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You’re Not Using Focus Check… But You Should Be

A simple tool for precise manual focusing — and one of the X-T5’s best-kept secrets.

📸 While I’m putting the final touches on Post #4 of the Focus Master Guide

“Understand What You See: Decoding Focus Indicators on the X-T5”

I wanted to share a special entry ahead of time.

Today’s focus: Focus Check — a powerful, practical, and often overlooked feature that makes precise manual focusing much easier on the Fujifilm X-T5.

Despite its usefulness, many photographers barely know it exists. Time to change that.

Let’s dive in.

Focus Check

Type: Display

Location

It’s not a focus indicator in the strict sense, but this function modifies the display to provide additional information.

Description

This is a focus assist feature that offers three different display modes to help you achieve perfect focus. It works in Manual Focus mode, or in Autofocus mode when the shutter button is half-pressed or the AF-ON button is held down.

The live view is temporarily altered when you rotate the lens focus ring, providing a clearer visual representation of focus changes.

Available Options

How to Display the Indicator

To display one of the focus assist tools, go to Still Mode > AF/MF Setting > MF Assist and select your preferred option.

Manual Focus

In Manual Focus (MF) mode, all three assist tools are available:

✔️ Digital Split Image

✔️ Digital Microprism

✔️ Focus Peaking

Autofocus

In Autofocus (AF) mode, only Focus Peaking is available — and only if the setting

Still Mode > AF/MF Setting > AF+MF is enabled.

Our Take

The visual aids provided by Focus Check are incredibly useful — especially Focus Peaking, which clearly highlights changes in the focal plane as you rotate the lens focus ring. This makes it much easier to nail critical focus, right where you want it.

It’s an essential tool for any situation requiring precise manual focus, and we strongly recommend using it for macro photography, product work, and still-life compositions.

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📝 This post is an excerpt from Article #4 of the Focus Master Guide – Fujifilm X-T5, a comprehensive series that brings together, lists, and explains every setting, control, and best practice related to focus on the X-T5.

The full Focus Master Guide will be completed and published on Substack in the coming days.

Paid subscribers get full access to all articles — and will automatically receive the complete PDF version once the series is finished.

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