Hybridizers: It can be fun to breed your own zinnias - Part 3, 0 by Kaelkitty

Kaelkitty wrote:
ZM,

Hi All,
Yep, the "Manual" mode is a joke! My old rule for close up photos used to be to set the F stop to 16, stick the camera on a tripod with a release cable, focus, take a deep breath and hold it, then "click". You just can't do it that way with the Z700. Depth of field has always been MY biggest problem because I take photos of VERY small things - some of the succulent flowers I photograph are less than 2mm in diameter. I have NO idea what my effective depth of field actually is with the Ricoh - I guess I should try taking photos of a ruler! With the full set of extension rings on the body of the Ricoh I used to be able to move the lens out by 65mm and I found that was getting pretty close to the limits of usability.

When I got the digital I had to learn how to take photos all over again - I had NEVER taken so many bad photos in my life! I am still finding out new ways to do things, even though I've had this camera since December 2005.

I am not quite sure what you mean by "pre-focused" though. On the Z700 the focus changes every time you move the camera - I only WISH I could set the focus and then move the camera around! Sheesh! I've had no luck using the flash on plants though, and, come to think of it, not much luck on anything else - here's what I did to my poor long suffering cat the other night using the flash. (Indoors and 2 am with the kitchen light on)

TTFN, KK.