Dynax 60 DOF button

[labria]

Hi!
I'm totally new to photography, just bought my first SLR, a Dynax 60.
Can anyone explain me what does the DOF button do? As I understand it closes the diafragm to the point it will be closed when shooting. But what does it give and how it can be used?
I read somewhere that the Dynax 7 shows the distance to the object in focus, but mine doesnt, so I dont really understand how to use this function.
Thanx in advance.

 

[Magnus Wedberg]

Hi!
I'm totally new to photography, just bought my first SLR, a Dynax 60.
Can anyone explain me what does the DOF button do? As I understand it closes the diafragm to the point it will be closed when shooting. But what does it give and how it can be used?
I read somewhere that the Dynax 7 shows the distance to the object in focus, but mine doesnt, so I dont really understand how to use this function.
Thanx in advance.

The DOF button steps down the lens, as you noted, to the selected aperture. This has two effects:
1) The viewfinder gets darker
2) You will see the depth of field of the scene.
Depth of field is how much sharpness that is present in the scene. A large aperture (like 2.8) will give a shallow depth of field -- only a person in focus will be sharp while the background will be blurry. Decrease the aperture (higher number, like 11) and the background will be sharp, too. Two good pages may be found here:
The aperture
Controlling depth of field

 

[labria]

Thnx! gonna be testing it!