Wednesday 12 August 2009

Watching Over Us

GRD III, F1.9, 1/50, ISO 64, JPG b&w

Today's picture shows how good the new Snap AF mode realy is. I set it to 1m before taking this picture, it is at f1.9 so there is not much DOF at this distance even with a small sensor so the focus had to be quite accurate. It worked very well and even gives a nice shallow DOF but not overly blury so you can't recognize anything as you get with too big sensors.
This is also an out of camera JPG without any processing done to it at all.

6 comments:

  1. Still impressive Cristi. A little of shallow depth of field at f/1.9 with a subject distance of 1 meter. I had not expected that.

    With regard to the photograph I really like the composition (maybe a bit dark), and I sure like the fact that you were able to photograph the security guy :D

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  2. Very impressive as Wouter has said. I still laugh about how you are able to capture law enforcement :)

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  3. This is impressive. not aware of similar OoF achieved with small sensors-and it may be that i am not familiar with all the models out there. the lx3 or g10 may as well be as capable. i would like to know how unique grd3 is on this regard-but this can easily mistaken out of a 4-3rd camera...or?

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  4. to continue from above: frankly i am least interested in the bokehmania craze sweeping the photo forums. but welcome the change from the flat everything sharp small sensor aesthetics. very promising. but again to repeat myslef: some may argue grd2 lx3 or g10 are perfectly capable of doing the same...interested to hear more on that.

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  5. I see a bit of shake in the background, so not all of the out-of-focus area is caused by the shallow DoF.

    And I respectfully offer a different opinion, with the sensor that small (still smaller than the Panasonic LX3 ,which has an f/2.0 max aperture), you need to get down to 1.4 or 1.2 to get a *really* impressive DoF control.

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  6. Thanks for your comments!

    Wouter, it is indeed a bit dark and I was not sure if I should lift the shadows up a bit but decided it worked quite well.

    James, I do like to photography police and security as it's fun and makes for a nice challenge if you don't want to be noticed and branded a terrorist. ;)

    The GRD III can control the DOF a bit better than the previous GRDs but if you are close enough and have a little bit of zoom (60-85mm) and a fairly bright aperture you can get similar results. With small sensor cameras it's all about getting close to the subject.
    As you I think the shallow DOF craze is getting a bit out of hand and a lot of people would need more DOF in their pictures. I like having a big DOF when you use fast lenses as this allows to really utilize fast lenses in low light, with a fullframe sensor these lenses are wasted in my opinion.

    Will, the shake in the background is created by movement due to the slow shutterspeed of 1/50 and not by camera shake. The out-of focus areas are all due to shallow DOF here. I was close enough to get this although you are right that to really control the DOF on a small sensor you need a f1.2 lens.

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