Hi folks,

I am hoping to find some focusing tip pointers for cold weather, aging hands, and general star lapses. Any pointers or recommendations are greatly appreciated.  In a couple of my recent shoots, I have found that my stars are actually very small donut shapes when viewed in Lightroom.  Are there any tricks to getting Infinity perfectly in focus that is easily replicated in the field?

I am shooting with a Pen E-P5 Micro 4/3's camera and I am utilizing some manual PenF lenses I collected almost 15 years ago.  All of my PenF lenses have a nice firm feeling when focusing compared to the 'manual' focus mode on my digital lens.  I am using the 'Magnify' feature when focusing;  however, it feels like I have a couple of mm of focus ring play where the viewfinder image is completely in focus.  I'm suspect of this tiny bit of movement where I have no way of seeing if the focus is getting more crisp.

Maybe it's just extra frustrating in the cold when you are trying to turn off your camera's LCD display ASAP to save your battery life.  I have not tried any tethering or Bluetooth options for proofing the images on a device because I assume it will kill my battery.  Maybe I just need to trust the calibration marks on my camera more.

Cheers,
Hays

Here are my tests for 2017 (still need to post two from last night):
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL...XyzGUZ5XuS

From my experience focussing with liveview when zoomed in is the most accurate. Use some gaffer tape to tape the focus ring then to avoid any shifting. In very cold conditions I'd check and refine the focus after the camera cooled down, because the focus might shift a bit due to contraction of the lens when it gets very cold.

Thank you Gunther! I will try the tape solution this weekend. I had a lot more success last night when switched to my wife's full-size heavy tripod which made focusing much more ergonomic. I think being extra well bundled up and comfortable made me much more patient.

Cheers,
Hays