Depth-of-Field Preview - EOS R

am2am wrote:

I was not precise enough so to clarify my previous statement.

I know sony will focus stopped down if aperture is set-up this way. I understand the difference in canon's implementation. And I agree this is superior AF solution (have both sony mirrorless and canon DSLR at home and did compare AF in low light) but there is trade off in live view DOF.

My message is the following: in most low-light cases it doesn't matter.

Any camera will try to maximize amount of light captured in low light situation. With auto-iso engaged and shutter speed defined you'll end up with fully opened aperture anyhow.

With aperture priority photographer makes a decision - in my case I always go wide open low light unless I have to achieve particular affect (very rare scenario).

Re DOF preview implementation - it's probably individual taste and preference - I found it really useful to see constantly how my final picture will look like in sony EVF. My photo's taking technique evolved partially thanks to this - I've realized I spend less time on AF and focus more on the composition and the final picture effect.

I do not despute the pros of having stopped down focus. I just loath the fact that on Sony systems you can not turn it off.

In low light or for macro photography having the system focus wide open and only stop down when fully depressing the shutter is ideal, while in good light or when you don’t need to work fast one can take advantage of stopped down focus. I will give you 3 scenarios.

1. If you have a scene that demands you stop down to f11 and beyond, the sensor is deprived from too much light and you immediately have CDAF over PDAF. Let’s day you want a slow enough shutter sleep to have some motion in there. Or you are shooting video and you don’t have an ND filter and you are shooting at 1/25.

2. You are at a party or dinner and you want to shoot at f3.5 up to f6.3 to catch enough people in focus. Ideally you want as fast as possible AF to catch those candidate fleeting moments but the DOF you want.

3. Last but not least. MILC is at a major disadvantage to DSLRs when you consider flash photography. You can be in a room without light and still get perfect and instant focus with IR assist. You set your aperture based on what your photo to look like since you have the flash to provide the amount of light you need to keep ISO low. Though the EOS R doesn’t have the IR AF option either the fact is that with wide open focusing and that -6EV rating it will be far superior than to any other MILC system out there in low light situations with a flash on board. Heck I would say that for AF-C it even beats DSLRs since IR AF is a AF-S kind of thing.

If you don’t see any value in any of the above then ignore me. But the fact is that I have been saying for years that Sony can solve this easy but putting look up tables in their lenses to fix their focus shift issue and they still haven’t done it. Canon comes out and does this on the getgo because they get exactly what I have been saying. Once you get enough experience I can ball part my f-setting for the DOF I want. I rather not cripple my AF for 30% of my shooting situations.

YMMV