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I'm currently considering picking up an ultra wide prime, which has no AF, manual only. My only experience with manual focus is with a zoom lens, where you can always zoom in, set your focus, and zoom back out. How difficult is it to nail focus on an ultra wide manual focus given that I wouldn't be able to use that strategy? I could only rely on the viewfinder as my camera body doesn't come equipped with Live View.

Just looking for some opinions, personal experiences on the topic.

It depends on your camera. If it offers live view with image magnification, it's a piece of cake to zoom in, focus, zoom out, stop the lens down, compose and take your shot. If your camera does not offer image magnification then a focusing aid such as a micro-prism screen or viewfinder magnifier should be used.

easier than telephoto lenses, just set it to infinity and F8, forget about the focusing ring forever

Yeah, but sometimes the infinity focus setting doesn't jive with actual infinity focus, ie, sometimes the setting is actually beyond infinity focus. Having said that, I get your point, once I find infinity then it should be fire and forget.

infinity is overrated (as is focus). just find your about-right distance

Are you suggesting that I consider "creative focusing", Vilk?

Which camera body? If it's an entry level body, I have heard that manual focusing generally is not as easy as larger bodies. That being said, a quick bit of practice will tell you if you can reliably set the focus ring, or whether you need to offset to compensate for adapter thickness issues.

Which camera body, and which lens, specifically?

+1 yep, hyperfocal is about an armslength away.

that sounds about right...

The DOF calculator is your friend.

http://www.dofmaster.com/dofjs.html

why not switch the focusing screen if you use a lot of faster lenses, i switched one in a 7D, can't go back to stock

Good old classic 5D. Lenswise, I'm specifically thinking about a 14mm Samyang/Rokinon. If they were available for rental, I'd do that and play with it and answer my own question. Given that's not possible though, thought I'd ping you guys.

Having said that, I've done some more research and the consensus seems to be that the sweet spot with focus on that lens is about 2-3mm off the infinity marker and it's apparently fairly easy to find. Ie, PE's suggestion sounds like it's very achievable.

I've never used a different focusing screen, tbh, which is why I hadn't given it much thought. I guess if focusing ends up being a problem, that could be a backup plan.

I'm not sure that everyone truly appreciates how little you really need to worry about focusing with UWA's...

As an example, on a 1.6x crop body if you have a 10-20mm set at 10mm (which is the commonly found UWA wide range), then at f5.6 your hyperfocal distance is 3 feet.

This means you set your focus to 3 feet and everything from ~1.5 feet in front of the lens to infinity is in focus. ie. it's a REALLY wide focus and you just need to get close.

At f16 in the same example, your hyperfocal is at 1.1' and everything from 1' to infinity is in focus!

fiz.

+1

This is why I had started this thread. Thanks for all the input. I think it has certainly addressed any worries I might have had regarding focusing with an ultra wide lens.

With the old 5D and no live-view in that case Angle Finder C is your best friend. Used it for years with manual lenses on EOS bodies before live-view came along.