AX-700 - What's the relationship of ND filters and DoF?

[Charlie Ross]

I understand the FDR-AX700 and siblings are not for shooters needing short depth of field. If I'm asked to shoot an interview with that effect then I would like to know any and all avenues to achieve it. Recently I have found several sites with product descriptions that put "built in ND filters" and "shallow depth of field" in the same breath. I'm not familiar with the connection or how to apply it. I mean I would start by manually setting the aperture as low as it will go in any case and try to set appropriate ratios of lens - subject - background so I'm puzzled. Thanks.

 

[NorBro]

ND filters apply by controlling your exposure thus allowing you to shoot wide open.

For instance outside in most of the daylight where it's impossible to shoot at f/1.4 - especially at native LOG ISOs like 800+ or so - without ND filtration.

So if you didn't have any, you'd have to stop down to have to have correct exposure (resulting in less shallow DoF).

Having ND filtration would allow you to shoot at f/1.4 and have maximum shallowness.

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In your case, you need to back away from the subject as far as possible and zoom all the way in (until you can't anymore) to achieve the most shallowness possible with that small chip.

This is one reason why full-frame sensors are so highly desirable because you can have crazy shallow DoF even with wide lenses but also control the results (by stopping down).