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Zone focussing with SL and Zeiss 35mm Distagon ZM


su25

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Next, I tried f8  and f11 at 1/125s and 1/250s with zone focussing...with 1.2m set on the left side (closest distance in focus), which gave me an in-focus distance between 1.2~2.5 m @ f8 and 1.2~3.0 @ f11.

 

The closest distance in focus is actually 0,7 m for this lens and when I look at your photo, the sharp zone looks pretty close! With 0,7 m focus distance the DOF is extremely shallow, even with f11 you have just 24 cms (0,60-0,84 m) available.

With your mentioned focus distance of 1,2 m and f11 your in focus distance is between 0,92-1,77 m, that's just 85 cms. I don't know where you got your numbers from, but they are completely wrong! Also wrong is the assumption that the in-focus distance starts at 1,2 m when you set the distance to 1,2 m. The focus distance is the point of maximum sharpness of a lens, but you have a sharpness zone in front and behind the max point, as a rule of thumb 1/3 of the zone in front and 2/3 behind.

To check the exact numbers please go to the Zeiss website and download the data sheet for the 1,4/35 mm, this will tell you everything you need to know.

 

 

This is a crop from lower left corner, the only section which was in focus. Shot at f11 1/200s ISO 250. If I remember correctly, I had 1.2m on the left side of the scale. And, very little dof as can be seen from the details on the t-short, although I was pretty close to the subjects.

 

It's the other way around! The closer you get to your subject/object, the shallower the DOF gets  ;)

 

 

Hope I could help!

 

mich

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People tend to forget that, on a digital camera, the DOF scales on lenses are too wide by at least one stop in both directions. I won't go into the technical reasons (again), but it is imperative to stop down at least one stop more than your DOF scale suggests! This is for prints up to A4. For larger prints, you need to stop down more.

 

Zone focusing AKA using DOF is determining the zone of acceptable unsharpness*. An image is sharp in one place only: the plane of focus.

Nor is the zone of focus "sharp" from front to back. It tapers off from the plane of optimum sharpness into the fuzziness of bokeh. The falloff differs per lens.

More importantly, it differs by subject matter too. Big contrasty blocks will exhibit more DOF that finely structured foliage. Grey, misty photographs will have nearly infinite DOF.

 

*This means a subjective judgement by the photograher.

 

 

Everything said - by jaapv and mich.

 

With a lens like the Distagon 35mm ZM you need to focus.

 

I still use hyperfocal focussing but gave up on zone focussing. If you want to be quick, look for an AF system. 

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  • 5 weeks later...

I shoot 1/500th sec f8 focus point 7 feet. That gives me 5 to nearly 10th distance in focus. This worked for me the very fist time I tried. If I see something that is going coming up that is outside that range, I bump the focus ring without looking “a little” in that direction and shoot. That even works for me 95% of the time.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

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1/250 sec is enough to freeze a ballet dancer in midair. So, if your pictures are not sharp at 1/250, this cannot be attributed to the motion blur. Someone gave you the most valuable practical advice: get your far distance within 10m. When composed correctly, almost any street shot only benefits from the lack of sharpness beyond 10m.

 

Hey Irakly,

 

She's at the peak of her jump, and slowing down, with luck and timing you could have used 1/30 second  ;) and more blurred motion in her limbs. Great shot by the way.

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Firstly, practice at home. Stand a distance away from an object, guess the distance, bring up camera and lens and focus. Check the distance. Did you guess correctly. Then walk around and pick another object, repeat. Repeat. About 50x per night. Choose distances between 1-5m away. This will teach you to accurately guess distance and allow you to pre-focus when you see a scene unfolding.

 

Secondly - more obvious, did you consider to try a wider angle lens which has more DoF? Like 24 or 28mm?

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

 

I agree. I might even pick something wider and just go closer. Something like the new 18mm and have APS-C crop. 

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1/500 freezes humans moving at day to day walking speeds.

 

1/1000 freezes vehicles.

 

My daytime "at the ready" settings w/ a 35mm lens are auto ISO, 1/500, f8 or f11.

Less if they’re walking towards you.

I agree with the settings except abt the auto iso. If you are using raw files auto iso over exposes. Of course with jpegs you have to accept what you get by way of exposure, so auto iso is more useful.

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