Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/08/29
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]At 05:04 PM 8/29/00 -0400, Austin Franklin wrote: > >And you can't figure that out by the f-stop you are at, and looking at the >DOF scale on your lense? Sure it has some use, but how do you determine >'in focus' on the darkened fringe of the viewfinder of a 35mm camera? As >you say, you can probably gauge whether it's 'identifiable' or not...but >certainly not sharp focus... Austin, Just because you are incapable of determining what is sharp and what is not, while looking at a dark GG, doesn't mean the rest of us are so incapable. There are an awful lot of photographers, in this world, that religiously use DOF preview to check and I've been doing just that for forty years and I do it with ease. Even with these "old fart" eyes. The reason many people cannot do it is simply that they do not know what they are looking at and cannot figure out how to evaluate it. Like everything worth doing, practice over the long haul, makes perfect. DOF scales are based on COC calculations of many years ago. Today's high resolution films require a smaller COC to be within the "critical" sharp zone. You want near critical sharp with hi-res film? Reduce the lens barrel DOF scales by two stops. Shoot at f/11, read the scale at f/5.6. Use the scales as they are and your results will be good enough for happy snaps. Jim