Kiev 88 DoF preview button?

[bogdan_seredyak]

<p>I have 88CM, and there's a little knob on the lens which is dof preview i assume. I know it makes everything in the viewfinder darker, but i dont get how to use it? any recommendations? thanks</p>

[bueh]

<p>Uh... you just press it for the DOF preview... that's pretty much it. You use it when you want to check the depth-of-field. That the viewfinder gets darker is a feature of the smaller aperture.</p>

[peterbcarter]

<p>Yep, that's pretty much it. Unless its *really* bright out, it's only worthwhile with the prism. Even then I wait for my eyes to adjust to the dim light.</p>

[polka]

<p>To my knowledge, this DOF preview feature is not present on all the K88 lenses, only on the standard 2.8/80mm (and maybe a few others ?...). I never use it, because it's really difficult to estimate sharpness on the groundglass, especially on a darker image. I prefer - if I think it crucial - to measure separately the nearest and farthest distances with the aid of the stigometer and then preset the distance and aperture for correct DOF with the scales.</p>

<p>One thing to beware : with this standard K88 lens, you may focus down to 0.6m, but when doing so, some light may flare the film through the opening of the DOF preview lever. Some people thus disable it and permanently close this opening with black tape. Personally, when focusing nearer than 1m, I always take care to have a finger screening the opening while I am shooting.</p>

<p>Paul</p>

[rodeo_joe1]

<p>Using scale focusing kind of defeats the object of using an SLR camera, doesn't it? Otherwise the mirror mechanism is just excess baggage.</p>

[polka]

<p>You misunderstood :</p>

<p>I use the groundglass and stigometer to focus on the nearest and farthest plane that I want sharp, then I use this two values read on the scale to determine what distance in between I will set on the focus ring and what aperture I can use to get a DOF englobing the two extreme values that I measured. This is not neglecting the SLR focusing capabilities ?</p>

<p>Paul</p>

[papy_g1]

<p>Previewing the DOF is quite a feature of SLR, so it is quite bad not to use it. Well, if you only have the waistlevel finder, it can be quite challenging to evaluate anything about DOF.<br>

To my knowledge, at least Volna 3 (and arsat80), Vegas 90 and 120mm, have the DOF lever.</p>