Hi All,

I have been puzzled about how I can use the FT-M focusing on my 28-105 USM lens. According to the manual that comes with the lens it says one should not turn the rear focusing ring when it is moving. But without turning that how could I do the full-time manual focus?

I have seen several fuzzy answers for this question on the web and it seems that FT-M is only recommended in shooting modes other than the "One Shot" mode. Is that true?

If anyone could give me an example on how to use the FT-M feature without damaging the lens I will be very interested to know.

Thanks for listening.

Cheung =)

-- chun cheung yim (cheung@bluetongue.com), November 02, 1999

Answers

It is indeed true that you should use FTM in "One-Shot" mode only because in "AI-servo" the camera would immediately try to counteract your correction in order to find its primary AF target. So the principal steps are (0. use "One Shot"), 1. use AF as a rough focus till it indicates that it has found something, 2. use FTM to fine-tune the setting based on your preferences. You have either to keep the shutter half-pressed or use a custom-function to (de)activate AF via a rear button. I've never heard that FTM can damage the motor - finally there're no mechanical gears with USM. FTM just hasn't much sense DURING AF.

-- Klaus Schroiff (kschroiff@baunetz.de), November 02, 1999.

Hi Klaus,

Thanks for your reply. I have tried using the FTM function as you suggested and it seems to work to some degree. But now it leads to 2 more questions:

1. In the case where an AF has achieved focus (with one of the red square lids up - I am using the eye control feature in the 50E), turning the rear focusing ring may cause the "in focus indicator" to go away in the view finder. And in one shot mode if the "in focus" indicator goes away even though I have depressed the shutter button fully it would not allow me to take the picture. And that leads to the question - how would such FTM adjustment help if I cannot take a pic?

2. In the case where no initial AF can be achieved (due to lack of contrast or whatsoever), would it be able to use FTM to try to assist the camera to focus?

Thank you once again for listening.

Cheung

-- chun cheung yim (cheung@bluetongue.com), November 04, 1999.

Quite surprising because this works just fine at least on the EOS 1, 5 and 100. In principal "one shot" means focus priority but IMO this gets disabled once the camera achieved focus. What program mode did you use ?

In principal you could use FTM to prefocus in low-light situations but even if the camera can lock on after that it is probably not too accurate anymore.

-- Klaus Schroiff (kschroiff@baunetz.de), November 05, 1999.

Hi Klaus,

The method that you were describing previously seems to be working fine now (I must have done something silly with the shotting mode stuff). Thanks again for your help.

Cheung

-- chun cheung yim (cheung@bluetongue.com), November 05, 1999.

In his first answer here, Klaus makes a key point about using the FTM feature--that most of us initially use autofocus, and then if we don't quite agree with the result, we then touch it up manually, BUT the shutter button must be kept partially depressed until it is finally tripped, or the camera will re-adjust focus as it sees fit if the shutter button is again partially or fully depressed. Because of this, I don't use FTM much, but in many instances I prefer instead to simply switch the lens to manual focus when I need to touch up focus. With the 1n, for example, custom fxn CF4 allow for metering, shutter release and autofocus to be controlled by separate buttons rather than together, but getting used to this can seem counter-intuitive.

-- kurt heintzelman (heintzelman.1@osu.edu), November 05, 1999.