaking is a feature that has migrated from video cameras and plays a major part in ensuring that the camera operator stays focused on the subject’s right part.

It essentially highlights the contrast edges with a coloured outline such as green, red or blue. While the lines can get distracting on your camera’s small screen rather than a large video monitor, they’re still useful.

Switch on Zebras

Like using Focus peaking Zebras have migrated from the video world and are a great way to tell if parts of the image will be overexposed.

As the name suggests, Zebras appears as a series of lines over the highlight areas of the image.

As well, switching zebras on and off the other option are the Zebra level, this refers to the exposure level, as default selectable from 70 to 100. Depending on your subject it’s best to set these to between 70 and 95.

Set magnification

If your manual focus lens features electronics, then you’ll be able to rotate the focus ring, and the camera will automatically zoom into the scene. However, if you’re using a fully manual lens, the camera will have no way of telling that you’re trying to focus.

In this situation assigning the Focus magnifyer to a custom button is a good idea. On the Sony A7 III, I like to use C3; it’s in an easy location to toggle with your left-hand thumb when needed.

If you have any further suggestions for using manual focus lenses, let me know at ali@camerajabber.com