Using my SR11, shooting close ups; increasing depth of field.
 

I am going to be making a video of a friends model railroad and I need to increase the dof in order to video his trains moving around his layout through some pretty fantastic scenery, and keeping all in focus. I will be shooting most of my shots from up close to the trains. I have been told in another forum to set my aperture to f7 or f8. How do I do this with the SR11? Another member told me to close the iris; again, please explain to me in a simple way how to do this. Any other bits of advice?

Thanks.
Mike

If you want to increase the DOF, ie., make everything sharper, more in focus, then you need to keep the lens at a wider angle as well as "stopping down" the aperture to a higher "f" number. So, you will get an increased DOF at f8 as opposed to f2.8. Have you got Aperture Priority (AV) on your camera? This will give you control over the iris, so you'll be able to choose the higher stop number.
One thing to bear in mind though is that you'll need more light on the models, otherwise the camera is going to be struggling and putting in lots of gain perhaps, giving nasty grainy images.

I would try putting it on snow mode (1 stop)or beach mode (1/2 stop); zooming all the way out so the lens is full wide then bathing the area with tons of light.

Mike, in manual mode press the - button until the indicator is at the far left. This is the closed position for the iris. Press the + button say three times, record a short section then playback and look at the data code I think that should be about F8. If not try moving cursor until you get close and remember how many times you moved the cursor to get there. It will be the same everytime. I too wish Sony would just put the values on the LCD since all this information is available afterwards in the data code!!!! At the other end, far right, it is wide open and at 18db of gain. Moving left it will be 15db, 12db, 9db,6db,3db and then 0db gain. I have a little mark on my LCD at 0db!!!

Ron Evans

Thanks guys for the responses. I will be having the zoom all the way out.

Ron, are you indicating the exposure setting?

Mike

No, the exposure in manual is only a bar on the bottom of the screen. But when the video is played back with data code switched on all the camera info is available, F stop, gain etc. So it is possible to find the positions on the bar that correspond to the exposure you need. Most of my shoots are in low light so I always want to get to about 3db gain or so . These levels I have marked so that I can go to them directly. You will need to first go to either end in manual otherwise auto gain may interfere in the indications.

Ron Evans