Lee,
The surface is the draining side of our ceramic kitchen sink. That will probably be more obvious in the attached shot of a mug on the same surface. For the Dove shot it was placed about 2 inches further up the drainer. The mug shot was the first thing I did after unpacking the lens, and was to just do a quick check to ensure that it had survived the mail without damage. From my experience at work I know that for some van drivers the word "FRAGILE" on a parcel has little or no meaning.
As the mug was also taken at f2, and is of something familiar to most of us , I have added two crops that show just how shallow the depth of field is at 24 inches, and how quickly focus falls away beyond the zone of focus.
Alex,
I have tried this on my F2 and F3, both of which have a screen with 45 degree split prism and focus is really easy. They have the same problems as the D2X though if you have to recompose after focussing. Its all down to the very shallow zone of sharp focus and that is easily displaced on recomposition.
As a film camera buff I thought I would amuse you by saying that in my opinion plain screens fitted to DSLR's are not really suited to accurate manual focus, and you do have to rely on the electronic rangefinder (viewfinder focus confirmation indicator) for spot on focus. Mind you that may also be true of the general run of autofocus film SLR's fitted with plain screens. I know on the Nikon F5 and F6 you have to fit an accessory Type L screen to have the 45 degree split wedge.
I use my old manual focus lenses for probabably 90% of what I do, and it was through my experience with them on the D100 that I went for the D2X rather than spend on a new set of A/F primes. It may be regarded as being nearly an antique in this brave new digital world, but the D2X will knock spots off Stevie's newer D300 with its latest autofocus technology when it comes to m/f, and I do like my old Ais lenses.
Don
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