Leica S favorite architectural lens

[mgrayson3]

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Focus stacking is very easy to do by hand on a "direct drive" lens, i.e. one that doesn't focus by wire. Just move the focus ring by the same amount between shots, as DoF is constant in "angle turned" space. 

[Photon42]

Certainly a useful (and Firmware only) extension, if storage allows. Just like Xiaubauu2009, I never really used it. I do remember the Olympus EM-1.1 got it as a Firmware update at some point.

[albireo_double]

On 4/1/2019 at 10:20 AM, mgrayson3 said:

Focus stacking is very easy to do by hand on a "direct drive" lens, i.e. one that doesn't focus by wire. Just move the focus ring by the same amount between shots, as DoF is constant in "angle turned" space. 

Changing focus by hand is of course possible, but I always fear I will move the camera accidentally between shots or will not turn the focusing ring by consistent amounts. Of course, not a big deal when I take 3-5 shots, but the auto systems now allow us to shoot many more frames into a stack, with very small controlled movements. This in turn makes it possible to use the lens close to wide open, for greater separation from the background. I have used this feature with the GFX with some static shots of leaves, flowers etc. and the auto focus stacking feature worked really well and opened up some new creative possibilities. Having sold the GFX, I now wish Leica would incorporate this feature in the S3 / S007 / SL firmware.

[xiaubauu2009]

4 hours ago, albireo_double said:

Changing focus by hand is of course possible, but I always fear I will move the camera accidentally between shots or will not turn the focusing ring by consistent amounts. Of course, not a big deal when I take 3-5 shots, but the auto systems now allow us to shoot many more frames into a stack, with very small controlled movements. This in turn makes it possible to use the lens close to wide open, for greater separation from the background. I have used this feature with the GFX with some static shots of leaves, flowers etc. and the auto focus stacking feature worked really well and opened up some new creative possibilities. Having sold the GFX, I now wish Leica would incorporate this feature in the S3 / S007 / SL firmware.

I sold the GFX in anticipation for the GFX 100s before I actually use the focus stacking function. Don't really know how to do do it.

[albireo_double]

You can read up on how to use focus stacking on the GFX here: Jim Kasson's Blog, and also in Jim's contributions elsewhere, like here: dpreview link. Some experimenting needed re optimal number of steps and the length of each step. For subsequent processing, here is a good description: Brian Smith's Web. Very useful for macro, still life and product shots where you need to control DoF precisely, without resorting to narrow aperture settings and the resulting loss of resolution through diffraction.