Lesson Info
19. Menu Page 13: Focus Assist
Lessons
Class Introduction
16:37 2Photo Basics
04:38 3Camera Controls: Control Wheel & Shutter Release
04:08 4Camera Controls: Mode Dial
26:05 5Camera Controls: Top Deck
18:35 6Camera Controls: Back Side Controls
15:00 7Back Side Controls: Function Button
25:35 8Back Side Controls: Wheel & Custom Buttons
10:58Left & Right Side Controls
07:02 10Bottom Controls
04:59 11Front Controls & Lenses
13:16 12Menu Page 1: Quality/Image Size 1
09:48 13Menu Page 2: Quality/Image Size 2
03:56 14Menu Pages 3-5: Shoot Mode/Drive 1/AF1
09:02 15Menu Page 6: AF2
05:42 16Menu Pages 7 & 8: AF3 & AF4
05:56 17Menu Pages 9-11: Exposure & Flash
06:33 18Menu Page 12: Color/WB/Img Processing
08:49 19Menu Page 13: Focus Assist
06:03 20Menu Page 14: Shooting Assist
06:29 21Camera Settings: Movie
07:43 22Camera Settings: Shutter & Steady Shot
08:37 23Camera Settings: Zoom & Display Auto Review
07:13 24Camera Settings: Custom Operation
11:55 25Network Menu
11:19 26Playback Menu
07:18 27Setup Menu
26:52 28My Menu Overview
08:13 29Camera Operation
10:14Lesson Info
Menu Page 13: Focus Assist
The Focus Magnifier allows you to jump in, and zoom in, and magnify your image so that you can see that it is nice and sharp and easy to see. And so, let me show you, on the back of my camera, that this is something that's kind of already programmed in, when you are in manual focus. So let me go ahead and change over to manual focus. And so, when I want to manually focus, what's gonna happen is, the camera is gonna jump in. Let's get this centered a little bit better here. It's automatically just gonna jump in. When I press the shutter release halfway down, it's gonna jump back to the full image. And so, I have this set in, so it just automatically comes in here so I can see the focus on it, right there. And so, a very simple system and I can move around... the image if I want with the dials, as well. And so, eventually it'll just time back out, and there you are. And so, for anyone who does manual focusing, that's a handy feature to have. Get you the exact focus. Focus Magnification T...
ime. How long you want it to stay in. Do you want it just be there for a couple seconds, or do you want it to be able to stay there indefinitely? Currently, I have it set on No Limit, so that you can spend as much time focusing, examining, and then going back and readjusting it, if necessary. Initial Focus Magnification. This a pretty important one. I think it normally comes set to 1.0. Is when you press that, or when you turn the dial to jump in, it jumps in to 3.8, and if that seems like an odd number, yeah, you're right. But it's jumping into one to one magnification with the pixels. And that's where you want to be when you're judging focus. Auto focus in Focus Magnification, leaving this on. Ah, double check my notes on this. And so, can you auto focus while you are in Focus Magnification? And sometimes you do want to be able to focus, that way you can be very precise about what area of the image you are focusing on. Manual Focus Assist. And so, on this one, this is when you are in manual focus. I may have mixed up a little bit of the feature. This is the feature where, when you do have it in manual focus, it automatically jumps in. So if we look on the back of my camera, this is the option of automatically jumping in, right here, like that. And so, anytime you grab the focus ring, you can just start turning it and it jumps in so you can see what you're focusing on. Press the shutter release and it goes back to this level, here. And so, in the menu, the other option, in this case, the Focus Magnifier, which is kinda related, can be programmed to one of the buttons. What I usually do, is I usually have it programmed to the center button in the back of the camera, which, let me just jump in and do that right now. So Custom Key, I want the Center Button on the back of the camera for Focus Magnification. And I don't have it memorized, where this one is, so I have to look for it. So it's gonna be under Focus Magnifier, right there. And so, it's now Focus Magnifier, and so if I press the center button on the back of the camera, it gets my frame, and I can move my frame around, and then I press the center button, and it jumps in, and I can then focus on it. And so, there's a couple different ways that you can adjust to jump in. You can either just grab the focus ring, or you can have a button that you press for that. And then, even more focus, or even tighter in, and then, back off to the full frame. Peaking Setting. All right, so there's another little sub menu in here. And this allows you to turn the peaking feature on and off. I'll do a little demo here, in just a moment, on this. After I run through these other quick things here. You can choose different levels. Low, medium, and high. And then, you can choose different colors here, as well. So let me go in here and set this camera up for some peaking. So let's go to the back of the camera. Menu, and let's get back to where we need to be with this section. Focus peaking, down here. And let's turn this peaking on. Let's turn the level to high, so that you can see it very clearly, and let's change it to red just to be dramatic about it. Look at that, oh, my gosh. All right, so as we focus in and out, you can see what areas are in focus with those red areas of shimmering light. Let me see if I can move this over to the camera. And so, if it's shimmering in red, that means it's in focus. And so, it's a quick, easy way to see if you're focusing in the right area. I will have to say, that the downside to this is that it is not super, super finely tuned accurate. It's showing you a large area that's in focus, but it's not showing you the exact area. Anything that has really strong contrast is gonna start shimmering in red highlights. Like, for instance, if you look at the camera, I'm not quite focused on it, but it's starting to shimmer. But when I get lots of red around it, that's when it's at its best focus. And so, it's when the shimmering is at its greatest is when you are getting the sharpest focus. And so, be careful of just going, oh, it's kinda shimmering in that area. That's not always enough.
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Ratings and Reviews
a Creativelive Student
John GreengO! What a wonderful teacher! As always to the point. You do all the testing for us and we get an amazing tour of the camera. Really thrilled with your class once again. Thanks a lot!
user-7002e3
Thanks John. Another great class! I appreciate the thorough explanations. I many never use all of the features on this camera but at least I know what they do. Love all of your classes and would definitely recommend them.
Mary
Wonderful class. John is a great instructor. Learned a lot. Only wish he'd include a bit more on using a7iii to shoot video, such as using Clear Image Zoom, and including video in the ending Camera Operation settings section. Loved the course though.
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