Things I Miss No.1

I've been thinking a bit lately about our modern digital cameras and all the bells and whistles which they have packed inside. A multitude of things which are meant to make our lives easier and the quality of our photography so much better. The truth of the matter of course is that great photographs are made by great photographers and the equipment is of little relevance. Give an expert a Box Brownie and the chances are that you will get back a set of great pictures. Most of the "stuff" I have on my Canon DSLR I could happily get by without but there are a few things which we of a certain generation used to find so useful, which have now been largely eliminated from digital cameras, certainly those below professional grade.

One of these is the Depth of Field Scale engraved on the lens barrel. The one illustrated here is that from an old Super Takumar 55mm f2 lens which was standard issue on many old Asahi Pentax film cameras. Now just why, you may ask, is such a thing useful? Well, simply because it enables you to see at a glance how your depth of field is likely to work out. It also enables you to set your point of focus using the Hyperfocal Distance. The what? do I hear you say. A little definition is called for:

When a lens is focused on infinity, the depth of field extends from infinity to a point nearer the camera. The distance from the camera to this near limit of the sharp field is known as the Hyperfocal Distance. If the lens is focused on this Hyperfocal Distance, the depth of field extends from half the Hyperfocal Distance to infinity.

Look at the above blip. The aperture is set at f8. The red diamond is the actual point focused on and you will see that I have rotated the focus ring so that the infinity mark (like a figure 8 on its side) is opposite f8 on the left of the focus mark. Now look at f8 on the other side and you will see that the distance opposite this is roughly 6 metres. Therefore everything between 6 metres and infinity will be acceptably sharp. Very handy for the landscape photographer who wants to maximise the depth of field. You will also notice that the point of prime focus is set at about 12 metres, the half of which is 6 as per the last sentence of the definition.

So, the quick way to maximise depth of field is to check the selected aperture, rotate the focus ring until infinity is opposite the corresponding figure on the left of the scale and instantly that's the maximum you can get from your lens at that aperture. Now, try doing that on your new auto focus wonder lens. Unless you have spent a King's Ransom on it, I bet you can't. It's called progress.

I have another one or two of these little rants up my sleeve for this week. On Friday night we are going away for a week to Lanzarote so it will be a busy week of preparation for the trip and these little rants will take up the minimum of shooting time. Looking forward to some warmth and sunny blue skies after months of grey muggy days here. I'll be blipping of course but will not have access to the internet so you will have to wait until Sunday/Monday the 18th or 19th to see what arises. Just under 4 days to go.

Ps. The red mark with the letter R beside it is for focusing Infra Red film. Remember IR is a different wavelength than visible light so it comes to focus at a different point.