I'm trying to achieve maximum depth of field without sacrificing light. I have a micro-4/3rds camera and i want to attach a full frame lens to it for the large and constant aperture. My question is, will the depth of field be increased in this case, compared to the lens on a full frame camera with the same aperture?
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It depends what you mean by 'increased' depth of field. Depth of field increase in full-frame cameras is a function of the sensor size, not the lenses. See http://photo.stackexchange.com/questions/12098/why-does-a-bigger-sensor-lead-to-a-shallower-depth-of-field/12099#12099 – ElendilTheTall Sep 10 '11 at 21:34
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possible duplicate of Can a smaller sensor's "crop factor" be used to calculate the exact increase in depth of field? – mattdm Sep 10 '11 at 21:35
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Assuming the same print size and effectively the same resolution, yes. But this isn't magic — it's the exact same increase you'd get by shooting with the same lens on full-frame and cropping by the corresponding amount.
mattdm
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2There will also be no benefit of using a full-frame lens over using a lens with the same aperture designed for micro-4/3rds. – mattdm Sep 11 '11 at 01:51
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I don't understand this answer - a crop of a picture does not alter the DOF, unless you mean physical "cropping" by moving the camera or zooming? – Console Jan 08 '12 at 16:36
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@Console: no, I mean literal cropping. But this only applies assuming you view or print at the same size. – mattdm Jan 08 '12 at 16:51
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Thanks for commenting Matt. I consider DOF to be simply the distance between the closest and furthest part of the subject that are sharp, and this doesn't change when cropping the final image. I guess there could be a perceived difference depending on the resolution of the sensor, but a smaller sensor can have more pixels than a large one so in that case it's not actually related to the size of the sensor, is it? If you could elaborate a little or give a pointer to more information I'd appreciate it, but I realise this is an old question. – Console Jan 08 '12 at 21:59
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@Console: take a look at this answer and the Wikipedia article it links to, and also at the math-heavy second section of this answer. – mattdm Jan 09 '12 at 00:57
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That was an eye-opener. My understanding of the concepts were simplistic and there is more to it than I knew. I still have some thinking to do to figure out if/how the sensor resolution affects this but you have given me the rope I need to...uhm wrong saying, but you get the idea. ;) Thanks! To other readers: Please ignore my previous comments and listen to mattdm! – Console Jan 09 '12 at 10:44