RE: [Leica] Re: The art of the blanket cake eating statement...

[Austin Franklin <austin@darkroom.com>]

> Having been doing
> what I talk about for forty years and having the results and sales to 
back
> them up, I don't feel like re-hashing what is a simple concept that a lot
> of folks just don't comprehend. It's not their fault.

For some, perhaps, but for me, I completely comprehend the concept and 
everything you have said about this topic, and you have added nothing that 
I wasn't already aware of.  There is typically more than one method to 
arrive at the same result, and the way you do it may work fine for you, but 
others can, and do, do it differently, with no degradation in their ability 
to produce an image of equal quality.

> They just haven't
> been exposed to the type of photography that requires critical DOF. The
> only way to truly obtain critical focus from some point in front to some
> point in back is to see it.

This is a Leica list.  Leica makes 35mm cameras.  I do not believe I get 
any better 'information' from using DOF preview on a 35mm SLR (using a 
diffuse focusing screen), than I can with thoughtful, and intelligent 
experience, and use of my faculties.  I can very easily approximate 
distance.  I can read the DOF scale on my lense.  I know what my lenses do 
reasonably well.  I can also use my camera to figure out distances for me, 
if I need to, by focusing on the two extremes I want in focus and setting 
the focus between them...and setting my aperture accordingly.  I have years 
of experience and tens of thousands of images, that exhibit exactly the DOF 
I intended.  I did not do that using DOF preview.  Point is, your stated 
method is not the only way to achieve the sought after result.  My 
particular method is completely second nature to me, and it hardly takes me 
more than a few seconds to figure out exactly what I am looking for, and 
adjust my camera accordingly.

> Yes, you can use tables, formulas, lens
> inscriptions, and numerous external methods, but you cannot substitute
> looking at it, at working aperture, and actually SEEING what is sharp and
> what is not.

The critical focus area of a 35mm SLR is typically a small spot in the 
center of the screen (possibly split image).  You would have to move your 
camera around and check the different parts of the image for focus...as 
best you can.  I don't believe you can accurately check critical focus 
outside the center of the screen.  This method seems time consuming and, at 
least to me, won't give me a better image than the method I have been using 
for near 30 years...and has worked fine for me every time.

'Most' people using an M(6) can't employ the techniques you tout as 'the 
only way'...yet the M6 is one of the most used cameras for the bokeh 
effect!  Not many carry around a Visioflex....so how did the M6 and 
associated lenses, get this reputation for being an exceptional 'bokeh' 
camera, if no one could take a good bokeh picture without employing DOF 
preview?  Obviously, there are other ways, or everyone who uses one does it 
with pure dumb luck.

> PPS. There is no appreciable Bokeh at f/11. Well... almost. My 500mm lens
> for my 4x5 starts at f/11 so I guess there would be "highly visible" 
Bokeh
> at f/11 in this case.

Doesn't that depends on what your focus distance is?  If you are close 
focused, your DOF is quite limited...and increases with focus distance.

There is, of course, no substitute for good engineering...but...one can 
also 'over-engineer' (complicate) things.  Nothing at all is wrong with 
your technique of learning how to use DOF preview, but it just isn't the 
only way.  Just because someone doesn't do it your way, doesn't mean they 
don't understand it, they may just choose to do it differently, and are 
able to achieve the same results.