Achieving greater DOF at telephoto end of lens

kunal wrote on 9/19/2009, 12:04 AM
As I started shooting some footage with the fx7, I'm getting to be surprised at the shallow DOF. A couple of urban scenes I shot were at the longer end of the lens and the DOF is quite shallow (at f/5.6). I'll try stopping down further, but what alternatives are there to increase DOF at the longer end of the lens (and still keep sharp focus)?

Thanks,
Kunal

Comments

musicvid10 wrote on 9/19/2009, 8:20 AM
One can stop down further or reduce the focal length or raise the effective ISO (the internet says the fx7 range is ASA 80-400). I'm not aware of any other solutions.
(EDIT: You're right Bob, all of these approaches have slight tradeoffs in visual quality.)

One trick still photographers use is to manually set the forward edge of your dof range on your foremost subject, rather than at the center of focus. The effectiveness of this relies on the fact that there is more dof behind the center of focus than in front.
farss wrote on 9/19/2009, 8:25 AM
At f5.6 you're close to the diffraction limit for the FX7 I think so stopping down much further will make the image softer. As far as I know there is no way to achieve what you want that's remotely practical.

Bob.
Bill Ravens wrote on 9/19/2009, 8:44 AM
Move closer &
zoom out to maintain subject size