S006, depth of field

[helged]

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Quick q: How do you estimate the DOF on the S006 (or any pre-S007) body? By looking up in a table, or by running an app? I ask since no info is given on the lens/body as far as I can tell, and the screen is not the best to judge from in-fiekd, I will say.

Edited June 7, 2018 by helged

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[peterv]

There are look up tables on the Leica website, for each S lens. You could print them and bring the info on a small piece of paper with you on a shoot.

 

My general rule of thumb with my S lenses is: don’t count on DOF, put the focus were you want it and be prepared for fast focus “roll off”.

[helged]

There are look up tables on the Leica website, for each S lens. You could print them and bring the info on a small piece of paper with you on a shoot.

 

My general rule of thumb with my S lenses is: don’t count on DOF, put the focus were you want it and be prepared for fast focus “roll off”.

Thanks - I will have a look!

 

I fully agree on the latter, but for (some types of) landscape photography I would like to have control of focus.

[peterv]

Of course, I too like to know my DOF for landscapes. You can find the depth of field tables here:

 

http://en.leica-camera.com/Photography/Leica-S/Leica-S-Lenses

 

Click on the lens you use, then on downloads, you'll find the depth of field tables at the bottom of the technical details PDF.

[ZHNL]

For landscape DOF purpose, I use experience based on 35mm multiply by 1.2. (about half stop) for example, for image you shoot at f11 give you satisfied DOF cross frame, you can shoot f13 for S. This is good  enough for starting point. To be conservative, you can always stop one stop more. 

 

But never use DOF table for modern camera, as they are not adequate for high density sensor. For M with 24M, I almost use f4~5.6 DOF scale on lens for f8 shooting to get perfect sharpness cross DOF, for A7RII, even more. (some time, you also need consider lens field curvature performance to optimize your DOF window.) 

 

For equivalent DOF.  Summarit lens on S is summicron on 35mm system. However, you do need multiply 0.8 for the focal length as well assume you didn't change shoot distance. So a 100mm Summicron is equivalent to 80mm f1.6 lens on 35mm system if you keep everything else the same. (of course you can't have the same shutter speed for the same exposure)

[Deliberate1]

There is the DOF previewer on the S body - which I rarely use. I find that it it gives an representation of DOF that is most difficult to discern, especially in low light and when selecting between one or two sequential aperture settings.

David

[Stuart Richardson]

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At least in my own work, I think f11 or f16 in extreme cases is the minimum aperture for sharpness on the s006 sensor. F22 is substantially softer on every S lens I have tried. I agree with the others that the tables are less helpful than just accepting that you will need to pick a point of best focus and deal with it. Depth of field is even trickier with lenses like the 70mm, where there is noticeable field curvature (the area of maximum focus curves towards the camera as you get to the edge of the frame). If you want maximum sharpness in a landscape image that you can take with a normal to wide, I think the best choices are the 35mm and 45mm. Both have a lot more depth of field than the 70mm because of their focal lengths, and are they are very sharp lenses. Stopped down to f8 or f11, you should get nearly everything important sharp, unless you are focused very close up.

Edited July 5, 2018 by Stuart Richardson

[helged]

At least in my own work, I think f11 or f16 in extreme cases is the minimum aperture for sharpness on the s006 sensor. F22 is substantially softer on every S lens I have tried. I agree with the others that the tables are less helpful than just accepting that you will need to pick a point of best focus and deal with it. Depth of field is even trickier with lenses like the 70mm, where there is noticeable field curvature (the area of maximum focus curves towards the camera as you get to the edge of the frame). If you want maximum sharpness in a landscape image that you can take with a normal to wide, I think the best choices are the 35mm and 45mm. Both have a lot more depth of field than the 70mm because of their focal lengths, and are they are very sharp lenses. Stopped down to f8 or f11, you should get nearly everything important sharp, unless you are focused very close up.

 

 

Exactly my findings after shooting extensively with, primarily, the 35mm-S recently. 

 

Looking at the new, optically outstanding SL primes and zooms, I wonder whether/when Leica will upgrade their already very good S-lenses. But first the rumoured S008, I guess.

[peterv]

 

I understand what you guys are saying but at the same I feel that with the S system, one needs to approach DOF cautiously. I practically use my 24mm as a landscape point and shoot with AF enabled. On a sunny day 1/500 and f9.5 at 160 ISO and be there.

 

But still, I can see where I placed my focus, the S lenses are that clinical to my eyes, and yes, I love them for it.

[JohnBrawley]

I use an app called pCAM.

 

It allows you to set a custom sensor size and a custom circle of confusion as well and then you can enter in the subject distance and aperture and it will give you the numbers.

 

I couldn’t find what CoC Leica we’re assuming with their published dof tables, buts it’s great to be able to customise your CoC like this.

 

This app has been around a long long time, it was originally developed for cinematographers and focus pullers to calculate depth of field splits. There’s a lot of presets for cinematography but it’s first job from the beginning was calculating DoF.

 

https://pcam.app

 

JB (no affiliation have just used it for decades)