Recommended article on DOF, Bokeh, and related matters from Zeiss

[David A. Goldfarb]

Mike Johnston posted a pointer in his blog--

http://theonlinephotographer.typepad.com/the_online_photographer/2010/04/two-mustdownload-pdfs.html

--to an excellent and very accessible paper on Depth of Field, bokeh, hyperfocal distance, circles of confusion, and such by H. H. Nasse from Zeiss--

http://www.zeiss.com/C12567A8003B8B6F/EmbedTitelIntern/CLN_35_Bokeh_EN/$File/CLN35_Bokeh_en.pdf

This addresses many misconceptions (like the idea that DOF is independent of film format, or that the precision of DOF tables is particularly meaningful, or that bokeh only refers to the shape of out of focus highlights or depends primarily on the aperture shape) about all of these topics that are commonly seen in discussions on the internet. It's a thorough discussion that stays fairly light on the math, and the formulas discussed are not difficult to understand.

 

[Slixtiesix]

Yes, this paper is very informative! I´ve read it yesterday. I´ve found the comparison table pretty useful, in which they illustrate which apertures one would need in the different formats to gain the same dept of field.

 

[lxdude]

David, the link to zeiss.com is not clickable. A problem I've noticed here on APUG is if a link has an underline ( _ ) in it the link won't activate. I suppose that has something to do with the fact that entire links get underlined automatically for some reason.

Can this be fixed?

 

[Shadowtracker]

I didn't have any problem and the article looks great. Thanks much for the info.

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

Link fixed.

 

[lxdude]

I didn't have any problem and the article looks great. Thanks much for the info.

I wonder if using Firefox has something to do with it.

 

[Shadowtracker]

This article is great so far. I'm not finished with it yet and there are some parts I don't understand completely, but it has helped me understand a lot more so far.