while i was in the toilet,
That's TMI, Too Much Information!
scenario: u see a kid running across while u hv ur camera on and ready... for Oly E520 case, say u set it in MF only and the focus is way off the object ... will u hv ur camera focused fast enough for that situation??
As someone who has only had manual focus lenses for decades including shooting auto racing, you prefocus before taking your shots...in this situation I also had my exposure manually set in advance...I had no auto focus, no exposure automation (no A, S, or P modes).
With the Oly however I'll set the focus to manual, and use the AFL button to preset the focus...I'd guess where the action will take place and press the AFL button to preset the focus, and not worry about it from then on, as I would have set my aperture to a point where so many feet in front of and behind the action will also be in focus.
I think if what u say above that the focus ring is speed sensitive, i fear that u will lose such moment to capture that scene as one might not have the accurate focus in short short time frame.
To be honest this is the way I focused my SLR film camera too (for 20 years)...I'd quickly turn the lens in the direction I think the focus should be, then when I've reached it (and usually gone past it slowly go the other direction until it becomes sharp and goes out of focus again, and finally go back slowly in the original direction until the image is sharp.
pls correct me if i am wrong here.. as i find the focus feature of this camera very non-SLR like... and defeat the purpose of hving a fast camera with its MF being so slow responding.
It's not slow responding, it's just you haven't learned how to take advantage of the way it operates...I suggest you reread what's being said in this thread.
no leh.. when i use my fren D60.. set MF.. the Focus ring turning range is so narrow so i get to focus very fast
(but tend to over-rotate it since the range is narrower)
Different lenses have different ranges...for instance the 8mm fisheye is very short because it is so wide. To me having a narrow range is NOT necessarily a good thing, as it's not easy to fine tune. One of my longer manual focus film lenses goes from 20-300ft and requires turning it more than 270 degrees from stop to stop...it requires more work to focus but it also has more control.
anyway, for the Oly E-520, i just want to see was there a feature to "speed up" the focus speed by hving the sensitivity of the focus ring higher... and so far i guess not... but pls correct this if i am wrong..
Yes, by turning the ring faster or slower.
Have you ever driven a car with an automatic transmission on the highway, and wanted to pass a car? If you push the gas pedal slowly you will only slowly accelerate, but if you push the gas pedal rapidly to the floor the car will shift to a lower gear and rapidly accelerate.
The same thing is happening with the lens, if you turn the lens ring slowly the lens will move slowly and require several turns from stop to stop...but if you turn the lens ring quickly it will jump quickly from stop to stop in less than a turn.
