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Comment by trap_goes_hot | Hacker News Reader

Sure, but using auto-focus is even easier. I can achieve focus in under a second. And with subject detection + eye-AF, there really is no comparison.

In my opinion, focus peaking is somewhat useful for video, macro and astro. I say somewhat because it depends on the implementation. Some implementations (e.g. Sony) also apply in-camera picture settings (which adds sharpening to the output of the JPEG engine - which feeds the EVF), which can give you a false sense of sharp-focus. You'll see a ton of red, when actually the red is coming from the JPEG sharpening, not the change in focus.

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Auto focus on something can be easier, however at this point you may not have enough focus points to hit the right thing, or the best shot can be a compromise focus between several things which is easier to achieve through analog interface.

Its not an analog interface. On the lens hardware side most lenses today focus by wire, and the EVF is digital, the focus peaking overlay is an edge + contrast-detection filter (which is imperfect due to JPEG sharpness misleading the engine to show an area as high focus when it isn't). Also the in the hardware/optical realm, the plane of focus is never flat in three dimensions, there is always a curvature to it (and this curvature changes based on the focusing distance).

Can you put forth an example of a real world situation that we can discuss?

I like optical viewfinders and say face closeup at an angle in low light can benefit from my discretion on what the best overall focus is rather than one sharp and one blurry eye. I know all of the other ideas like moving further away, or higher f stop and more lights. All I am saying is that once I am already looking at a shallow focus scene it's easier to rotate a ring till it looks good enough to me than hunt for best autofocus points with a joystick. Hopefully EVF distortions can be turned off on good cameras?

It really depends on what your goals are. If you enjoy the process of taking a picture, and using manual camera controls - then you will surely have a different viewpoint.

For me, photography is not about being an expert camera operator, its about efficiency, and how productive I can be to create an image that I have visualized in my head. I care more about the final result than the process. Personally, I am welcoming the new AI/ML based focusing systems which can be trained to automatically put the focusing point on the subject. I don't think I can ever go back to the optical view finder and dslrs.

> however at this point you may not have enough focus points to hit the right thing

Cameras these days have over 700 focus points, and some high-end ones have thousands.

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