a second chance - Manual Focus

I really was not happy with the results so far from the Canon SX10 IS.
So on this crisp Monday morning I gave the SX10 another chance to proof me wrong.
The night before I downloaded the manual because I did not wanted to open the one what came with the camera. I read the whole thing from front to back. Since lots of functions are identical to my S2 I could skip lots of pages.
I also compared the SX10 and the S2 a bit closer.

While with the viewfinder from the S2 it is impossible to use it for manual focus the viewfinder from the SX10 is like watching IMAX. I have glasses and with them I can not see everything what is displayed without moving my head slightly. Without glasses (I have +4) the diopter adjuster produces a sharp image at the end of the adjustable area and you see everything. But the bigger picture I get while using my glasses makes more than up that I just see 90% on a first glance.The eye piece is rubberized and not hard plastic as on the Panasonic FZ28 also, with the flipped out screen you have an little depression next to the swivel what is an exact place to put your nose. This makes it so much more nose friendly for the longer non Asian noses. 

With all the little helpers in the SX10 manual focus is possible, not great but usable.

So lets take the SX10 for a manual focus tour, shall we?
Flip out the screen  
DISP Button until the viewfinder is active

don´t worry, all the clutter can vanish with a press of the DISP button
now press MF

with the thumb wheel you give your thumb some exercise and soon the Distance Bar begins to move up or down. After you turned it for a while up or down, it moves like a geriatric turtle and you find what  for you is the sharpest image. Since the center is enlarged it really helps you with your decision.

If you think the Canon should check if it could do better, press the lowest of the spider eyes the AF Frame Selector Button

You can do this several times and see where the Distance Bar ends up each time

Just when you half press  the Shutter Button, a blue light goes on. This is because your turned Auto ISO Shift to On. Your SX10 tells you that ISO 200 is just not the right choice and recommends to increase the ISO to a higher value.

So while you still have the Shutter Button half depressed you accept the choice by pressing the blue lit Shortcut Button once.

We finally shoot our picture and review it.

With the Zoom Slider we go to maximal magnification to see if it is really sharp.

Pressing the DISP Button brings up more info.

Manual Focus

And this concludes our Manual Focus adventure.