My Pentax K5mera: I have had this camera now for a year BUT still cannot find and use the "Depth of field'. When I use any F I have to guess what that DOF is all the time. Can anyone...

Roy86 Loc: England Aussie 60 years

I have had this camera now for a year BUT still cannot find and
use the "Depth of field'. When I use any F I have to guess what
that DOF is all the time. Can anyone who has this camera put me right please?
With many thanks Roy86.

oldmalky Loc: West Midlands,England.

DOF is not an icon on your camera that you can switch on and off it is the result of the F stop you have chosen to shoot with the lower the number eg F2 the more shallow the DOF the higher the number eg F22 the more in focus the background is.
that is the best way i can describe it, wait for a better explanation from real photog.

Roy86 Loc: England Aussie 60 years

Oldmalky; Thanks for your reply, I do understand what you have written BUT somewhere in the camera when one goes to take a shot the DOF is readable- I cannot find how to read it. That is the problem I hope some K5 user will be able to tell me. Thanks anyway for your reply Oldmalky, Roy86.

bull drink water Loc: pontiac mi.

the newer lenses don't have a dof scale on the lens barrell, the older ones did.there is a dof spec sheet on line that will help. all you have to supply is the focal length of the lens and the distance to subject.

oldmalky Loc: West Midlands,England.

As soon as people with your camera read your request they will reply wish i could have been more helpful.

oldmalky.

Roy86 Loc: England Aussie 60 years

BULL/With the K5 when one is about to take a photo in the lens one can see written the F number and the speed for the shot one has chosen. Also the DOF is supposed to be see too for THAT particular shot one is taking. I cannot find this DOF in the camera! I do know what you say about older lenses, many thanks for your intended help, Roy86.

FilmFanatic Loc: Waikato, New Zealand

Disclaimer: I do not have this camera.

I did some digging though, and I found the following:

1) The on/off switch has a third setting which looks like a lens aperture. This is for DOF preview.
2) In your menus, under Button Customization, you can set whether this is digital or optical preview
3) This does not work with Manual lenses.

I might have gotten this wrong, but here are my sources for you to check out yourself:

http://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/pentax-k-5/182714-how-make-sense-depth-field-preview-optical-preview-off-dial.html

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/pentaxk5/8

alawry Loc: Timaru New Zealand

FilmFanatic wrote:

Disclaimer: I do not have this camera. br br I... (show quote)

I hope you are right, my ist D pentax does that push the on/off lever past the on position and the lens stops down, I am waiting on a new K-30 and hope it does the same. I remember my dad teaching me with the kodak retinette, showing me how the focus scale interacted with the f scalel on the lens, showing graphically things were in focus from this distance to that distance. I just got a new lens, Sigma 55-200 doesn't even have an aperture control, much less a depth of focus guide. older push pull to zoom lenses have a series of curved lines showing as a graph.

ANdrew

cgchief Loc: Jarrettsville

Roy86 wrote:

Oldmalky; Thanks for your reply, I do understand what you have written BUT somewhere in the camera when one goes to take a shot the DOF is readable- I cannot find how to read it. That is the problem I hope some K5 user will be able to tell me. Thanks anyway for your reply Oldmalky, Roy86.

Roy, on my Pentax K10D, you can stop-down the lense to view the DOF by rotating the 'off-on' switch further to the right. There is a symbol of an aperture on the switch.

johnske Loc: Townsville

cgchief wrote:

Roy86 wrote:

Oldmalky; Thanks for your reply, I do understand what you have written BUT somewhere in the camera when one goes to take a shot the DOF is readable- I cannot find how to read it. That is the problem I hope some K5 user will be able to tell me. Thanks anyway for your reply Oldmalky, Roy86.

Roy, on my Pentax K10D, you can stop-down the lense to view the DOF by rotating the 'off-on' switch further to the right. There is a symbol of an aperture on the switch.

K5 is the same...

wteffey Loc: Ocala, FL USA

You can examine the DOF on the LCD screen and re-shoot if the result is not what you want, but, assuming your subject is fairly static, you can bracket for DOF as well as exposure. Take a photo wide open for minimum DOF, then close the lens down in steps to expand the DOF. Later you can choose the result you like best.

rweinholdt

Nothing against this forum, I learn a lot from it, but most on the forum are Nikon and Canon users. Try the Pentax forum for more Pentax related information. http://www.pentaxforums.com/

GC-FineArt Loc: WDC

Roy86 wrote:

BULL/With the K5 when one is about to take a photo in the lens one can see written the F number and the speed for the shot one has chosen. Also the DOF is supposed to be see too for THAT particular shot one is taking. I cannot find this DOF in the camera! I do know what you say about older lenses, many thanks for your intended help, Roy86.

Roy86,

Im a bit confused. Are you asking about something other than the visual DOF preview function; that is, do you think there is some sort of additional numerical display, along the lines of: F5.6 -- DOF 10, either in the viewfinder or on one of the LCDs (where 10, for example, refers to a linear measurement in feet or meters) a la what one would read off the DOF scale on older lenses?

If so, I could be wrong but Im afraid youre out of luck. I have a K10 and a K20 myself so I checked the K5 manual on line and could find no reference whatsoever to such a capability.

Regards,

Roy86 Loc: England Aussie 60 years

Thanks to all you good people who have tried to help me with this DOF problem I have. I already had read in my instruction book how one is supposed to see the DOF when one goes to take a photo by using the on/off lever pushing over to the right side but in my K5 there is nothing only blackness! Perhaps my camera has an error, I hope someone
WITH a K5 will contact me and then see if it works on thier
camera. It sure has got me confused I always read the directions of a camera but it does not seem to work.
Many thanks to All who have kindly written to me. Roy86.

alawry Loc: Timaru New Zealand

This is an image from DPreview, hope they don't mind, showing theon-off swithch, and after theon position, an icon of the diaphram, meaning continue past the on position to actuate the diaphram, stopping down the lens. Your camera, if it a K5 the same as reveiwed, will be the same?