[Don Hoey]

Following comments in the Gallery I thought I would post a behind the scenes.

This picture was taken to see how the new camera handled flash lighting.

Sounds an odd statement but the tests so far have shown up new considerations to be taken into account.

Something I had not paid much attention to before studying for my upgrade path was ' diffraction limits ', and ' airy disks '. My tests yesterday showed that with a combination of my ' less than top grade glass ' and the effect of diffraction, f13 would be the minimum aperture that I can set on my 28-105mm lens. Beyond that and images really start to loose bite. ( D2X diffraction limit is f8 ). I have yet to try my old Macro 55mm out to see if it fares any better beyond f13.

As these were tests, the camera was chosen as a subject as it has sharp detail and could be positioned for a realisitc challenge for control of dof within the limits of an aperture of f13. The image has a slight crop of the bottom and a bit off the top and was taken at a focal length of 85mm at a distance of 1 metre.

Shed loads of resolution does have downsides other than the diffraction limit. 100% crop shows the prism is not as pretty a sight as one would like. Thorough cleaning before a shoot is now more essential than ever as shown by the area around the shutter collar.

Attatched is a behind the scenes shot and a graphic to explain the setup, the final picture and the 100% crop.

Don