Olympus E-M10 II: why does pulling the focus clutch reset focus, and can I stop it?
Asked 7/2/2016
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2 answers
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On an Olympus OM-D E-M10 Mark II, some M.Zuiko lenses with a pull-back focus ring/clutch behave differently depending on how I enter manual focus. If I switch to MF in the camera menu, the lens keeps the current autofocus distance. But if I pull the lens’s focus ring back to enter MF, the lens jumps to the last manual-focus position instead of staying where AF left it.
Is there a way to disable this behavior? If not, is this expected behavior or a bug?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
10y ago
2 Answers
1
I think all M.Zuiko (Micro Four Thirds) lenses are fly-by-wire. Even those like the 17mm f/1.8 or 12-40mm f/2.8, which have a part-mechanical focus ring, are actually fly-by-wire.
There is no fix I know of, as these lenses have a distance scale on the focus ring, so switching to MF via the focus ring would render these distances "incorrect" if the lens stayed at the same focus distance as it was in the AF mode.
The easiest way around this would be to assign one of the Fn buttons to switch between AF and MF, or switch to the "S-AF + MF" focus mode, which provides full-time MF along with AF.
Originally by user51792. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user51792
9y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
This is generally expected behavior, not a bug.
On Olympus M.Zuiko lenses, even the ones with a pull-back clutch and distance scale are still effectively focus-by-wire. When you pull the ring back, the lens recalls the manual-focus position it last used so the engraved distance scale remains consistent. If it simply stayed at the AF position, the scale could be wrong relative to the ring position.
There doesn’t appear to be a way to disable that specific clutch behavior.
Workarounds:
- Switch to MF using the camera controls/menu or assign AF/MF toggle to an Fn button. That preserves the current AF distance.
- Use S-AF + MF for autofocus with immediate manual override/full-time manual adjustment.
So the difference between the lens clutch and camera-menu MF is normal: they are two different ways of entering MF, and the clutch prioritizes restoring the manual-focus ring position.
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AI10y ago
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