How come that I'm able to get closer to the object, without loosing focus, when the camera is set to macro mode? I'm using a sigma macro 105mm lens, and it works fine in all settings, but clearly I'm able to get closer in this particular mode. Is this something that I'm able to adjust in the camera settings? I'm very into using the camera set to manual...
And one more question, the colours seems to be better as well in macro setting (as for a fact, they are), is this something that is possible to adjust or alter as well in the camera setting?
Thanks!
Regards
Erik
Good question. I'm particularly interested in this as I use a D70S. However, I've never used any of the preset modes. When I went to a Nikonians workshop on using my camera, I was told that those settings are more for beginners rather than advanced shooters.
When I get home and have my camera in front of me, I will do some experimenting and see if I can get you the answers to your questions.
really? seems strange, the focus should be the lens not the camera.
I have never used the presets either.. haha
Does it mention anything in the manual?
Maybe the jpg settings are more contrasty and saturated. Could also be that the autofocus mode has been set differntly ?
Maybe the jpg settings are more contrasty and saturated.
Agreed! Are you talking about the colors of a jpg or raw file? If jpg, I think you should be able to put the dial on macro, then go through all the setting's menus and get the information you need to setup manual the same way. I don't think there are any hidden settings that you can't adjust.
I also have never played with any of the presets. I guess that will give me something to do this weekend instead of going to the pub.
Bring camera to pub and take photos of beermats...
In this mode I think the camera selects a small aperture to give maximum depth of field. It could be the increased depth of field that you're noticing.
pg 100 of your manual - in Macro mode is it just limiting the maximum aperture to keep it smaller (higher number) so you have better depth-of-field?
In point-n-shoots I thought that the Macro mode just told the AF to start looking for a focus lock sooner - otherwise it sort of 'ignored' stuff with too short a return path. I doubt somehow that in a DSLR they'd do the same, but couldn't find much in your manual to tell me one way or another (to my half-bored scanning...not like I researched this exhaustively )
Thanks for the replies!
I'm going to check this out as soon as I've got the time.
Regards
Erik
Well... here is what I just came up with:
Macro Mode
Manual
It does look to me like the colors are a bit different. So it would be nice to know what settings it is using to process the pic while in macro mode. With the RAW files if I dropped the exposure on the manual shot by 1/3 stop, the two shots looked almost identical.
I guess that's enough work for tonight.
As far as getting closer in Macro Mode, the shooting mode will make no difference to how close the lens will focus, that is a function of the lens. The macro Vari-program might offer a different aperture setting than (say) AUTO so the difference due to this is possibly what you are seeing.
As far as colors, I did find out that each vari-program mode has different saturation/sharpness/etc. settings associated with it. Offhand, I don't know the settings for macro mode, but this may be the key to why the colors look better.
Hope that helps
Ellen
Ah, I forgot to mention, that in the test shots above, both modes of shooting resulted in the exact same minimum focal distance.
