17-35mm (D) Owners can try this out.....

[sulhan]

Hiee Pals....

For those using this lens, i would like guys to try this out.
Setting your camera to manual focus, set your focus ring to 3m position.

Then in either P,A,S mode (with aperture minimal at f4), you could take a sharp wide shot without actually focussing that accurately for say a group shot within 2.5~5m from whare you ae standing (e.g a table shot of a wedding dinner of about 10seater round table) - covering the whole table with ppl seating around the table.

I actually just got back from across the causway for a wedding dinner task....and i tried this method and its really useful for candids too.

The focusing scale on the 17mm is like .....3m then goes to infinity. I realised that if you use AF, the focusing point due to the wide angle may be inaccurate at times and the focus locked between the 3m and the infinity mark...although what you see is sharp on the viewfinder due to the wideness....

So to prevent such off-focusses for my table shots.....hahah...i just put it into MF mode and set to 3m and stand far enough about that distance and shoot.....and guess what? 99.9% sharp!!!!! BTW...i shot at f4~f5.6 most of the time.

DO try this out....and let me know what you get...

[zcf]

don't have that lens, but is this related to the hyperfocal thing?

[tankm]

Your subject is within the depth of field range.

At 17mm f4 focusing at 3m, the depth of field covers from 1.6m to 17.2m. For those interested in all this calculation, and an interesting read on depth of field head on to http://bobatkins.photo.net/photograp...calc.html#calc

[tokrot]

Originally Posted by sulhan Hiee Pals.... For those using this lens, i would like guys to try this out. Setting your camera to manual focus, set your focus ring to 3m position. Then in either P,A,S mode (with aperture minimal at f4), you could take a sharp wide shot without actually focussing that accurately for say a group shot within 2.5~5m from whare you ae standing (e.g a table shot of a wedding dinner of about 10seater round table) - covering the whole table with ppl seating around the table. I actually just got back from across the causway for a wedding dinner task....and i tried this method and its really useful for candids too. The focusing scale on the 17mm is like .....3m then goes to infinity. I realised that if you use AF, the focusing point due to the wide angle may be inaccurate at times and the focus locked between the 3m and the infinity mark...although what you see is sharp on the viewfinder due to the wideness.... So to prevent such off-focusses for my table shots.....hahah...i just put it into MF mode and set to 3m and stand far enough about that distance and shoot.....and guess what? 99.9% sharp!!!!! BTW...i shot at f4~f5.6 most of the time. DO try this out....and let me know what you get...

This may be the prob I was facing last time too. The viewfinder can't really tell me whether the object is sharp. The AF point seems to BF or OOF when shooting wide at 17mm. But have you tried 17mm at F2.8 Manual too? The f4 thing maybe the dof which make the object sharper?? could it be?
Thanks for the tips. I will try and see first..

Yo.. if got some pics to simulate your OOF shots using your tactics to correct the error is much appreciated.. *paisei*

[Big Kahuna]

Can post some sample?

[sulhan]

Originally Posted by tankm Your subject is within the depth of field range. At 17mm f4 focusing at 3m, the depth of field covers from 1.6m to 17.2m. For those interested in all this calculation, and an interesting read on depth of field head on to http://bobatkins.photo.net/photograp...calc.html#calc

Hah...thats a good input.
Precisely....imagine if you wold have put the focus ring to infinity positon....of slightly after infinity....you gonna
call for trouble...This once and awhile happens if AF is used...

So i set the camera to MF and just set the focus ring to the 3m mark...haha funny isnt it...now you dont even use viewfinder...
How i wish the DOF scle was present....like my old lens.

[jsbn]

U win some, u lose some. Prolly to cut down cost on the the 17-35?

Unless u are lookinG at The Lens which comes with everything one would die for... Distance gauge, constant aperture, perfect lens....

[Trigger Happy]

i accidentally did the same last week at a dinner. used the 18-70mm kit lens at 18mm f4 on a tripod with cable release about 2-3m away, using MF all the way.

had forgotten to switch back to AF after using MF for telephoto shoots earlier (long day and hunger got the better of me!!

took over 100 shots obviously with no focusing done, dinner nearly came back up when i realised it! but thankfully all pics came out sharp. big relief, but also found that to be quite interesting too.

[jsbn]

The maximum focus distance for the 18-70 kit lens shld be abt 3m right? Beyond that everything shld all be sharp.

[Trigger Happy]

the camera was no more than 3m away. everything was sharp. that's the point. seems that at 18mm you can get away with MF and not bothering to focus if subject(s) within 3m?