DOF Calculator Question: I wish my Canon cameras displayed the depth of field in the viewfinder. It would be a trivial software feature. With today's fast zoom lenses that focus...

tgreenhaw

I wish my Canon cameras displayed the depth of field in the viewfinder. It would be a trivial software feature. With today's fast zoom lenses that focus closely it is more important than ever to know.

Do other brands offer this feature? Am I missing something?

Ysarex Loc: St. Louis

tgreenhaw wrote:

I wish my Canon cameras displayed the depth of field in the viewfinder. It would be a trivial software feature. With today's fast zoom lenses that focus closely it is more important than ever to know.

Do other brands offer this feature? Am I missing something?

Fuji mirrorless X cameras have a DOF preview function available that shows the DOF in the viewfinder.

BebuLamar

While the camera does have the information as to the distance the lens is focused at it's not accurate enough to do that. To display the DOF the camera has to know how far the lens is focused at.

davidrb Loc: Half way there on the 45th Parallel

tgreenhaw wrote:

I wish my Canon cameras displayed the depth of field in the viewfinder. It would be a trivial software feature. With today's fast zoom lenses that focus closely it is more important than ever to know.

Do other brands offer this feature? Am I missing something?

Try "live view."

Architect1776 Loc: In my mind

tgreenhaw wrote:

I wish my Canon cameras displayed the depth of field in the viewfinder. It would be a trivial software feature. With today's fast zoom lenses that focus closely it is more important than ever to know.

Do other brands offer this feature? Am I missing something?

Your Canon cameras have that feature.
Read the manual, you will be amazed at the myriad of things that your Canon camera can do that you never even thought of.

Orphoto Loc: Oregon

An analog dof display (think of the old style depth preview button) offers only a coarse notion of what is truly in focus. Many camera offer focus peeking either in live view or viewfinder. That digital advancement is an improvement but still only an approximation. If you have static subjects, the real answer is magnifying your review screen to see if you got adequate depth of sharpness.

User ID

tgreenhaw wrote:

I wish my Canon cameras displayed the depth of field in the viewfinder. It would be a trivial software feature. With today's fast zoom lenses that focus closely it is more important than ever to know.

Do other brands offer this feature? Am I missing something?

I have several cameras from several different companies and every one of them can display DoF very accurately via a menu choice called "Show Settings Effect in Live View", or some similar wording. Enter some such wording on the search line of your pdf manual to find the exact menu line.

Combining "Show Effect" with magnified view presents a verrrrrry critical view of your DoF.

If you dont like leaving "Show Effect" enabled all the time you can judge DoF by magnifying your playback, but acoarst thaz an extra step to slow you down.

A faster but less critical DoF indicator is to set focus peaking to max and red. Then you can see the red DoF zone expand and contract. I put my peaking on a toggled on-off Fn button cuz it can obscure much of the viewfinder at higher f-stops with short-ish FLs.

Setting Maximum Peaking
Setting Maximum Peaking...

(Download)

High f-stop fills viewfinder with red peaking.

(Download)

Architect1776 Loc: In my mind

User ID wrote:

I have several cameras from several different comp... (show quote)

Artcameraman Loc: Springfield NH

Don't know your camera but Try that small button next to the front of the lens, you know the one that no one uses anymore. But that's me. Cheers.

polyman6 Loc: Chatham Ontario

Check this out would nice to have it in your phone.
https://www.dofmaster.com/dofjs.html

tgreenhaw

I should have made my question more clear. I certainly have read the manual, and know about the DOF Preview button and use Focus Peaking.

I want the numerical value for the DOF shown in the viewfinder. I want to know quickly that my 85mm at f1.4 focussed at 5 feet has a DOF of .03 feet.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

tgreenhaw wrote:

I should have made my question more clear. I certainly have read the manual, and know about the DOF Preview button and use Focus Peaking.

I want the numerical value for the DOF shown in the viewfinder. I want to know quickly that my 85mm at f1.4 focussed at 5 feet has a DOF of .03 feet.

Between your ears is a (typically) very powerful computer, one that can easily remember simply rules of thumb, if not the actual calculations.

User ID

Artcameraman wrote:

Don't know your camera but Try that small button next to the front of the lens, you know the one that no one uses anymore. But that's me. Cheers.

Tried it. Lens fell off :-(

User ID

tgreenhaw wrote:

I should have made my question more clear. I certainly have read the manual, and know about the DOF Preview button and use Focus Peaking.

I want the numerical value for the DOF shown in the viewfinder. I want to know quickly that my 85mm at f1.4 focussed at 5 feet has a DOF of .03 feet.

You were clear enuf that I knew you wanted a numeric display, way back in the thread. My reply back then was trying point out that the focus magnifier will give you BETTER info than a numeric display.

Back when we didnt have an excellent visual version of DoF PV, then charts and numbers were the best we had, and therefor were very important.

But "the best" from the past is now the third rate also-ran. Thaz why camera makers are not going to add it to our already cluttered viewfinders.

BebuLamar

tgreenhaw wrote:

I should have made my question more clear. I certainly have read the manual, and know about the DOF Preview button and use Focus Peaking.

I want the numerical value for the DOF shown in the viewfinder. I want to know quickly that my 85mm at f1.4 focussed at 5 feet has a DOF of .03 feet.

As I said in my earlier post. The camera can't tell what distance the lens is focused to accurately and thus they don't want to give you a number that is off. (It does know the approximate distance though as the lens does send distance information to the camera)