The DOF button

Not getting it at all, I found the botton and I can hear the camera say a weird sound - but I dont see any changes looking through the camera?!

Anyone who can explain me, what it should do?

From the manual: To preview the effects of aperture, press and hold the depth-of-field preview button. The lens will be stopped down to the aperture value selected by the camera (modes e and f ) or the value chosen by the user (modes g and h), allowing depth of field to be previewed in the viewfinder

Re: The DOF botton

That's a bit of a skill and not one that I've learned yet. It reminds me of those 3-D pictures that pop out at you if you hold your eyes just right. My advice to you is to forget about the aperture preview button and just take it as fact that the larger your aperture is the less DoF you'll receive and visa versa.

Re: The DOF botton

When you press the DOF button it changes the aperture to the one set on the camera in order to show you what your DOF will be. The clicking sound is the aperture being adjusted. If you aren't seeing any changes it could be because you have the aperture set wide open and the DOF isn't changing much. What you should see is a darkening of the viewfinder with more of the image in focus. Stop down to f/16 and try it. And be sure to hold the button while looking through the viewfinder or you won't see the effect.

Re: The DOF botton

I agree, the viewfinder gets darker but for the life of me, I can't make out any difference in the depth of field. All I see is a darker view of the same thing I was looking at before I push the button.

But I am told that you can, with practice, learn to see the differences in DoF. I guess I'll have to take their word for it...

Re: The DOF botton

Test it by putting something with words in the frame and focus so that the words are not quite in focus. Now stop down to 16 or 22 and if the words become more clear. The feature works best when there's lots of light to allow you to see the change.

Re: The DOF botton

Ok here's the deal with that button after about 2 months of researching the same question..

you are ALWAYS looking at your lenses MAX APERTURE, ALL THE TIME through the viewfinder. Only when the camera takes the photo will it stop the aperture on the lens down to your chosen amount, then write the image taken to the card. Problem is, when that shutter curtain closes, you see pitch black through your viewfinder.

So this is kind of a halfway resolution to the problem. By using this method you can 'preview' what kind of DOF you'll get out of your picture.

So, if you have say, a f/1.8 lens and you open it up to f/1.8 and press the dof button, you'll see no change. It might get a little darker, but there will be no change in the dof at all. Selecting f/8 you will see a darker view and more of your image will be in the plane of focus. It's kind of tricky to see the changes when the viewfinder is dark like that, but once you get used to the darkness, you can easily tell the differences of large changes in aperture. A change of 1.8 to maybe f/4 won't be THAT noticeable, but certainly you'll see 1.8 to something like f/5.6 or f/8.

Now, if you're saying that you literally see no change from 1.4 to f/16, there's a problem with your camera. Or, your eyes

​I hope that helps, I struggled with that as well!

Re: The DOF botton

The easiest way I could see the change was taking photos of flowers. Like was stated use a 1.8 lens and stop it down to say F6-8. Stay focused on the center of the flower and hit the button. Even with a dimmer viewfinder some of the finer details all of a sudden snap into focus.



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Re: The DOF botton

From what I gather, the DOF button works in your camera (because the image dims in the viewfinder).
You really need to pay close attention to detect the change. You could try focusing a ruler (place in the line of focus) at the middle and maybe the difference will be more discernible when you press the DOF button. Have fun.

Re: The DOF botton

Yay, thank you so much! That helped a lot, I see it now. I went for f/2 yesterday, had no idea that you always look at max aperture when looking through the camera, very nice information.

I tested it with some text in a book.


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