I swear I'm not an idiot!

[Twoboysnmygirl]

I have had my D40 since late spring, I've taken online classes, read all kinds of books, even taught our homeschool group an intro to photography class (although they just had p&s camera's, so it didn't involve this)

So I rented a Nikon 18-200mm for our trip in 3 days and it arrived today. YAY! Anyway, I feel like a fool, but none of my other lenses have what this one does...

it has a clear area that turns and inside there is the sideways 8 (infinity?) and then a bunch of numbers: 15, 3, 5, 1, 3...what is this? it has a ft. & m sign, so something to do with distance???

I figure there is no stupid question, but I feel kind of stupid to be honest. My 18-55mm and 55-200 don't have this feature and I have no idea what it's for?

 

[Gdad]

That is the distance scale- top in feet (yellow), bottom in meters (white), you will see it spin when it auto-focuses or if you turn the manual focus ring.

 

[dmccarty]

Not a stupid question at all.

If you page down on the next link there will be a photo of a 35mm lens that shows what I think you are asking about.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depth_of_field

It is the distance indicators which shows at what distance a subject will be in focus at a given aperture/FStop. It can also be called the Depth Of Field(DOF) scale.

On more expensive camera bodies there is a button that allows you to see what the lens will see when you press the shutter button. The button is called the DOF preview button.

The link I showed above talks about DOF. If you don't know know understand DOF, you have seen in used in photos. I saw a real good example this week, which I can't find where one person was close to the camera but the focus was on the second person in the frame who was farthest from the camera. The person closest was blury because the fstop/aperture was towards F2.8 while the focus was on the farthest away person. Often you will see this reversed so that the person in the background is out of focus.

Hope that makes sense. The link has photos that might help.

Later,
Dan

 

[Twoboysnmygirl]

Thank you so much! I get DOF, so that's a good sign. but this is only for manual focus, correct?

 

[Gdad]

There are no DOF indicators on the distance scale on my 18-200vr- just the distance scale itself. I have no idea what purpose the scale serves without the indicator marks except it spins around and looks neat when you focus the camera. I guess you could use it to manually focus if your subject was exactly 3', 5', or 15' away.

 

[spinetnglr]

Twoboysnmygirl ..... looks like we will be at the World at the same time. I am leaving in three days also and will be there for a week.

 

[Twoboysnmygirl]

Hey Karyl! Maybe we'll see each other, I shouldn't be hard to spot with the huge camera hanging on my neck, right? I underestimated the size of the 18-200mm! We're excited here and hoping nothing else goes wrong, it's been a bumpy road up to the trip and my husband is 2000 miles away and has to be home by Sunday morning!

 

[spinetnglr]

Hey Karyl! Maybe we'll see each other, I shouldn't be hard to spot with the huge camera hanging on my neck, right? I underestimated the size of the 18-200mm! We're excited here and hoping nothing else goes wrong, it's been a bumpy road up to the trip and my husband is 2000 miles away and has to be home by Sunday morning!

I hope everything comes together by Sunday morning for you with no more bumps in the road. I shouldn't be too hard to spot either.... I will be the one with a D300 and a yellow Mickey head backpack tag that says ... Dis Photo Boards.

 

[MICKEY88]

I hope everything comes together by Sunday morning for you with no more bumps in the road. I shouldn't be too hard to spot either.... I will be the one with a D300 and a yellow Mickey head backpack tag that says ... Dis Photo Boards.

don't be too sure of that, I had 2 DSLR's with vertical grips and large lenses,, plus 2 of those awesome Mickey head tags in green.. and no one noticed me...

hmm unless they noticed and went the other way...:

 

[seashoreCM]

If your subject is not exactly 3, 5, 15, etc. feet away, you can make a guess and set the lens in between numbers, chances are you will be close enough to get good focus.

To make use of depth of field, you need to be able to focus manually. Or some automatic cameras let you aim at something at an intermediate distance, push the button halfway to lock the focus (and also exposure), then frame the picture the way you want, and take the picture.

 

[MICKEY88]

There are no DOF indicators on the distance scale on my 18-200vr- just the distance scale itself. I have no idea what purpose the scale serves without the indicator marks except it spins around and looks neat when you focus the camera. I guess you could use it to manually focus if your subject was exactly 3', 5', or 15' away.

if you have a depth of field chart, or one of the handy iPhone apps for depth of field, you can plug in the distance, and your aperture and get a fairly accurate idea of what will be in focus in your picture..

those distance scales were found on most older lenses, when photographers did more calculating manually than they do nowadays

 

[MICKEY88]

If your subject is not exactly 3, 5, 15, etc. feet away, you can make a guess and set the lens in between numbers, chances are you will be close enough to get good focus.

To make use of depth of field, you need to be able to focus manually. Or some automatic cameras let you aim at something at an intermediate distance, push the button halfway to lock the focus (and also exposure), then frame the picture the way you want, and take the picture.

shooting at f16 that might work, but I wouldn't trust that shooting wide open..