scale foucs

[Will]

Hi Guys,

Scale foucsing a wide angle lens is pretty easy, since the DOF covers it.

But what about normal? I noticed that most normals' scales goes like 2, 3, 5, Inf (in meters).

For not so near distance, what do you do? What's your experience with scale focuing on normal lense?

Cheers




Will

 

[ClaremontPhoto]

Practice. Pace out ten metres from a tree or something and remember what it looks like for next time. Obviously do it for various distances and situations, a tree, a person, a building and so on.

Also, focus on various objects with one of your cameras and look on the lens to see the distance.

You will soon get to know your distances, and normal lenses still have depth of field too.

 

[JMP]

Hi Guys,

Scale foucsing a wide angle lens is pretty easy, since the DOF covers it.

But what about normal? I noticed that most normals' scales goes like 2, 3, 5, Inf (in meters).

For not so near distance, what do you do? What's your experience with scale focuing on normal lense?

Cheers




Will

I think the concern should be for close distances with scale focus, since depth of field increases with farther objects (i.e. f16 @4' in focus between 3.5' and almost 5', f16 @20' in focus between 12' and 60'). If you feel comfortable estimating near distances, then I think you should feel fine with far distances, since you have to be less precise.

 

[JMP]

Oh, I should add that I took those reading off my Rolleicord III (120 format) with a 75mm- approximates a 50mm for 35mm format.

 

[pvdhaar]

I find that 35mm is the limit for scale focussing for common enlargement sizes like the 4x6inch/10x15cm that we have nowadays. Anything longer, and DOF suffers so much that guesstimating correctly becomes a hit and miss. I could see this from the photos that my parents made in the sixties with a scale focussing 45mm Agfa Silette.

Many of the pictures in the albums were not really in focus. But as they were enlarged much less (less than 8x12cm), you don't really notice, unless you look for it.

There is a Minox forum on photo.net, where some tricks are discussed in correctly focussing the 35mm models. Perhaps you could have a look there for some suggestions that may help you.

But if you really need to scale focus a 50mm or longer very accurately, I would look for a separate used flash shoe mounted rangefinder.

 

[richard_l]

I think 40mm is "normal," and it's usually feasible to scale (or zone) focus a 40mm (or wider) lens, but that's about the limit for me. I don't feel comfortable doing it with any longer lens, unless it's something simple, like using hyperfocal distance (or possibly infinity) for a landscape.

 

[oftheherd]

One of my cameras I like using is the Welta Welti. It scale focuses and I don't have so much of a problem with it, but part of that is a lot of past practice guessing distance. I lot of that was from the military, and a lot just from using that camera. As to dof, that particular camera has a dof scale attached to the back when I have doubts or worries.

Bottom like, you can learn to estimate distances closely enough to use scale focusing and for that matter, non-automatic flash. I have done that in the past (with both bulbs and my first electronic flashes) also, but not so much now. As mentioned above, just practice. You will get better.

 

[Poptart]

This is an easy one. First, decide what is the closest your subject could be. Then, what is the farthest away it could be. Set the aperture so that the DOF covers both near and far (with the focus point set in-between) and Bob's your uncle!

 

[richard_l]

This is an easy one. First, decide what is the closest your subject could be. Then, what is the farthest away it could be. Set the aperture so that the DOF covers both near and far (with the focus point set in-between) and Bob's your uncle!

Absolutely! However, I would call that "zone focussing" rather than "scale focussing," and it depends on the lens having a DOF scale (or your brain having a good memory).

 

[pvdhaar]

This is an easy one. First, decide what is the closest your subject could be. Then, what is the farthest away it could be. Set the aperture so that the DOF covers both near and far (with the focus point set in-between) and Bob's your uncle!

I can never get my uncles to sit between the near and far point to make a decent pic... Especially when I have to resort to guessing how far off they are in the first place.. I guess that's because none of them is called 'Bob' 😉

 

[Will]

Thanks guys...

Cheers




Will