[Bachs]

I have a DOF Preview Button on my 350D and I believe it is on a number of other Canon bodies.

I have revisited the manual a couple of times and I just can't get my head around it.

I've asked the question elsewhere and the answer just isn't sinking in.

1/ What does this function do apart from make the viewfinder image darker?

2/ When should it be used and with what settings?

(and why do Canon put it in such a stupid/unreachable place on the 350d? )

[Steep]

Normally the iris in your lens is held wide open to let as much light as possible through so you can see to set up your photo better. The iris only closes down to the f stop you have chosen for a brief moment as you take the picture. The DoF button closes down the iris so that you can see how much depth of field you will have on your shot before you take it.

Try it out. Set the f stop at say f5.6 look through the viewfinder at a scene that has near and far objects in it. Then change the f stop to f16 and look again, it will be darker but more of the scene will be in focus.

[Bachs]

Perfect! Thank you!

I must have been unlucky when trying it as the settings I must have been using didn't really show the effect.
Now why can't the manuals explain it like that? :eyesup:

[Matty]

Originally Posted by Bachs

Perfect! Thank you!

I must have been unlucky when trying it as the settings I must have been using didn't really show the effect.
Now why can't the manuals explain it like that? :eyesup:

manuals are always written by someone with enstructions to make it seem more complex than it really is.

Vote Steep for manual rewriting!

[Steep]

Manuals are rarely written by end users. often the people who write them are too closely involved with the product and know too much about it. Some things they seem to take for granted can be baffling to 'normal' people.

In a lifetime of intimate association with instruction books (from my days selling electrical items to installing them for folk) possibly the worst ones I have come across were for Grundig products. I used to think they were written in chinese, translated into french by a spaniard and then into english by an austrian who though you should damned well know how to work the thing instead of making him waste his time telling you!

Where was that link for "advocates for plain english" ???

[Bachs]

Originally Posted by Steep

Where was that link for "advocates for plain english" ???

Plain English Campaign

I used to fix their photocopier many moons ago!