No DOF priority AE?

Many years ago my first proper SLRs were a Canon EOS650 and 600. One of these (the 650 I believe) had a focus / exposure mode I found very useful, but haven't come across since. This was Depth-of-Field Priority AE, which would set the focus distance and aperture (and corresponding shutter speed) to ensure everything between two chosen points at differing distances from the camera was in focus. The way it worked was thus:

• Point camera at the closest thing you want in focus and half-press the shutter release to focus, and release

• Point camera at the farthest thing you want in focus and again half-press to focus and release.

• Now recompose to the final desired framing and press the shutter release.

The camera would focus to the correct distance between the two chosen extremes of the depth of field range and select the appropriate aperture to ensure the depth of field extended from the near point to the far one. If one of the chosen points was infinity then the lens would be set to the hyperfocal distance. It actually didn't matter whether you focused near then far, or far then near - it knew which was which.

It was a simple and quick way of obtaining exactly the depth of field required, without reference to DOF scales on the lens. I haven't seen this on cameras since, and it is not to be confused with the somewhat more limiting A-DEP setting I had on my EOS 30D (which simply set the aperture and focal point to ensure all the subjects covered by all the focusing points were sharp).

Did anybody else find this useful? I sometimes find myself wishing my G3 had it and hope it will make a reappearance at some stage.

Michael