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Question:
I have an Olympus EVOLT E-500 and I find it very difficult to manually focus the camera. I don’t understand why there are no distance marks on the barrel of the three lenses—14-45mm, 40-150mm and 18-180mm—to help focus. Are there any tricks of the trade to help?
Answer:
Olympus manufactures three grades of Zuiko Digital digital-specific lenses: Standard, High Grade, and Super High Grade. The lenses you note are in the Standard Grade, the criteria for which are cost performance and portability. One of the means of making of the Standard Grade lenses more affordable is to forgo the inclusion of the focusing distance scale featured on the higher-grade lenses.
For more information on the grades of Olympus Zuiko Digital lenses visit our lens page.
One classic trick of the trade for focusing zoom lenses is to zoom onto the subject to focus and zoom back to shoot. Since all Zuiko Digital lenses in the E-System are true zoom lenses, the focus does not change when zooming back from the closeup view. Not all “zoom” lenses are true zoom lenses, but rather variable focal length lenses whose focus changes when the zoom is changed. With such lenses zooming in for critical focus and zooming back to shoot is not a reliable practice.
You should also ensure that the Viewfinder Diopter of the camera is adjusted to your eyesight. The Viewfinder Diopter is located to one side of the eyepiece. Adjust it by looking through the viewfinder and focusing on the autofocus frames in the center of the viewfinder—not on the subject. If more diopter compensation is required, Olympus makes an accessory Dioptric Eyecup DE-N3 –3 Diopter and an accessory Dioptric Eyecup DN-P3 +3 Diopter.
An aid to manual focusing is the optional Eyecup ME-1, which magnifies the viewfinder image 1.2 times. This, and many other accessories, can be purchased online from The Olympus Store.
Archive - E-System:
- Advantages of digital lenses
- Transferring your photos to a CD
- Printing the date on your photos
- Best image sizes for emailing
- Lens connections and F-stop
- Indoor sports photos
- AF illuminator and camera flashes
- Camera locks up while shooting closeups
- Taking photos of the Northern Lights
- Shooting in cold weather
- Pixel Mapping
- Waterfall and Stream Effects
- Camera unable to secure autofocus
- Night sports photos
- Can I use a teleconverter with my kit lens?
- What is MY MODE?
- Saving Your Camera Settings
- What does the Fn button do?
- Tips for shooting holiday lights outdoors
- Tips about memory card usage
- The purpose of IMAGE ASPECT when shooting?
- Tips for digitizing 35mm color slides
- Double exposures and xD card questions
- Taking better indoor photos
- Shooting in RAW
- Battery charging guidelines
- E-System Compatibility
- Cleaning your mirror box
- Studio Lighting
- Tricks for manually focusing
- Focusing E-System cameras in low light
- P, A, S and M modes
- Keeping a zoom lens steady
- What lenses can I use with my DSLR?
- High Dynamic Range (HDR) Photography
- Post-processing color controls in OLYMPUS Master
- How do I use bracketing modes?
- Save a zoomed playback image
- How can CONTRAST, SHARPNESS and
SATURATION be applied creatively? - Shooting indoors in the winter
- What does the GRADATION feature in the menu do?
- Using OM-System lenses and accessories
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Please note: Questions submitted to Olympus will not receive individual responses.
If you have a specific tech support issue for which you need immediate assistance, please contact our technical support group by sending an email to distec@cs.olympus.com, or by calling 1-888-55-DIGITAL.
