Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2008/03/04

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Subject: [Leica] Narrow DoF on the Leica E-3
From: pklein at 2alpha.net (Peter Klein)
Date: Tue Mar 4 12:45:27 2008
References: <200803041501.m24EtxJT018223@server1.waverley.reid.org>

Richard:  Would you do me a favor?  Meter something once at a medium 
aperture. Then take a series of equivalent manual exposures. Such as:

1/30, f/4
1/60, f/2.8
1/125,f/2
1/250,f/1.4

Are resulting images the same exposure, or is f/1.4 much darker? If you're 
game, try the whole range of f-stops. Do things get out of whack again at 
f/11 or f/16?

I noticed that with my E-1 and a Zuiko 50/1.4, I got only about 1/3 stop 
more light going from f/2 to f/1.4.  So the 50/1.4 was really only a 
50/1.8 for practical purposes. This might have something to do with the 
angle the light hits the sensor wells, and something gets cut off faster 
than about f/2.

There were actually two factors. Not only did the sensor respond 
differently at extreme apertures, but metering was also off at both 
large and small stops. So the effects of the two factors combined, making 
things very confusing until I separted them.

The result was the the OM lenses couldn't be relied upon without knowing a 
compensation factor for wide open and closed down. All this behavior has 
been reported by others (with the usual Internet flamefests over the 
cause, and whether the reporter knows how to use his camera).

I wonder if the E-3 is the same, or if it's more forgiving with 
OM lenses.

That said, if you have a OM Zuiko macro lens, try it with the E-3 and you 
might just marvel at the image quality.  My 50/3.5 OM Macro gave me image 
quality on the E-1 like no other lens I tried. And the 100/2.8 makes a 
nifty 200mm-equivalent telephoto.

--Peter

> Who says it can't be done?
> http://www.dragonsgate.net/pub/richard/PICS/_3031364.jpg
> http://www.dragonsgate.net/pub/richard/PICS/_3031365.jpg
> http://www.dragonsgate.net/pub/richard/PICS/_3031366.jpg
>
> The trusty 50/1.4 Zuiko at 1.4. The E-3 VF is definitely as good if
> not better than the OM-4 when it comes to manual focusing.


Replies: Reply from don.dory at gmail.com (Don Dory) ([Leica] Narrow DoF on the Leica E-3)
Reply from philippe.amard at tele2.fr (Philippe AMARD) ([Leica] Narrow DoF on the Leica E-3)
Reply from richard-lists at imagecraft.com (Richard Man) ([Leica] Narrow DoF on the Leica E-3)