1. AEL
2. Dark Viewfinders
3. Infinity and beyond
Thanks Craig - I was fooling around with my words, a bit like the AEL lock, so please excuse my churlishness. I wasn't joking about being laid over with pneumonia - it's not pleasant. I could have wrapped up warmer, but why bother when I can have pneumonia instead!
AEL is amazing.....I think I've discovered its application. I tried some of the suggestions, and I was amazed at how fast it speeds up shooting time. Okay, okay...I didn't discover...I was told how to use it, and in which contexts. A bolt out of the blue, just like a streptococcus.
Dark f2.8 and f4.0s on the Aria. I'd asked about this, since the 300mm f4.0 really gets dark. I've tried using a -2 dioptre correction on the standard split-screen focus screen. For some reason, this doesn't work significantly for me. The -2 makes the split-image collar more differentiated, however a clever optician might say that's because my optical prescription is out-of-date.
Alternatively, the FU-4 has made its impression on me (the gridded matt screen). This is my favourite screen for several reasons: the peripheral field looks 'cleaner' without the groundglass effect - hazy grey field to me and you. Also, being a Copernician as opposed to a Aristotelian, I sometimes like to focus using the peripheral field of the screen (which is difficult with a standard split collar microspot) rather than being limited by the centre-spot. The matt-gridded screen looks brighter to me and maybe I am inclined to feel less subjective on this point; others who have looked through the screen also find it looks brighter and 'cleaner'.
On one occasion I've used the RTSIII with the same 300mm F4.0 lens for a brief period and the 100% screen, larger pentaprism feels better. Now with a Beattie Intenscreen of the same matt-gridded variety, this could be marvellous, however, then the 3mm spot-meter gets lost.
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On a separate note about infinity: I can focus on 10 metres. When I try to focus on infinity, I feel in awe of it. Focussing beyond infinity is transcendental. That leaves me in utter awe at Carl Zeiss!