Why I like old glass for landscapes.

[Ron Evers]

Why - because I do not have to worry about focusing. How's that? Because most old glass has a depth of field (DOF) scale on the lens barrel. So, how do you focus? I don't.

I set the desired aperture, in my example, f16. I then set the f16 mark of the DOF scale @ infinity & shoot. The other end of the DOF scale shows the minimum distance that will be in focus, in this case a bit more than 3' or about 1M.

That is how this shot was made:

Note how the rivets on the leg of the near tower are in acceptable focus as well as the water tower at infinity.


This concludes today's lesson.

 

[clanthar]

I entirely agree with you Ron -- I miss my depth of field scales real bad.

One problem though; that lens was designed for a full frame 35mm camera and that DOF scale on the lens was calculated using a circle of confusion appropriate for that format. You have the lens mounted on a micro 4/3 adapter so the DOF scale needs to be re-calculated with a smaller circle of confusion for the scale to be accurate. Or you could just use it as is and you'll be getting more DOF than you think.

Joe

 

[Ron Evers]

Thanks Joe, I never considered that.

 

[Lazy Photographer]

Awesome lesson, Ron, thanks. I don't own any old lenses with a DOF scale but you've got me thinking.

 

[Ron Evers]

Awesome lesson, Ron, thanks. I don't own any old lenses with a DOF scale but you've got me thinking.

Thanks Lazy, you may wish to review the information in this link:

Hyper focal point - Google Search

 

[fokker]

It could be just me, but the tower in the far distance doesn't look overly well focused.

 

[Ron Evers]

It could be just me, but the tower in the far distance doesn't look overly well focused.

Quite correct. The water tower is about as far out as acceptable focus, beyond that, the atmosphere starts to make everything hazy.

 

[dxqcanada]

That is one thing I wish they would mark on newer lenses.
I used to use DOF lens marking a lot, especially for Macro photography.

 

[analog.universe]

All the new Zeiss lenses still have them. They also have a hard stop at infinity, which is another annoyance on some of the newer lenses.