Depth of Field ~ distances and zoom lenses

[Garasaki]

So I understand that as your experience with photography grows, things such as calculating DoF can be learned and practiced, and one of the primary advantages to doing so would be getting the shot you want, and at the same time not MISSING the shot when it's there.

I am not trying to minimize the importance of knowing your DoF. Particularly for some shots professionals might be going after.

However, another way to learn about DoF is take freakin pictures. It's a digital camera. You can take thousands of photo's at no cost. I've learned a lot about DoF by taking pictures, and yes I definitely lost some shots due to using too narrow a DoF. As I'm learning more, I'm losing less shots because of this. I'm considering a "generalized" DoF when setting up my camera and my shots.

It's not nearly as precise as mathematically calculating it. However, I also don't carry a tape measure when I shoot...

I feel like this is a subject that can be overcomplicated and overwhelming for a less experienced photographer on their journey (while fully acknowledging that it IS an important subject).

I would suggest perhaps all the book learnin here is swinging too far in one direction....

 

[ac12]

Tim's pix shows the DoF scale on the lens.
This was sooo easy to use, and I used it often.
It is one of the things I really miss on today's lenses.

 

[john.margetts]

Tim's pix shows the DoF scale on the lens.
This was sooo easy to use, and I used it often.
It is one of the things I really miss on today's lenses.

I miss it as well, but my latest lens - Canon EF 70-300 - has an LED dislay which can show DOF.

 

[PJcam]

So I understand that as your experience with photography grows, things such as calculating DoF can be learned and practiced, and one of the primary advantages to doing so would be getting the shot you want, and at the same time not MISSING the shot when it's there.

I am not trying to minimize the importance of knowing your DoF. Particularly for some shots professionals might be going after.

However, another way to learn about DoF is take freakin pictures. It's a digital camera. You can take thousands of photo's at no cost. I've learned a lot about DoF by taking pictures, and yes I definitely lost some shots due to using too narrow a DoF. As I'm learning more, I'm losing less shots because of this. I'm considering a "generalized" DoF when setting up my camera and my shots.

It's not nearly as precise as mathematically calculating it. However, I also don't carry a tape measure when I shoot...

I feel like this is a subject that can be overcomplicated and overwhelming for a less experienced photographer on their journey (while fully acknowledging that it IS an important subject).

I would suggest perhaps all the book learnin here is swinging too far in one direction....

I totally agree with the need to get out and test the camera but, the weather here has been terrible so I have been unable to do so yet.

I have three different DoF Calculators, including www.cambridgeincolour.com and every one showed different results? I have an idea on the concept, just need to get out and play with it and check the results.

I also have an App for Hyperfocal distance called, HyperFocal Pro, this is a very good App for checking settings for a deeper DoF, but again, I need to get out and put these things into practice.

Thanks for your comments.

 

[PJcam]

Tim's pix shows the DoF scale on the lens.
This was sooo easy to use, and I used it often.
It is one of the things I really miss on today's lenses.

It looked a good items to have on the lens, I wonder have they done away with this because lenses are more advanced, more automated (if you want automated), and maybe also to cut costs.

 

[PJcam]

Tim's pix shows the DoF scale on the lens.
This was sooo easy to use, and I used it often.
It is one of the things I really miss on today's lenses.

I miss it as well, but my latest lens - Canon EF 70-300 - has an LED dislay which can show DOF.

Where is the LED display John?

I have the EF-S 75-300mm f/3.5-5.6 Lens

Pity they did away with the old method I think.

 

[john.margetts]

I miss it as well, but my latest lens - Canon EF 70-300 - has an LED dislay which can show DOF.

Where is the LED display John?

I have the EF-S 75-300mm f/3.5-5.6 Lens

Pity they did away with the old method I think.

The LED display is on top of the lens barrel just forward of the mount. You can select between focus distance, DOF, and something else that escapes me at the moment (edit: image stabiliser status). See here for a photo: Buy Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS II USM Lens

 

[petrochemist]

Tim's pix shows the DoF scale on the lens.
This was sooo easy to use, and I used it often.
It is one of the things I really miss on today's lenses.

It looked a good items to have on the lens, I wonder have they done away with this because lenses are more advanced, more automated (if you want automated), and maybe also to cut costs.

DOF displays were easy with push pull zooms, but become much more awkward with two ring zooms as most are with AF taking over. It's a shame more bodies don't offer a hyperfocal focusing option. It can't be difficult for the lens to focus to a fixed distance depending on the aperture. Ideally such a system would allow user adjustment of how sharp they consider acceptable (electively circle of confusion adjustment).

IMO primes have no excuse not to show a DOF scale on the lens, but some don't even give focusing distance scales...

 

[Dave442]

I think the digital display option like that Canon lens is a nice feature. With this data on the lens it would be nice if it could be added to the EXIF. This digital reading resolves the issue with two rings zooms and how to show the changing DOF at the different focal lengths (the old Nikon 43-86mm zoom may not have been great, but the curved lines showing DOF were a thing of beauty).

 

[Derrel]

Yeah...the older Nikkor manual focus zooms had VERy cool depth of field scales; back in the day, one of _the_ biggest differences between Nikon and all of the other camera and lens makers was that Nikon used color-coded f/stops on the lenses, and on the depth of field scales. This was very handy, and was elegantly done. Here's a look at the DOF scale for the 80-200mm f/4 Ai-S Nikkor:80-200:

 

[john.margetts]

All my Cosina lenses have that colour coding of apertures and nice curved dof lines. I suspected that it was the accepted way to do things at the time.

 

[petrochemist]

All my Cosina lenses have that colour coding of apertures and nice curved dof lines. I suspected that it was the accepted way to do things at the time.

The coloured curves was certainly pretty standard, but most did not have the numbers on the aperture ring coloured. I've only seen that on Nikon lenses.

 

[ac12]

Nikon was the only color coded DoF scale that I knew of.

All the other lenses that I saw, had either black line on a chrome barrel or white line on a black barrel, with engraved/painted numbers next to the lines. Just like in the pix that Tim posted.

 

[john.margetts]

Here's a couple of Fujinon lenses in M42 mount with coloured aperture scales. My Cosina lenses are too efficiently put away to get at at the moment.

 

[Derrel]

Gosh, I MISS these DOF scales and such complete distance scales on my new-era autofocusing lenses.

I had never, ever seen the color-coded f/stops on the aperture scales on anything but a Nikkor lens! Seems that even back in the days of m42 thread mount, Fuji was ahead of the curve! Thanks for posting the photo of the Fujinon lenses!