Yeah but if you are shooting an F1.4 or F1.8 lens, and want to check DOF at F4 or F5.6 it can be very useful!
I think the key here is that is is hard to use for shots with a small aperture/wide DOF, but is very useful when working with large apertures/limited DOF. I was taking shots of the kids this weekend using the 77. Because light was limited I was shooting between F4 and F1.8. When both kids were in the shot I wanted to check they were both in focus and guage whether I could get away with a wider aperture to keep the shutter speed up and put the background out of focus. Often the compromise was F2.8 but sometimes this disnt give me enough DOF, sometimes it gave me more than I needed. I agree that at F22 it is hopeless, but that is usually landscape shots in the WA lenses for me and I use the scale. The scale does have its innacuracies though and I always allow more DOF than needed when using hyperfocal. I do just about find it usable at F11 and F8 is not 'too' bad but only use it as a rough guide here. > -----Original Message----- > From: Chris Stoddart [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] > Sent: 25 November 2002 11:19 > To: Pentax List > Subject: Re: Depth of Field Preview (was: Re: Why I won't be > buying an MZ-S) > > > > > On Sun, 24 Nov 2002, Cotty wrote: > > > How anyone would tolerate stopping the lens down to try and > see what > > the focus is like on the foreground (say) of a poorly-lit, grainy > > focussing screen is beyond me. > > I'm afraid I am with Cotty on this one. Pentax LX with a > bright screen - can't see bugger-all useful below f/5.6 when > I am trying to get front to back sharpness on a landscape. I > just use the scale on the lenses. Maybe it's the crap British > light? :-) Or crap British eyesight? :-)) > > Chris > >
