Re: E10 Depth of Field

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Jerry and others have commented on the E10's smallest lens opening of F11
being a limitation on depth of field.  Of course, DOF is an interactive
result of focal length and lens opening, with shorter FL lenses having
greater depth of field.  The Oly lens is a 9 - 36mm zoom.  At 9mm, there's
going to be a great deal of DOF at virtually any lens opening.  At 36mm,
F11 is going to give a very deep DOF.  Consider that the traditional SLR
with a 50mm lens would only stop down to F16 or, sometimes, F22.  F11 at
36mm is a greater DOF than F16 at 50mm.

The photographically rebellious, for their time, F64 group (in the early
20th century) named themselves after the smallest aperture available on
most view camera lenses (a standard being 150mm for a 4 x 5).  The longer
the lens, the smaller the required lens opening for a given DOF.

So, in my mind, F11 is plenty small on a 9 - 36 mm zoom.  The limitation is
on the other end of the scale and that is endemic to all small sensor
digicams.  Since the sensors are so small the lenses must be, relatively
speaking, fairly short.  As such, it's hard to get a shallow DOF with them
even at a maximum lens opening of, say, F2.8 or F1.8.  Even wide open, a
very short lens is going to have a reasonable amount of DOF.  There's no
way around this except to: A) use a larger sensor as was done in the D1, S1
and D30 or B) Fit much longer lenses to the small sensor cameras and work
with subjects that are, say, 60 feet away or more.

Soooo...if you're looking to emulate Walker Evan's later long DOF style,
you're all set with an E10.  If you want a very shallow DOF, you need a
digicam with a larger sensor.  Either way, F11 isn't the problem.










Sean Reid
Northeastern Motorcycle Tours
New England, Adirondacks and Canadian Maritimes
http://www.motorcycletours.com
802-869-3999
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