MWCT wrote:.

I've heard that p&s dont give nice dof like digitals do but cananyone verify if it is or is not possible. If a brief explanationas to why it's not possible would suffice, that would be great.Otherwise if it is, I'd like to see some shots of good dof achievedusing a p&s. Thanks!.

I suppose it depends a lot on what one considers "good" DoF. It is harder to achieve the kind of selective focus that a narrow DoF can provide. On the other hand when a very deep DoF is desired, there's nothing like a good digicam for providing it..

The main difference is that small sensor digicams rely on comparatively short focal length lenses that were designed specifically for these sensors. With 35mm cameras, wide angle lenses (typically 18mm to 35mm) are known for deep depth of field compared to their "normal" and telephoto counterparts. On a digicam, wide angle could mean 5mm to 7mm. These are extremely short focal length lenses..

It's still possible to achieve some DoF control with these cameras, but due to their rather limited range of useable apertures, again, due to the small sensor size as well as the cameras small overall form factor, setting the widest aperture will only help so much. However a wide open aperture, combined with a telephoto zoom setting and a close working distance will help to minimize DoF. Beyond that, it can help a lot to keep the main background elements as far behind the main subject as possible..

'Here, look at the monkey. Look at the silly monkey!'.

Tom Younghttp://www.pbase.com/tyoung/..

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Good Day,Roonal.

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MWCT wrote:.

I've heard that p&s dont give nice dof like digitals do but cananyone verify if it is or is not possible. If a brief explanationas to why it's not possible would suffice, that would be great.Otherwise if it is, I'd like to see some shots of good dof achievedusing a p&s. Thanks!.

It's not really possible because of the sensor size and so on, but occasionally I've managed to get the depth of field to appear slightly shallow with a point and shoot..

This one's from my Canon Ixus 400:.

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And this from my Panasonic FX01. Even a wide-angle P+S gives you blurred backgrounds in macro mode!.

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Androohttp://Androo.smugmug.com..

MWCT wrote:.

I've heard that p&s dont give nice dof like digitals do but cananyone verify if it is or is not possible. If a brief explanationas to why it's not possible would suffice, that would be great..

Definitely possible but just not to as great a degree as a a large sensor camera. I'm assuming you mean a blurred background or narrow DOF, I believe bokeh is the trendy word for it. If you mean everything in focus throughout the entire scene from close up to far away (wide DOF) then the smaller sensor camera will do as well or better than a large sensor camera..

Smaller apertures (bigger f number) gives wider depth of field. Larger apertures (smaller number) give a more narrow DOF. f8 on a full size sensor is a medium DOF. This is the lowest DOF you will get on your digicam with the lowest setting of f2.8. But there are ways to cheat a little to get a blurred background. First make sure you are at your largest aperture setting (lowest number) and make sure the background is as far away as possible and use spot metering ony our subject.

For a portrait of a person, you wouldn't want the background to be a wall a few feet behind them. Perhaps a large building quite a distance behind them would be better..

For very wide DOF of a nice landscape scene for example, the best way is to switch to manual focusing, set it to infinity and point the camera 1/3 of the way into the scene..

Otherwise if it is, I'd like to see some shots of good dof achievedusing a p&s. Thanks!.

I've only ever posted one photo on the internet. (I've always been into prints since my film days) I'll see if I can figure it again out and post some showing a blurred background...

I've just begun photographing birds recently and here are some where the background was far enough away to get a narrow DOF. The second one is a little mesed up due to the bright sidelight from the sun, although it's a good example for the DOF..

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Those are marvelous pictures! That is great bokeh and was exactly what I was looking for...

Not my picture, but done with a P&S as a good example of possible DoF..

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Wmsson didn't say what camera he used. I suspect a superzoom. A long zoom is the other way to get a blurred background, but is that what you meant by a point and shoot? This is what I can get using my 7x zoom Canon Pro 1, which since it isn't an SLR must be a point and shoot....

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Androohttp://Androo.smugmug.com..

Andrew Butterfield wrote:.

Wmsson didn't say what camera he used. I suspect a superzoom..

Yes, those photos were at 10X zoom with a 35mm equivalent field of view of 380mm..

A long zoom is the other way to get a blurred background.

I would have mentioned that but another poster stated that before I posted. So I should make it clear that it's the main reason for the bokeh in my photos. At more moderate fields of view, I wouldn't be able to do this nearly so well and would have had to stand back farther and zoom in to get good bokeh. It also helps that the background in 2 of my photos is some several hundred yards away and the humming bird photo, the first one I took that made me think, 'hmm, I thought you couldn't do that with a digicam', the background is partly sky and partly mountains across a very wide valley (several km).

So, it can be done, but within certain limitations of photo opportunities. I have photos of horses taken at 380 mm where the background (a forest) is only very slightly blurred (not enough IMO) because it is not more than about 100 feet behind the horses...

Canon SD700IS point and shoot 4x ( 35mm-140 mm)......First D.O.F. pic I took with this cam...Didn't even realize it was possible..

Bruce.

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