Why does my Samsung NX1000 zoom way in when manually focusing?

Question

I bought a Samsung NX1000 this week, and I have the 20-50mm lens.

However when I put it on manual focus, the picture keeps jumping from standard zoom to "mega zoom" — it zooms a lot further in then it would fully extended on the auto focus.

First question is: It keeps jumping in and out of this mega zoom. How do i control it so it stays zoomed in that far? Why does it jump? And how can I focus manually?

Second question: When I try to take a picture when it is zoomed in at this mega zoom, the picture keeps jumping back to normal zoom and takes that picture. How do i take a picture zoomed in to the max?

Answer 1

What you see on the LCD screen on the back of the camera is a magnified view of part of the image the lens is projecting onto the sensor. The lens isn't zooming, only the screen is. This is a feature, named Manual Focus Assist, to help you see fine details so that you can manually focus more accurately. Most cameras with this feature will also let you pan around the image if what you wish to bring into focus is not in the center of the scene. The screen will zoom to the area you have selected as the focus point. To change the location and size of the focus point, see the instructions on page 67 of the NX1000 User Manual.

To manually focus you turn the focusing ring on the lens. Rotating the ring is what activates the MF Assist. There are a few options for MF Assist listed on page 70 of the NX1000 User Manual. You can choose to turn it off, set the magnification at 5x, set the magnification at 8x, or to display a focus bar that rises as the amount of contrast (focus) increases. There does not seem to be an option to keep the screen zoomed in all the time. Remember, the lens isn't zooming that far. The LCD screen is just magnifying a part of the view from the lens.

When you take the picture, the entire image that the lens is projecting onto the sensor is recorded, not just the part that is magnified on your LCD screen.

Answer 2

It zooms to help you determine correct sharpness. It is actually a helpful feature, you can disable it from the menu.

It only zooms in for a brief amount of time to not interrupt your composition view, you can use the outer ring of the lens (but not the outmost part of the lens itself) to manually focus. It focuses precisely so maybe that is why you thought it was not focusing (You need to rotate the ring maybe 3-5 times).

Answer to your last question is this: You take that zoomed out picture but when you zoom in with a viewing software, you actually zoom in to that region. Simply it is only the digitally zoomed part of that region.