I wish you grim, morbid, deceased, spooky and kooky Christmas, and a dark, unhappy New Year. May your guillotine still be cutting-edge, and more power to your electric chair! Remember - Hallowe'en is everyday...

My 5,000 pageviews anniversary is right around the corner, but I won't post many deviations before Christmas. It's a nightmare, I know. I've got some other things to do: cook some meals, clean up a bit... [My mother will work on Mon and Tue, and I want to do some things at home - why the hell should women do it all?] Perhaps I'll go to the Old Cemetery if the light is OK. I just don't know.


Anyway, I've come up with another trick, which some of you may know:

If you use a dSLR with manual lenses, or are too ambitious to use autofocus, you have to set the dioptric correction properly. Of course, you know that. Here's how you can set it precisely:

You need a ruler or a tape measure. The latter is better as the digits are more visible. I also recommend using a tripod or any other stable device to keep your camera still. The lens you'll use for testing should have very shallow depth of field - 1.4/50 or 1.8/50 should work just fine. It can have an auto-focus [which will make your job much easier], but it's not necessary. Now set the aperture as bright as possible [e.g. 1.4], and point the camera at the ruler / tape measure at an acute angle. If you have an AF lens, select an AF point and focus on any number on the tape. Watch your viewfinder - the number you focused on should be sharp, as well as those in equal distances behind and in front of the number. If there's an assymetry between these distances, or the number itself is blurry - then fiddle with the dioptric correction knob until you get the right result.

Note: this method is also suitable for analog AF SLRs with AF lenses. You don't have to shoot.

If you have only a manual lens, focus on a number, shoot and analyze the image carefully. The camera's display is perfectly suitabe for that if you magnify your image. Keep adjusting the dipotric correction knob, focusing and shooting until you get equal "sharp" distances in front of and behind a number.

If you're likely to shoot with AND without glasses, or another person will use a camera - then you can mark the position of the knob with a felt tip pen, correction fluid, or even a nail polish. Of course knobs with a scale don't cause these problems - you only need to remember / write down the position, that's all .

Pity I didn't conceive it a few days ago... photographing the Stolarow brothers' factory went nice, but the pics are a bit blurry.

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