Originally posted by ffking Very true, but I think that it partly depends on the process of taking the picture, Mike - I you set out in a deliberate way to produce a specific result (which we arguably should be doing all the time as serious photographers
), you're absolutely right, but sometime we just fall in love with what we see through the viewfinder, and that is, of course, wide open aperture.
Sure. And to be clear, I don't think there's anything wrong with shooting wide open if it produces the result we want creatively, or even if it just puts a big smile on our face. So long as we're clear on our reasons for shooting at a ridiculously-fast aperture, it's all good
EDIT: I've a few fast-aperture lenses myself, and I'm as "guilty" as the next man for shooting them wide open just because I get a kick out of it
But as I mentioned in an earlier post, I have surprisingly few "serious" photos taken at the widest settings...
Originally posted by ffking Incidentally, I've been meaning to ask - I've never used a modern EVF in a MILC, and I was wondering if the viewfinder view is stopped down or wide open?
I can only speak about my Hasselblad HV (Sony SLT-A99) and Sony A7 MkII. On both, the lens diaphragm stays wide open during composition and focusing. With the HV, there's a dedicated (though customisable) shot preview button, which stops the lens down and uses the exposure settings to display the image as it will be recorded. The key benefit here is that you see both the resulting depth of field
and exposure - and it's a live image. The A7 MkII has no dedicated preview button, so you assign it to one of the custom buttons. The functionality, though, is exactly the same.