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Carl Zeiss ZF.2 15mm f/2.8 Distagon T*

Depth of Field with Steep Perspectives

The idea that a 15mm has “so much depth of field that it hardly needs be focused” is easily put to rest by a real example. This is especially true with 21/22/24 and 36-megapixel digital cameras. Old film fallacies die slowly, even if they were wrong in the days of film also.

Depth of field is related to magnification, and DOF has only a secondary relation to focal length. A 15mm lens is not a magic bullet.

Steep perspectives like this demand stopping down to obtain depth of field. For this image, f/8 might be an acceptable compromise, but f/11 is probably required for acceptable sharpness front to back.

Except that on the 36-megapixel Nikon D800/D800E, using f/11 might degrade the finest details enough (via diffraction) to make those areas look soft, so perhaps f/9 or f/10 might be a better compromise. Or advanced techniques, such as focus stacking. See Making Sharp Images.

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Want a preview? Click on any page below to see an excerpt. And see Lloyd’s articles for Lenspire.Zeiss.com.

Variants Near focus, Far focus available in full article
Near focus vs far focus @ f/5.6
Nikon D3x + 15/2.8 Distagon

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