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I called zone focusing a crutch for sloppy shooters, then my meter died on a rainy Saturday
For two years I preached that real shooters always meter every frame, and I said it loud enough at the camera club in Tucson that people stopped asking me questions. Then on a wet Saturday in March my meter cell went dead four blocks into a street fair, and I had no spare and no phone I trusted. I set my 35mm lens to f/8, guessed 10 feet, and shot the whole roll by feel, and 22 of the 36 frames came back sharp. Now I keep the lens taped at the hyperfocal mark for walking around and only meter when the light is truly weird. Anyone else keep a taped setting as a backup, or do you just carry a second body?
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faithg2620d ago
Small correction here, taping the lens at the hyperfocal mark is not the same thing as what saved you that day. Hyperfocal distance puts everything from half that distance to infinity in "good enough" focus, which is fine for wide shots but it means your close stuff is soft and you give up any say in where the sharp part actually lands. Zone focusing is different, you pick your distance and your depth on purpose, like setting 10 feet at f/8 with a 35mm so you get roughly 7 feet to 20 feet sharp, which is exactly what you did shoot by feel. The tape trick works great as a reset point after you zone focus, but it is a starting mark, not the whole method. Keep the tape if it helps, just do not let it stop you from moving the ring when the shot needs it.
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