On Fri, 28 Feb 2003, michael brown wrote:

*>Peter L. Peres wrote:
*>> Of course you know that this has no effect on a SLR focus since it
*>> uses either a ground glass or a split prism or both, and your eye is
*>> looking at that and not at the subject. When you have best focus on
*>> the gruond glass the subject is also in best focus. Also, you should
*>
*>I really didn't know that, and I've taken allot of pictures using my
*>SLR.  If that's really true, then I'll do allot more manual focusing.
*>I've done allot of macro shots and really thought that the slightly out
*>of focus problems I've had were due to my light nearsightedness.

Macro shooting is a chapter by itself. I always used distance rings
(tubes) for this, not the macro setting on the lens. Also the depth of
field tends to be very shallow unless you use lots of light, which you can
only get using a macro lighting unit or a circular flash (fits around the
lens). With 1:1 mag you need f/8 or more closed to even begin to think of
shooting without a solid stand with remote trigger imho. The only way to
check if the focus is as good as it can be is to have blurring in both
directions away from the optimal position. If you have it only one way you
are probably out of focus all the time. This is where the distance rings
help (you pick those that put the focus ring in a middle position for your
subject distance).

Peter

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