Depth Of Field From The Debunking Unit
Depth of field from the debunking unit
I was having a discussion with a few photographers and debated, actually more argued than debated, the APS-C1 versus the full frame cameras. The knives were drawn out. Blood was in the air, the wrong word and blood was going to be spilled! Unbelievable!
Isn't it about photography? The study of light? Light, images … For many people it's about technology, the toys and only on occasion to press the “button” aka the shutter. It came down to the main standard arguments that full frame cameras are better than APS-C cameras because of noise and depth of field.
That's where the debunking unit had to come in to clarify a major misconception: The depth of field and the relation to the format of the camera.
Depth of Field from Cambridge Colour has a very good explanation of the depth of field. The important part is the circle of confusion.
The depth of field does not abruptly change from sharp to unsharp, but instead occurs as a gradual transition. In fact, everything immediately in front of or in back of the focusing distance begins to lose sharpness — even if this is not perceived by our eyes or by the resolution of the camera.
Depth Of Field diagram from Cambridge in colour
Since there is no critical point of transition, a more rigorous term called the "circle of confusion" is used to define how much a point needs to be blurred in order to be perceived as unsharp. When the circle of confusion becomes perceptible to our eyes, this region is said to be outside the depth of field and thus no longer “acceptably sharp”…
The depth of field does not depend on the camera format but it depends on:
- On the lens
- On the viewer
- On the distance between the lens and the subject of the photo
- On the distance between the photo and the viewer
- The depth of field of a 24mm lens will the same depth of field on any camera. It will be the same for a 4/3rd, for an APS-C camera, for a full frame camera or even for a medium format camera.
- The shallow depth of field of a Canon 85mm 1.2L is the same on an Olympus 4/3rd, a Canon 50D or a Canon 5D2.
- The simplest way is to think of a 35mm3 camera, and you are cropping the photo in the darkroom to the correct format for that camera system.
The smaller formats like the 4/3rd or the APS-C have smaller lenses as standard lenses/zooms, therefore it looks like depth of field is bigger.
1 Advanced Photo System Type C ↑
2 If you could mount it on these cameras ↑
3 Film as the old timers like me used to call it ↑
Tag: Technical
Depth of field from the debunking unit
I was having a discussion with a few photographers and debated, actually more argued than debated, the APS-C1 versus the full frame cameras. The knives were drawn out. Blood was in the air, the wrong word and blood was going to be spilled! Unbelievable!
Isn't it about photography? The study of light? Light, images … For many people it's about technology, the toys and only on occasion to press the “button” aka the shutter. It came down to the main standard arguments that full frame cameras are better than APS-C cameras because of noise and depth of field.
That's where the debunking unit had to come in to clarify a major misconception: The depth of field and the relation to the format of the camera.
Depth of Field from Cambridge Colour has a very good explanation of the depth of field. The important part is the circle of confusion.
The depth of field does not abruptly change from sharp to unsharp, but instead occurs as a gradual transition. In fact, everything immediately in front of or in back of the focusing distance begins to lose sharpness — even if this is not perceived by our eyes or by the resolution of the camera.
Depth Of Field diagram from Cambridge in colour
Since there is no critical point of transition, a more rigorous term called the "circle of confusion" is used to define how much a point needs to be blurred in order to be perceived as unsharp. When the circle of confusion becomes perceptible to our eyes, this region is said to be outside the depth of field and thus no longer “acceptably sharp”…
The depth of field does not depend on the camera format but it depends on:
- On the lens
- On the viewer
- On the distance between the lens and the subject of the photo
- On the distance between the photo and the viewer
- The depth of field of a 24mm lens will the same depth of field on any camera. It will be the same for a 4/3rd, for an APS-C camera, for a full frame camera or even for a medium format camera.
- The shallow depth of field of a Canon 85mm 1.2L is the same on an Olympus 4/3rd, a Canon 50D or a Canon 5D2.
- The simplest way is to think of a 35mm3 camera, and you are cropping the photo in the darkroom to the correct format for that camera system.
The smaller formats like the 4/3rd or the APS-C have smaller lenses as standard lenses/zooms, therefore it looks like depth of field is bigger.
1 Advanced Photo System Type C ↑
2 If you could mount it on these cameras ↑
3 Film as the old timers like me used to call it ↑
Tag: Technical
