Mastering Zone Focusing on the Q2 in Low Light, Need Advice

[ali234]

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I have been spending more time with the Q2 for low-light street photography and experimenting with zone focusing on the 28 mm Summilux. During the day I feel pretty confident using hyperfocal distance. But at night I am finding my hit rate drops quite a bit  and especially when light levels are low and subjects are moving quickly.

For those of you who use the Q/Q2 (or similar 28 mm setups), do you stick to hyperfocal distance even in low light? or  Do you adjust focus more shot-by-shot? Any tips or techniques that have worked well for you to get consistent sharpness in those situations would be much appreciated.

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[jaapv]

There is not much needed to master zone focus. There is an area in front and the back of the plane of focus that is acceptably unsharp The depth of that area depends on the aperture and intended print size ( or digital equivalent) and the tolerance for unsharpness by the photographer. So you must set the distance to the approximate desired plane of focus for your subject and choose your aperture for the desired (un)sharpness effect. Old cameras like Box Brownies used to offer a scale: cartoon face, stick man; stick family and mountain.  And the more sophisticated ones two or three apertures

In the dark you will have a very wide aperture so your zone of DOF will be close to nil. That means that zone focus turns into Zone Misfocus and that your images will be unsharp except for a lucky shot. . 

On an AF camera like the Q I see very little if any need for zone focusing. Actually it makes no sense at all. Using AF in aperture priority will give the same results with more precision and consistency.