Lisanthus Study

I tried out the focus shift facility on the new camera today.  This is a 20 image focus stack (in Helicon Focus), using the camera's ability to change focus accurately at pre-defined steps.  

I wish the camera manufacturers understood how a photographer wants to focus stack.  To me I want to set the near and far points of good focus and for the camera to calculate and take the images required to achieve a good focus stack.  Instead both experiences I have, with the Olympus and Nikon, get you to choose the near focus position and then set an arbitrary scale from 1 to 10 for the gaps between each shot, along with the number of shots you want to take.  It's very much trial and error it will take a lot of experimentation in order to have confidence in the set up of such shots.

Compare this to the Helicon Remote method (albeit you need a device running this software tethered to your camera).  Here you do set the near and far points of good focus and the software calculates the number of images required based on the aperture you are using.

Still, it is a step forward, and I can see a use in certain circumstances.  For example, I tried it for a landscape on Thursday, where I wanted a frosted piece of bracken in focus in the close foreground, while having a tree and the sky in good focus beyond.  This worked better and it seems that if the camera reaches infinity with its focusing, it doesn't keep taking photographs even if you've set the number of photographs to more than taken.

I'm going to catch up with all of the generous comments for yesterday's 6th Blipversary, but just to say I'm overwhelmed by the number of you that popped by with congratulations.  Many thanks.