One of the best aids a vintage photo enthusiast could have when using legacy lenses mounted on their mirrorless digital camera is a 'focus peaking' (or 'peak focusing,' both are the same) feature. When used with manual focus lenses or in low-light conditions, the feature highlights the edges of in-focus areas in the camera's viewfinder or LCD screen with a color overlay or a highlighted display. As the focus is adjusted, the highlighted edges will move across the screen to follow suit portions of the image selected to be in sharp focus.
The feature, or technique, first developed for professional video cameras to help maintain critical sharpness during scene transitions, migrated to still photography as mirrorless cameras eliminated optical viewfinders, relying instead on electronic displays that could overlay focus data directly onto the live images.
Integration of this feature across a few camera models has helped to realize the re-use of legacy lenses, which offers cost-effective solutions for color characteristics, macro precision, and creative depth-of-field effects. For legacy lens users, the potential of these optics, unimaginable when they were first manufactured, is back to the fore.
The first digital camera to incorporate focus peaking in the product line was the Sony NEX digital cameras introduced in 2011. Panasonic's Lumix GH series (GH4, GH5, GH5S, and GH6) implements peaking with user-selectable highlight colors (red, blue, yellow) through dedicated processor arrays that monitor luminance gradients.
Sony's Alpha cameras employ a similar approach with added focus magnification compatibility, while Canon's EOS R system integrates peaking within its Focus Guide system. Fujifilm X-series cameras with focus peaking include the X-T5, X-T4, X-T3, X-Pro3, and X-H1.
From the stables of Olympus, two models well documented with this feature are the Pen E-P5 and E-M10. On the E-P5 (2012), which is used for this shoot, the Peak Focusing On/Off menu item is nestled (Olympus style) four layers down the Custom Menu (Gearbox) tab. To set the feature, the sequence to follow is:
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Images for this test session was captured on an Olympus Pen E-P5, mounted with a legacy Zuiko OM 35mm 1:2.8. The E-P5 was introduced by Olympus in 2012, while the seven elements in six groups Zuiko OM 35mm 1:2.8, recognized for its top level image clarity, sharpness and minimum aberrations and flare, was among the original batch of Zuiko lenses that debuted along with the OM system in the 70s. The lens was once a very popular choice among photographers, and it was also one of the most affordable Zuiko lenses.
While not all digital cameras are fitted with focus peaking functions, camera makers do provide other means of manual focus assist, which include magnification (zooming in on the image) or focus assist functions to let you get along.
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