V
Vivek
Guest
You basically covered what you need to do when shooting with the D800E. So, why bother with the theory which is based on a set of assumptions and is approximate at best? Unlike a manual RF cam, the D800E or a liveview cam offers DOF preview. It is an easy preparation- for a given lens, and a distance range, the required aperture can be found ahead of time and used in practice. Even in case of a mechanical RF cam, it can be worked out ahead of time.One of the hallmark techniques of street shooting has always been using hyper focal distance . On a Leica M you place the infinity mark at the F stop and you can see that everything from your navel to the moon should be in focus . Close inspection would show that this is only true in the most liberal definitions of “in focus “ . With larger sensors (and it appears smaller pixels ) DOF seems to have disappeared .
A recent blog post on Diglloyd (on the free blog) presents a theory ? that DOf should be calculated by using a circle of confusion that mirrors the pixel size .
You could easily see this with MF at wide apertures but I had always considered this a difference in focal lengths . Using an M9 and a S2 the pixel pitch is close and so a 70mm lens has the same DOF on both cameras (but different equivalent FOV)..so all I was seeing was the fact that a 70 on the S2 was a 50 on the M9.
Street shooters are taught to get close and use wide angle lens .....the more you shoot the closer you can get ......but as pixel pitch gets below 5 ... you just don t have adequate DOF to cover subject movement . But the same concept applies to many different subjects .
Add in that optimum aperture is often between f4 and f5.6 and I ve found my limiting factor with the D800E .....