Anybody here use Canon's DEP mode?

[jphendren]

I finally was able to get out this morning with my new to me EOS-1V. With my F5, I have to use a little hyperfocal chart that I made in order to get the DOF that I want in my images. The 1V has a neat little feature called DEP, which is DOF Automatic Exposure. It is pretty neat, you AF on the nearest object in the scene, then the farthest away, at which point the camera will focus the lens to the correct place and set the correct aperture. If this works, it will be a huge time saver for me. I captured around 20 images this morning up at Calico Basin, which is a beautiful red sandstone basin just west of Las Vegas. I used the DEP feature for nearly every image; it was nice to not have to pull out the hyperfocal card for every shot. I would close down an additional stop over what the 1V suggested just to make sure my images were crisp. Looking through the viewfinder with the DOF preview pressed, it certainly seems that the feature works, but I will not know for sure until I get the film processed.

If you have experience with this feature, please let me know if you had success with it.

Jared

 

[bob100684]

I finally was able to get out this morning with my new to me EOS-1V. With my F5, I have to use a little hyperfocal chart that I made in order to get the DOF that I want in my images. The 1V has a neat little feature called DEP, which is DOF Automatic Exposure. It is pretty neat, you AF on the nearest object in the scene, then the farthest away, at which point the camera will focus the lens to the correct place and set the correct aperture. If this works, it will be a huge time saver for me. I captured around 20 images this morning up at Calico Basin, which is a beautiful red sandstone basin just west of Las Vegas. I used the DEP feature for nearly every image; it was nice to not have to pull out the hyperfocal card for every shot. I would close down an additional stop over what the 1V suggested just to make sure my images were crisp. Looking through the viewfinder with the DOF preview pressed, it certainly seems that the feature works, but I will not know for sure until I get the film processed.

If you have experience with this feature, please let me know if you had success with it.

Jared

I have DEP on my elan 7e.....great feature....works pretty well, too bad they crippled it to A-DEP in their newer film and digital models.

 

[dynachrome]

I think this feature was first offered on the EOS 630.

 

[jphendren]

"I think this feature was first offered on the EOS 630"

This feature can also be found on the EOS-1V, Elan 7, EOS-3, 1D and 1Ds, at least those are the only ones that I know of.

Here is an interesting article on DEP: http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/dep.shtml

Apparently not too many people use this feature.

Jared

 

[flatulent1]

The EOS 850, predecessor to the Rebel series, has two exposure modes: Program and DEP. I have never used it myself.

 

[Rol_Lei Nut]

Here is an interesting article on DEP: http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/dep.shtml

Apparently not too many people use this feature.

Ye Gods!!!

Am I glad that ALL my lenses have DOF scales!!!!

It takes me a tiny fraction of a second to set the focusing ring for DOF I want (including any compensation for different circles of confusion).
Another reason not to like AF...

 

[jphendren]

"Ye Gods!!!"

???

"Another reason not to like AF..."

Yes, I agree. My older Nikon lenses have the DOF scale marks on them, but none of my newer AF lenses do. In order to set hyperfocus, you must use a chart and guess. You must guess because AF lenses have very truncated distance scales. I have found that finding an object at the desired focus distance and manual focusing on it works better than trying to figure out where the distance is on the limited scale of AF lenses.

Jared

 

[Rol_Lei Nut]

"Ye Gods!!!"

???
Jared

The "Ye Gods" was in reference to the practical description of DEP in the linked article...
At least to me an incredibly fiddly, complicated and slow way to set hyperfocal or any wanted DOF.

But the technology is impressive! ;-)

 

[Andy K]

What is the difference between the Canon DEP mode and hyperfocal focusing?

 

[bob100684]

What is the difference between the Canon DEP mode and hyperfocal focusing?

so generally when people are doing the hyperfocal thing, its for a landscape right? everything from x to infinity in focus.....say you want something between 1 and 2 meters away in focus, the camera will focus between the two selected points and choose an aperture......so nothing really...just automation. Dep is indispensable for me though when I use my 50mm f1.8...no focus distance scale at all.

 

[jphendren]

"At least to me an incredibly fiddly, complicated and slow way to set hyperfocal or any wanted DOF."

Slow compared to setting hyper-focus on an old manual focus lens with the correct marks, yes. But compared to setting hyper-focus on a modern AF lens with a short truncated distance scale, much easier.

"so generally when people are doing the hyperfocal thing, its for a landscape right?"

Generally yes. However, the 1V's manual gives an example of two people that you want in focus. Focus on the closer person, then the further person, then the camera selects the correct focus distance and aperture to obtain the desired results. In this case, infinity is not the desired furthest point. So anytime you want two objects in focus at the same time, DEP can figure it all out for you.

Jared

 

[Poisson Du Jour]

As a long-time Canon user, the fact is it is DEP mode is a superfluous gimmick that found little favour on the EOS 5 and 50E, both of which I used continuously for 15 years before moving up to the EOS1N. The feature (I'd call it a bug) is fiddly, imprecise and misleading, generally suitable only for auto-all AF focusing and not helped by the Tv bias as opposed to the more sensible Av (f/) bias (Why did Canon do this? Ask Canon...). Using a manual focus lens will get you a much more sensitive hyperfocal range if you learn how to set it visually by scale and subject distance—something you'd need to skill-up on if you move to large format.

The hyperfocal distance is traditionally the midpoint 0.3 front to 0.6 rear and is easiest to set on MF lenses (i.e. prime MF like Canons TS-E lenses (as an adjunct note, hyperfocal does not apply when tilt or shift is introduced with any TS-E lens).

 

[digital_photog]

The DEP is a function available on my EOS 1N-HS but I rarely use it!!
I just set the f-stop and check the dep with the button on the camera.

JMHO

Fred