anyone know what these are for?

[jann1033]

i can't find my book for this lens( i think it's buried in a box on the bottom of the ones i packed up to move into a storage closet- naturally)... so...what are these numbers for and how do i use them?..i get the red are mm of the lens, the top row =ft, the bottom =m(meters?) and the numbers in the window say macro if i turn the dial to the right,then after that" ft" say 4 7,15,50, the "m" say 1 1.5 3 5 10, then if i turn it all the way to the left says infinity... so how do i work it? does that mean the macro will work on any mm of the camera?( ie i think my sigma it only worked on one mm)
thanks

 

[MarkBarbieri]

I think that is the distance scale.

In your example, it looks like you are zoomed out to 28mm. If you look at the red markings for 28mm, you'll see a little red line that points to a spot on the distance scale. In your case, it is somewhere between 50 feet and infinity.

I've been told that in the olden days, lenses used to have aperture rings that you turned to set the aperture. These also had markings. You could somehow combine the markings to get an idea of what distances were in your depth of field.

I wonder why they don't have a button that calculates that now and pops up the numbers on your LCD screen.

If you really want to use this, you should google "hyperfocal distance."

Personally, I'm lazy and not that bright. In the time it would take me to look at the markings, run the numbers, etc, I could take the shot with several different apertures and just pick the one that turned out best. I'm sure that the film photography gods will try and strike me down with lightning or contempt for that statement. I have to admit, if I was shooting large format film, I'd be a lot more careful about each shot.

 

[manning]

I don't have a DSLR

I have one maybe two Canon film SLR camera that have a nice feature. You would focus on the nearest point you want in focus then focus on the furthest point you want in focus. The camera would then calculate the f stop to use.

 

[0bli0]

the hyperfocal distance scale lets you know when focussed on one subject at a given aperture, what will also be in focus in the depth of field. one of the film cameras i use frequently is a 'scale focus' camera. there is no rangefinder to look through. you set the aperture and guestimate the distance. the hyperfocal distance scale on the lens then lets me know what will be in focus.

oooohhh....
i just looked at my DW's 28-135IS - it's actually not a hyperfocal distance scale. it merely tells you the distance that the camera is according to the focal length.

so if you focus on something zomed out to 70mm - you can look at the red '70' mark and that will tell you how far away it is.

 

[jann1033]

the hyperfocal distance scale lets you know when focussed on one subject at a given aperture, what will also be in focus in the depth of field. one of the film cameras i use frequently is a 'scale focus' camera. there is no rangefinder to look through. you set the aperture and guestimate the distance. the hyperfocal distance scale on the lens then lets me know what will be in focus.

oooohhh....
i just looked at my DW's 28-135IS - it's actually not a hyperfocal distance scale. it merely tells you the distance that the camera is according to the focal length.

so if you focus on something zomed out to 70mm - you can look at the red '70' mark and that will tell you how far away it is.

well great that should help me with my dof problems then

thanks...i looked up "hyperfocal" and uh that is way over my head right now..need to read lots more before i get that i guess. i think it might mean something about when you set it on infinity it makes everything between some point and infinity in focus but i could very well not be right on that one ( head was spinning for sure)

 

[Groucho]

I've been told that in the olden days, lenses used to have aperture rings that you turned to set the aperture.

Boy, I hope you're just kidding. I'm going to feel very old and I don't think I'm all THAT old!

Personally, I'm lazy and not that bright. In the time it would take me to look at the markings, run the numbers, etc, I could take the shot with several different apertures and just pick the one that turned out best. I'm sure that the film photography gods will try and strike me down with lightning or contempt for that statement. I have to admit, if I was shooting large format film, I'd be a lot more careful about each shot.

I never bothered looking at them too much. I think their primary use is for focus, but realistically, it's easier to use the viewfinder, and I'll terrible at judging distances.

Those numbers are a little hard to read on that lens in the picture. The easiest lenses to read are the lenses that you push/pull for zoom (instead of turning a zoom ring), since you can just look at the edge of the moving part of the lens to see the proper numbers, rather than guessing what your focal length is by hand. But push-pull lenses are out of vogue, probably for good reason (difficult to have fine control of zoom with a push-pull, though my two primary lenses in my 35mm days were that way.)

 

[handicap18]

I've been told that in the olden days, lenses used to have aperture rings that you turned to set the aperture.

My Quantaray 70-300mm lens has an aperture ring. Its kind of a pain to use as you have to keep the aperture ring at f/22. There is a little slide thingy thats supposed to keep the ring from moving so that the camera can control the aperture, but every now and then it moves and then I move the aperture ring by accident and a big ol' error reading comes up on the screen and the lens wont work.

Though I will say that on the 50mm f/1.8D AF lens I have not had that same problem. This also has the aperture ring, but I've never had a problem with it like on the Quantaray. hmmmm Nikon lens vs Quantaray lens. I wonder....

Thankfully I wont be having that issue with the Quantaray anymore. Well at least after next week as I finally found the IN STOCK the new Nikon 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6G ED-IF AF-S VR lens (actually 2 of them I think well see what happens), but this lens since its a 'G' does not have an aperture ring. wooo hoooo

 

[Groucho]

My Quantaray 70-300mm lens has an aperture ring. Its kind of a pain to use as you have to keep the aperture ring at f/22. There is a little slide thingy thats supposed to keep the ring from moving so that the camera can control the aperture, but every now and then it moves and then I move the aperture ring by accident and a big ol' error reading comes up on the screen and the lens wont work.

I think the procedure is fairly similar for old lenses on your camera as mine... with mine, there's a menu setting for "use aperture ring" (or something like that) that is off by default. Once that's on, you can use the older lenses at any aperture you want, you just have to be in full manual mode and hit the AE-L button to stop down the lens and meter before actually taking the picture. Maybe there's something in the manual about that?

But like you said, it probably won't be an issue for much longer.

My old Quantaray 70-210mm was similarly retired when I got my Pentax 50-200mm... but at least the 70-210mm had an "A" setting on the ring so it worked seamlessly.

 

[PaulD]

This lens doesn't have any depth of field markings. The window is only there to tell you at what distance you are focused. It's not very useful (especially without the DOF markings) except when shooting in low light where it's difficult to focus manually.

By the way, for the ubergeek's out there take a look at this:

http://www.dofmaster.com/

It's got these really cool programs that make charts and scales for calculating DOF. Plus, if you have a Palm PDA, there's a small program that you can install to do all your calculations in the field. More numbers than you can shake a stick at! I have the Palm program installed on my Palm. But no, I've never actually used it (but someday I will, I swear!).

 

[jann1033]

evidently i wish i was an ubergeek cause i tried installing that a few days ago and it wouldn't work(? )