vicmortelmans
Well-known
Hi,
I'm going to take available light pictures in a pub on friday. No posed shots, people will be spontanuous and moving. What camera/lens/film to take?
Let's start with the easy part: fastest film at hand is HP5+, so that's what it'll be.
Then I was wondering which camera/lens system is the fastest.
Shutter speed is related to lens length. A 50mm lens can be shot at speeds down to 1/30, but a 28mm lens may be shot at 1/15, without much risk for loosing sharpness.
Lens speed is tricky. Obviously my fastest lens is a 50mm/f:1.4, but this has severe drawbacks: (1) the focal length only allows to go down to 1/30 in speed and (2) at f:1.4 DOF is so narrow that focus will most probably be off (remember: people moving, not much light to see where to focus anyway)....
So now I'm trying to figure out how much DOF I really need. Using a rangefinder, it doesn't matter which lens you put on, focusing is always the same (while on SLR, wide or slow lenses are harder to focus).
Let's do a mental experiment. Assume a subject at 2m distance (that's what I want to be sharp). I think I should be able to set focus as accurate as between 1.8 and 2.3m with my rangefinder quickly and in dim conditions.
If I have a 50mm lens, I need somewhere between f:4 and f:5.6 to make sure my inaccuracy won't cause blurry pictures.
If I have a 28mm lens, I can do with f:2 (that's why it's a mental experiment: I don't own that fast wide angle lenses).
So by using a wide lens, I do not only gain 1 stop because camera movement is less an issue, but I also gain two stops because of DOF!
As you see, this does not apply to SLR camera's, because on those, wide lenses are harder to focus and what you win in DOF is lost in focusing inacurracy.
So I'll take my Zorki 1 with Jupiter 12 and shoot at f:4 at 1/20...
For my ISO400 film, that's a good exposure for light values around LV6... I guess the pub will be rather close to LV4 or 5, so I'll be pushing one or two stops.
OK, that sounds feasible.
Groeten,
Vic
I'm going to take available light pictures in a pub on friday. No posed shots, people will be spontanuous and moving. What camera/lens/film to take?
Let's start with the easy part: fastest film at hand is HP5+, so that's what it'll be.
Then I was wondering which camera/lens system is the fastest.
Shutter speed is related to lens length. A 50mm lens can be shot at speeds down to 1/30, but a 28mm lens may be shot at 1/15, without much risk for loosing sharpness.
Lens speed is tricky. Obviously my fastest lens is a 50mm/f:1.4, but this has severe drawbacks: (1) the focal length only allows to go down to 1/30 in speed and (2) at f:1.4 DOF is so narrow that focus will most probably be off (remember: people moving, not much light to see where to focus anyway)....
So now I'm trying to figure out how much DOF I really need. Using a rangefinder, it doesn't matter which lens you put on, focusing is always the same (while on SLR, wide or slow lenses are harder to focus).
Let's do a mental experiment. Assume a subject at 2m distance (that's what I want to be sharp). I think I should be able to set focus as accurate as between 1.8 and 2.3m with my rangefinder quickly and in dim conditions.
If I have a 50mm lens, I need somewhere between f:4 and f:5.6 to make sure my inaccuracy won't cause blurry pictures.
If I have a 28mm lens, I can do with f:2 (that's why it's a mental experiment: I don't own that fast wide angle lenses).
So by using a wide lens, I do not only gain 1 stop because camera movement is less an issue, but I also gain two stops because of DOF!
As you see, this does not apply to SLR camera's, because on those, wide lenses are harder to focus and what you win in DOF is lost in focusing inacurracy.
So I'll take my Zorki 1 with Jupiter 12 and shoot at f:4 at 1/20...
For my ISO400 film, that's a good exposure for light values around LV6... I guess the pub will be rather close to LV4 or 5, so I'll be pushing one or two stops.
OK, that sounds feasible.
Groeten,
Vic