Using a Verito?

[Gene McCluney]

Just wondering if one focuses at taking aperture, or focuses wide open then stops down on the Verito soft-focus lens.

[Jim Noel]

that point is moot with me because I never stop down my Verito. I use it because of its soft focus feature and stopping it down causes it to lose this feature. The more it is stopped down, the sharper he gets.

[eddie]

i find it too difficult to focus wide open. i usually stop it down to f6 and go. some time i open it back up other times i just shoot at f6. it still has plenty of softness at f6. i just do not have the "galli" eye for it .....yet.

[Jason Greenberg Motamedi]

With most SF lenses I usually focus at the taking aperture, which ranges for me between f4 and f8. Many of these lenses have focus shift so it is best to be careful. In addition the halation shifts depending on both aperture and focus.

[Gene McCluney]

that point is moot with me because I never stop down my Verito. I use it because of its soft focus feature and stopping it down causes it to lose this feature. The more it is stopped down, the sharper he gets.

Well, I like to stop down a couple of stops to moderate the softness. I love the softness, just not as much as you get wide-open.

[wfwhitaker]

I usually focus at the taking aperture, whatever that is. If I can find a specular highlight in the subject, I use that. At f/4, I don't know if you can really call it "focusing".

[Mark Sawyer]

With most SF lenses I usually focus at the taking aperture, which ranges for me between f4 and f8. Many of these lenses have focus shift so it is best to be careful. In addition the halation shifts depending on both aperture and focus.

Jason described my thoughts exactly. It's very difficult to tell if there's a focus shift with the Verito, as the depth of field is significantly "spread" by the spherical aberration, and because the degree of aberration (and very nature of the image) changes as you reduce the aperture.