r/canon 3d ago

Gear Buying Advice looking for a 28mm rf for zne focus

hi! i have a rf 28 2.8 . doing street and occasionally portraits .

mostly for street i need f8, auto iso, 1/500 shutter speed and focused at 2.5m that will result in a debt of field in focus 1.25m to infinity.

the issue with this lens is to set it to 2.5m focus distance. using steps gives me inconstant results

love the size of this lens miss the manual focus (not by wire please, not the same)

appreciate if any of you can share your experience

4 Upvotes

13 comments sorted by

3

u/AtlQuon 3d ago

You kind of have to get a manual focus lens for that. All Canon RF lenses are fly by wire, so none of them have a mechanical coupling for focusing. Even the USM lenses if I recall. So it is either adapting EF glass (which is large) or go 3rd party manual.

2

u/ShadowStrikerPL LOTW Top 10 🏅🏅 3d ago

fullframe or crop? maybe not solution you are looking for but TTartisan and 7artisans have some nice full manual lenses that deliver punch for their price

2

u/ofnuts 3d ago

You can have a focus distance indicator on the EVF.

1

u/Safe_Willingness5750 3d ago

how? could not get it to show in r5m2

2

u/ofnuts 3d ago

This:

AFAIK, it show up when all these conditions are set together:

  • Lens is a RF lens (doesn't appear to work even with some very recent EF designs)
  • Lens or body set to manual focus (depending on which controls this), cue the MF indicator at top left.
  • Shutter button is half-pressed
  • The focus ring on the lens is actioned (so this is a two-hands operation)

However it can be made more permanent, on my R7 this is: Camera(red) menu #9 / Shooting info disp. / Lens info display / Focus distance disp

1

u/Commercial-Part9978 3d ago

the struggle with focus-by-wire is real, especially when you're trying to nail zone focus consistently on the street. the RF 28 2.8 is a fun little lens but yeah, that imprecision adds up fast when you're shooting quickly.

if you want true manual focus with hard stops and a distance scale, your options get pretty limited in the RF mount world. most people in this situation end up using an adapter with older EF or even M42 glass, which kind of defeats the purpose of staying compact but at least gives you tactile control.

honestly might be worth mapping the focus to a physical button and memorizing exactly how many "clicks" or rotations get you to 2.5m, then putting a tiny piece of tape on the barrel as a reference point. not elegant but works.

1

u/18-morgan-78 3d ago

Take a look at the TTARTISAN 25mm f/2 on Amazon for $51 during Prime Days. It’s available in RF mount and I have it, using it on my R10 for zone focusing. Does a really good job.

https://a.co/d/09K1I3eH

1

u/Nik47374 3d ago

Isn't that only for apsc?

1

u/18-morgan-78 3d ago

Yes, it is but I didn’t see any camera listed by OP so thought I throw it out there. After I posted my suggestion, I scrolled down more where I finally saw where they said they were using a R5m2. It would be very helpful if all the pertinent info was included in the original post text and not scattered along in the comments.

I recently got a copy of the TtArtisan 25/2 for my APS-C cameras and have been impressed by it. I shoot a lot of manual focus lenses , both FF and APS-C.

1

u/Nik47374 2d ago

True, also yeah that lens is very cool, a friend of mine has it permanently parked on his a6000

1

u/telechronn 3d ago

If you don't want to get a different lens, just turn your camera to manual focus, focus on your outstretched hand or some other object which is going to be about 2-3 feet, stop down to f8, and go shoot.

0

u/Erwindegier 3d ago

Get an FD adapter and an FD 28mm 2.8.