On Tue, Sep 6, 2011 at 3:06 PM, Brian Walters <[email protected]> wrote: >> "Peaking mode" highlights the part fo the image in focus. It's a >> nifty way to do manual focus. The Sony NEXs are best known for it. >> >> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJxUiLqPUgQ >> > OK. Thanks for the clarification, but is this any different from (or > better than) the focus confirmation indicator that we get with DSLRs > when used with manual lenses?
"Focus peaking" highlights the edges of the scene in the local areas where contrast is at its peak. Unlike with a focus confirmation light on a DSLR, with a fixed position array of AF focus sensors, focus peaking operates on the actual image being captured by the sensor. When you turn it on, you can literally see the focus plane shift based on where the peak contrasts are located in the image. The GXR with firmware 1.40 (not limited to just the A12 Camera Mount) supports two modes: mode 1 retains the natural full color image in the viewfinder, illuminating edges with highlights as focus is moved. Mode 2 does the edge illumination but also does a high pass filter on the image, which essentially means you see ONLY the contrasty edges. Coupled with the focus magnification function (which allows you to see high resolution 2x, 4x and 8x magnifications of the field of view), you can pinpoint critical focus to an arbitrary level of precision with all kinds of scenes and lenses, even with lenses stopped down to f/11 or f/16 and deep depth of field. These are focusing tools impossible in an optical reflex finder. They require fast, high-resolution image processing of the incoming image stream. Focus aids like this have been a high-end feature on professional video cameras for a bit ... Seeing it come into the still camera world is great. I experimented with the GXR + A12 Camera Mount, experiencing this feature with manual focus lenses, a week ago. It is thrilling to see how easy and precise TTL manual focus can become when using it. -- Godfrey godfreydigiorgi.posterous.com -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
