I have a question or two....
I shoot a little bit of everything. Mainly landscapes and night photography. I understand that DMF are not good at night photography / long exposures.
It is a very specific use I have in mind. Basically I would like to be able to capture a bracelet entirely in focus in one shot without having to shoot multiple shots for focus stacking etc.
Any advice would be greatly welcome.
I have a question or two....
I currently shoot with a d800 (thinking about swapping it out for the d800e)
I shoot a little bit of everything. Mainly landscapes and night photography. I understand that DMF are not good at night photography / long exposures.
For my work I shoot jewelry. Not high end jewelry but low cost fashion jewelry and MANY pieces of this jewelry. This is where my curiosity for medium format comes into play. I wanted to know if I should go for an entry level MF system like a leaf aptus ii-7 kit.
My reasoning is that I will be shooting at small fstops to maximize depth of field, the reason this is problematic for me with my d800 is that I get noticeable softness when I stop down to f/16 or higher. For jewelry its not ideal. So I am wondering will the MF application be better for me?
It is a very specific use I have in mind. Basically I would like to be able to capture a bracelet entirely in focus in one shot without having to shoot multiple shots for focus stacking etc.
Any advice would be greatly welcome.
With a larger format you need to stop down more, so you get even more diffraction.To be pedantic: in order to get the same depth as judged by images displayed at the same size and viewed from the same distance, you need to increase the aperture ratio used _roughly_ in proportion to the format size and focal length used, and that increases the diffraction spot size on the sensor in the same proportion as the increase in image size, so when you view same-sized images, diffraction effects are roughly equal.
| (http://echophoto.dnsalias.net/ekr/Articles/MFDJourney/Samples/Diffraction/20130629-CF043302-2.jpg) | (http://echophoto.dnsalias.net/ekr/Articles/MFDJourney/Samples/Diffraction/20130629-CF043305-2.jpg) |
Some of the software out now can bring back losses due to diffraction - so that lets you stop down one or two stops more but its no panacea. I'm not a nikon shooter, but have used the Canon 90mm TSE in the past and this was a great lens. Perhaps Nikon has an equivalent? Using a t/s lens and the recovery software could be the easiest path.
Other suggestions of using the VCC or Cambo X-2 are also good paths too to get movements. Other options would be a Linhof technika or a Rollei X-act2. You can get DSLR mounts or digital backs mounts for either. Benefits of using something with movements are perspective control as well as getting the plane of focus to cover the area of interest.
Even if you went to a digital back, you might still want movements or at least T/S.
The d800e has good luminosity detail but fine color details are smeared together and highlight control is traded for shadow detail. Therefore I think for jewelry you'd have a nicer looking file with a digital back.
There's no free lunch in photography. Everything is a compromise.
Erik - have you tried Caron? Or ImageJ ? You should have a look. You can get back some details, just not everything.
And Erik, remember that some people's goals here are to get work done, not dissect and only study.
There's no free lunch in photography. Everything is a compromise.
Erik - have you tried Caron? Or ImageJ ? You should have a look. You can get back some details, just not everything.
And Erik, remember that some people's goals here are to get work done, not dissect and only study.
Eric,
The OP is running into diffraction (at f/16) and he asks if he would be helped by moving up into larger formats. If he moves up to a larger format he needs to stop down to f/22 or more. The sample shows him what to expect. Smart sharpen does a good job on restoring sharpness, but there are limits to what you can restore.
Getting extended DoF in macro has always been a challenge.
Best regards
Erik
We've all mentioned T/S lenses and/or some kind of technical camera with movements. What's left is focus stacking, and deconvolution software. Unfortunately not every subject can be stitched or focus stacked and there will be times when you need to shoot at f/18 or f/20 or whatever to make it work. This is not all just for the fun of discussion.
The best results are going to be had with a technical view camera type set up to both control plane of focus and perspective with a digital back, and even then you'd probably want to focus stack shots taken at f/8 or something.
But that's a lot of work and expense most will not go to for average jobs.
The only other way to get big DOF is to use smaller sensors, but then you have other issues.
The only other surprise that I found is that when you shoot with a multishot back, you can stop down almost 2 stops more before the diffraction is visible. I can shoot to f/25 on my CF 528 when in multishot mode when I'd only go to f/18. I think this has to do with the way the software handles the assembly of information more than anything but its really nice for product work. But again mulishot is more work and a bit more difficult.
That's why I wrote it's always a compromise // no free lunch.
and Erik - I just suggested you look at those softwares since you seem to really enjoy spending time looking at this stuff. It's only loosely connected to this topic. I do use the smart sharpen in LR sometimes ImageJ with the pulgins and also Caron for some of my images that I shot at small apertures.
Thanks for the replies guys. So medium format won't really help me in what I want but it will give me a nicer looking image ?
I do notice that the d800 doesn't give me good details in the highlights and unfortunately that is almost all jewelry.
So medium format won't really help me in what I want but it will give me a nicer looking image ?
I do notice that the d800 doesn't give me good details in the highlights and unfortunately that is almost all jewelry.
Will a tech can give me better ability to control dof ?
Thanks for all the input fellas. It really does make this decision more difficult. I was almost set to go for MF but now you have me doubting myself.
I would like to experiment with MF anyway but maybe not for my work. If I were to get an MF system what would you recommend between the
Leaf Aptus II-28 with 645AFD III or Leaf Aptus II Mamiya 645 DF - 33 ?
price difference between the two is about $2500. Also how long will the digital back last me assuming it is already old?
Erik Curious how the Stackshot works. How many shots do you take? How do you combine them? Aren't the subkject different sizes adding to a combination problem? Please explain explain.
I also had the same problem that Alan was describing. Basicly when I move the camera on the focus rails the image moves. So how do I prevent that? Or does it not matter?
Backing up was one of my thoughts too, and for this MF makes it easier since the images are crisper, particularly with Multishot. Also keep your final print/output size in mind. No one is going to notice softness from diffraction in a web image or a small placement.