A Scenic World

There’s still a lot that my camera can do that I haven’t fully explored, so perhaps before I think about getting a K7, I should try to master my K200D :)

I decided to finally do catch-in focus. This is easiest to do with manual-focus lenses but can be done with auto-focus lenses if the correct contact is covered up (I haven’t tried this).

For my purposes, I used a Revuenon 55/1.2. Basically, I just put it on the camera and set the aperture to what I wanted (in this case, f/1.2). I manually focused to a point about .7 meters away. I put the camera in M mode so I could also control the shutter speed.

Next it was time to dive into the menu. On the K200D, you press “Menu” then the LEFT arrow to go to “Custom Settings.” Pressing the UP arrow three times will take you to the “Catch-In Focus” option, which is #22 on the Custom Settings menu. Next press the RIGHT arrow key. There are exactly two choices:

1 Off
2 On

For our purposes, we’re going to choose “On,” so press the DOWN arrow then “OK.” A quick half-press of the shutter, and we’re on our way!

Once you depress the shutter fully and hold the shutter button down, the mirror won’t flip until something comes into focus at that pre-specified point (in my scenario, the point exactly .7 meters away). I noticed that you cannot choose different auto-focus points even if you have that option turned on – you’re left with the center point. Also, the more slowly you can move something into the autofocus range, the better (although since I was dealing with such a huge aperture, the depth-of-field calculator tells me my range for having something in focus was only .01 meters!).

Because my photo was a self-portrait, I also used the 12-second timer and tried to keep the plant in position as I triggered the shutter with one hand and then moved into position for what I wanted the shot to be. It took me many, many tries to get everything right.

I’ll definitely be trying this technique more, particularly with macros.

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 27th, 2009 at 9:14 am and is filed under Photography Tutorial. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.