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Re: [OM] WTFocus Stacking`

Subject: Re: [OM] WTFocus Stacking`
From: Moose <olymoose@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sun, 26 Jun 2022 22:08:51 -0700
On 6/26/2022 2:24 PM, DZDub wrote:
On Sat, Jun 25, 2022 at 10:47 PM Moose <olymoose@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

PP 148-149 of your manual. Both are available, within the FB sub-menu.
They have been separated into different places in
the revised OM-1 menus.
It's very kind of you to look this up in a manual that doesn't even apply
to your camera!

You're welcome. OTOH, I have PDF manuals for several cameras I don't, and haven't, owned. Easy to download, easy to see what I'd have if I got one, easy to find differences. I keep manuals for current cameras on my phone and iPad. With the search function, they are not only (infinitely?) smaller than print, but handier and much easier to use.

In the case at hand, my Mk. II and your MK. III are identical in this function, but the page numbers are different, so I used the ones for you.

I had read those pages pretty carefully before posting about it and I can
only make out that Focus Bracketing is for flash, with a special processing
method in OMW, and Focus Stacking the only capability that relates to the
subject we're talking about.  Since "Focus Stacking" is an option under the
"Bracketing" menu, this is fairly confusing.

It is confusing and has mislead you.

On the Bracketing choices screen, Focus Bracketing may be On or Off. If On, the next screen has a dual function. The first line on the screen lets one choose Focus Stacking OR Focus Bracketing.

The next three lines are your choice of settings for whichever of the above 
options has been selected.

On my E-M II:

Focus stacking          = Off (i.e. Focus Bracketing = On, as set on the prior 
screen.)
Set number of shots  = 31
Set focus differential  =  1
Charge Time              = 0
--------
Focus stacking          = On (as an option within Focus Bracketing)
Set number of shots  = 11
Set focus differential  =  1
Charge Time              = 0


It's no wonder that the OM-1
menus might have been improved in this area.  Frankly, I think the manual
is a bit garbled and it doesn't help mixing flash into the subject.  The
only inference about flash in the menus is where you can select a recharge
interval.

They aren't mixing flash. I ignore it, but the option to set a delay between shots would be important to someone doing a flash lit stack/bracket. Don't let it confuse you; it's just a choice for the option set above. One could set a 7 sec. charge time for Focus Bracketing with flash and a zero charge time for Focus Stacking, for example.

<snip stuff not relevant in light of above.>It is evident to me that Bracketing 
is necessary for the Stacking process,

For lenses that aren't compatible with FS?


The FS option is greyed out in the menu when a non-compatible lens is
attached.  Probably true of your camera too.

Yes indeed. What I mean is that I can still do stacks called brackets, with 
lenses not compatible with FS.

I start getting interested, then re-realize this limitation. I've never
been
interested in their short FL range, fast, constant aperture zooms. I
didn't like the 12-100 when I had one. I don't
carry the 60/2.8 Macro traveling/in the field.

So FS is only available to me with the 100-400. I do do a lot of focus
bracketing with that lens, so I'm likely to play
with FS on it. I've just put FS on a Fn button.
I've come to the same conclusion.  I believe it would be useful for me with
a longer macro, 45mm or longer, a super tele, and a particular mind-set.  I
have made some photos with the DZ 50/2 macro, and I might have gotten some
better backgrounds by a smidge, but I accept the compromise.

You mention backgrounds more than once. That's not what I'm looking for with stack/bracketing. I'm looking for deeper DoF than one shot can provide. Yes, the background matters, but that's a separate issue to me, dealt with differently.

The mZ 60/2.8 seems like an exciting lens, second on my short list at the 
moment.

I've had one for ages. It's an optically excellent lens, with some helpful features. I haven't used it much at all since getting my Achromatic C-U lenses set up. The extensible hood is a great design, wildly overpriced. The JJC LH-J49 is much cheaper and needs only tiny dabs of Teflon gel on the sliding surfaces to work well.

It is scarcely believable that a useful bracket set can be made without
using a tripod, especially with a tele as long as 100-400.  Just amazing.

Well, I've got hundreds, a handful of which you've seen in this thread. Even easier with the OM-1, as the stack is taken much more quickly.

One of the jobs of the stacking soft/firmware is to align the frames. The second is to adjust for focus breathing making frames slightly different sizes. All before actually merging focus.

Focus breathing may be one of the criteria for choosing which lenses are 
compatible with in-camera FS

Stacked F. Moose

--
What if the Hokey Pokey *IS* what it's all about?
--
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