Thank you so much for the insight on focus depth of field question. I guess I should have known that, but somewhere in all the studying I never ran across it.
THANK YOU VERY MUCH for the response! :lol:
I have this new Canon Rebel T5 (NOT T5i!). My previous experience with an SLR dates back to my old Pentax. I had very good luck with the Pentax, but got sidetracked to a couple of Point & Shoot cameras that did a good job, but I now want to be able to do things like selective focus, etc.
First, I want to be able to use the T5 more or less in a P&S mode. I have tried "A", "P", & "Sv" modes, to (1) see a picture in the monitor screen, then(2) shoot it, but the auto focus takes so long to set up that by the time the shutter goes, the picture is gone! How do I use this lovely camera to take such pictures????
Second, I have tried some experiments with selective focus, but so far, the out of focus parts of the picture are sufficiently in focus, that they don't really do what I want. I used a model with the 18-55 mm lens, shooting in the "Av" mode. I could not get the lens (labelled "1:3.5-5.6 IS II" ) to the f3.5 setting. The lowest it would go was 4.0. In one shot I had the camera on a tripod, about 6-8 ft from the subject, ISO 100 and shutter speed was 1/125th. and it went to 6.7!
Third, I wonder if even the 3.5 is not just an ordinary lens, not suited for real pronounced Depth-of-field demonstrations?
I have seen a lens on eBay "Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM" lens. Do I have to go to lens like this, at f1.4, about 3' from the subject to get the kind of selective focus I am looking for, where the background is fuzzy really, REALLY out of focus?
On my Canon Rebel T5, (I am new, < a week on the T5). I took a picture - using CA Mode, of a subject standing in shadow, with a bright sunlit background. Resulted in a very dark subject with the very well exposed bright sunlit background. I thought the camera was supposed to account for that condition and fire the flash???? - didn't! Thought the flash was enabled?? Any comments??
:-( Thanks for the reply. I am kind of experimenting with different stuff and I got a preliminary look doing just that, but remembering the old one on the film camera filter that had an index mark that could be used as an arrow, I just thought maybe there was something there that I hadn't seen.
I just got one from Amazon last week and I think I'm going to love it, and I am smothered with information on how to use the camera (there is an enormous repertoire of capabilities!)
You can get the Canon Users Guide (341 pages) at the Canon WEB site. It has everything you could possibly need to know about the camera, and I think it is well written and organized.
Query the internet for "Canon Rebel T5 Users Manual", and it will take you right there. (I use Mozilla Firefox) The top "find" is "[PDF]INSTRUCTION MANUAL", at least on my computer, using Google, and clicking on it automatically downloads (an 18.2mb .pdf file) it for you. It might take a few minutes, depending on your internet connection speed:D
I have used the CPL filter, effectively, but "aiming" it kind of mystifies me. Back in the days of the film cameras, I had a linear(?) Polarizing Filter, and it had an indicator as to which direction to set that gave the best polarizing effect. In the case of the current "CPL" (circular polarizing) filters, there is just no way I can see to figure out what the axis is, so I can only tell from what the view finder shows to know how to "aim" it (at the sun!??).
Am I missing something that is printed on the outside ring of the filter????