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I see that there have been some heated debates about this recently. I
am from a film background and am considering getting a digital camera
sometime. This will probably not be a DSLR, but something along the
lines on a Minolta Dimage Z3.

I had always assumed that DOF preview on digital cameras was redundant
since you get a screen showing you the picture you are about to take.

Is there more to it than this? Do some digital cameras have some other
way of allowing you to preview your DOF more accurately?

Thanks in advance,
Russell.

On Wed, 01 Sep 2004 15:58:14 +0200, Russell <> wrote:

>I see that there have been some heated debates about this recently. I
>am from a film background and am considering getting a digital camera
>sometime. This will probably not be a DSLR, but something along the
>lines on a Minolta Dimage Z3.
>
>I had always assumed that DOF preview on digital cameras was redundant
>since you get a screen showing you the picture you are about to take.
>
>Is there more to it than this? Do some digital cameras have some other
>way of allowing you to preview your DOF more accurately?
>
>Thanks in advance,
>Russell.

The view seen when not pressing the preview button is, at least on my
300D, with the lense wide open... pressing the preview button closes
the apature if its set to anything other than wide open.

The LCD live view of my old g2 used to (or seemed to) open/close the
apature according to how much light was getting through so the
relative brigness of the viewfinder was always the same and where the
light was to bright or dark would boost or reduce the gain on the
signal somewhere between the ccd and the lcd.

I've noticed that sometimes the preview doesnt work, but with out
testing further the only thing I can think of is if the
exposure/apature is such that the preview is likely to be black (long
exposure) then it decides you're not going to see anything anyways...
that said, I hardly use the preview myself so it may be a problem with
one of my lenses but i've not had a need to check the whys and
wherefores.


--
Jonathan Wilson.
www.somethingerotic.com

In article <>,
Russell <> wrote:
>
>I had always assumed that DOF preview on digital cameras was redundant
>since you get a screen showing you the picture you are about to take.

No you don't. You get a screen showing you a noisy, low resolution image
exposed at about 1/60 of a second with the lens wide open, using probably
the wrong white balance.

Chris Brown <_uce_please.com> writes:

> In article <>,
> Russell <> wrote:
> >
> >I had always assumed that DOF preview on digital cameras was redundant
> >since you get a screen showing you the picture you are about to take.
>
> No you don't. You get a screen showing you a noisy, low resolution image
> exposed at about 1/60 of a second with the lens wide open, using probably
> the wrong white balance.

Well, I don't think the white balance has much impact there

B>

Russell wrote:

> I see that there have been some heated debates about this recently. I
> am from a film background and am considering getting a digital camera
> sometime. This will probably not be a DSLR, but something along the
> lines on a Minolta Dimage Z3.
>
> I had always assumed that DOF preview on digital cameras was redundant
> since you get a screen showing you the picture you are about to take.
>
> Is there more to it than this? Do some digital cameras have some other
> way of allowing you to preview your DOF more accurately?

First you have to understand a little something of how DOF works. Among
other things, it's a function of aperture: the wider the aperture, the
less the DOF; the smaller the aperture, the deeper the DOF.

Almost all cameras with adjustable apertures, SLR or otherwise, will
allow you to compose your shot with the aperture wide-open, to allow in
the maximum light. Then when you trigger the shutter, they close the
aperture to its pre-defined setting (if that setting is smaller than
"wide-open".)

Whether you're looking through a viewfinder or looking at an LCD screen,
then, you're going to see the brightest picture available, but with the
minimum DOF.

What DOF preview does, is to close down the aperture to the defined
setting, allowing you to "preview" the shot, albeit a somewhat darker
image. It works the same, again, whether you're looking at a viewfinder
image reflected off a pelicle mirror, or an LCD screen.

> No you don't. You get a screen showing you a noisy, low resolution image
> exposed at about 1/60 of a second with the lens wide open, using probably
> the wrong white balance.

And on which camera did you experience this? I have had 8 digital cameras -
starting from a Sony Mavica using floppies up to a current Oly E-1 and I
never experienced what you describe. Whether it was with a camera with an
LCD live view (ie the Oly 2100 and C700) or a screen to view the picture
after exposure.

In article <BwwZc.29565$>,
Steven Wandy <> wrote:
>> No you don't. You get a screen showing you a noisy, low resolution image
>> exposed at about 1/60 of a second with the lens wide open, using probably
>> the wrong white balance.
>
>And on which camera did you experience this?

Any digital camera with an LCD preview that I've ever used or owned,
starting with the Nikon Coolpix 950, progressing through lots of different
Canon models (various varieties of IXUSes and a few different Powershots),
and various Sony things that I've played with briefly. It seems to be
universal.

On Thu, 02 Sep 2004 11:28:58 GMT, Chris Brown
<_uce_please.com> wrote:

>In article <BwwZc.29565$>,
>Steven Wandy <> wrote:
>>> No you don't. You get a screen showing you a noisy, low resolution image
>>> exposed at about 1/60 of a second with the lens wide open, using probably
>>> the wrong white balance.
>>
>>And on which camera did you experience this?
>
>Any digital camera with an LCD preview that I've ever used or owned,
>starting with the Nikon Coolpix 950, progressing through lots of different
>Canon models (various varieties of IXUSes and a few different Powershots),
>and various Sony things that I've played with briefly. It seems to be
>universal.

We went thru this in another thread a week or so ago. It depends on
the camera. With my Oly 3020 when you half press the exposure button
the iris closes, the scene darkens, and you can see the DOF in the
LCD. With other camera the shutter stays open.

jpc

In article <>, jpc <> wrote:
>
>We went thru this in another thread a week or so ago. It depends on
>the camera. With my Oly 3020 when you half press the exposure button
>the iris closes, the scene darkens, and you can see the DOF in the
>LCD.

....or rather you could if the LCD wasn't such a low resolution that it shows
things as being in focus that aren't in the final JPEG.

On Thu, 02 Sep 2004 15:29:03 GMT, Chris Brown
<_uce_please.com> wrote:

>In article <>, jpc <> wrote:
>>
>>We went thru this in another thread a week or so ago. It depends on
>>the camera. With my Oly 3020 when you half press the exposure button
>>the iris closes, the scene darkens, and you can see the DOF in the
>>LCD.
>
>...or rather you could if the LCD wasn't such a low resolution that it shows
>things as being in focus that aren't in the final JPEG.


You missed my point. You said something was univeral; I pointed out
different cameras do it different ways. I never said a DOF preview
screen was all that useful to experienced photographer--either in the
view finder of a 35 mm camera or the LCD of a digital camera.

But as I pointed out in the previous thread, the feature, on my camera
and others like it, is a simple and graphic way to explain DOF to
budding photographers who are confused by the concept.

jpc