Re: DOF & Stereo

[threed@xxxxxxx (Bob Mannle)]

Stephen Kearney wrote:
>I'm not sure I agree with this. DOF control is certainly very useful -- but
>I'm not convinced you want f/16 for every shot. Sometimes a smaller DOF can
>help 'pop' your foreground subject away from the background.
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It's much more than USEFUL... it's mandatory. I don't know if you've ever
looked at an entire roll of images with soft backgrounds... but after looking
at the first three or four I'm sure you'll agree that it's not acceptable.

I will agree that perhaps in certain situations a soft backgound may enhance
the image, or may be unadvoidable... but it must be up to the photographer
to make that decision and not the manufacturer of the camera.

In the case of the Fed-Boy... When on automatic, you are strictly at the
mercy of the camera for your depth of field, and virtually nothing I shot
that contained near/far objects was acceptable. When shooting it in the
manual mode I was restricted to 1/30th sec. exposure, which I thought I
could deal with until I shot a roll of ASA 64, on a bright sunny day. Any
one familiar with the "sunny 16" rule will know that these were all over
exposed by one stop. But... the backgrounds were sharp!

This is what interested me in investigating the newer P&S cameras for a
dual camera rig. My dual Canon F-1's with motor drives gets to be a bit
too much to lug around at times.

My trip to a local camera store revealed to me that virtually all of the
newer P&S cameras DO NOT allow any focusing and/or DOF control. In essence
this isn't any better than the Fed-Boy. There is a wide selection of new P&S
cameras available, and they are very impressive. Prices range from the low
$100's all they way to about $800 for a titanium Nikon... which offers
SOME control. Many of the optics are quite good, and considering all the
features they are quite a value for the bucks... but not totally compatible
with stereophotography because of the DOF limitations. 

I'm still investigating this and really need a lightweight system. 
We simply need a P&S camera with APERTURE priority... Just like the old
Olympus XA camera... but with better lenses.

My other thoughts are to try to use various lens filters, ASA settings, etc., in
order to try to "trick" or at least "predict" the DOF that the Fed-Boy
will use in certain situations. Any help here will certainly be appreciated.

Best Regards,

Bob Mannle

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