More depth equals more depth of field?

S

superhardrocker

Active member
Hi I am thinking about getting either the Canon XHG1 or the Panasonic HVX200. They are pretty much the same price, except the XHG1 uses dv tapes.
The big thing I'm looking at is the nice zoom the XHG1 has, 20x.

I currently have the dvx100b which has 10x zoom. The depth of field is do-able, but of course I can't mimic the 36mm effect.

My question, is the 20x zoom going to give me a lot more depth of field than the 13x zoom the HVX has?
 
Technically speaking you get the exact same DOF as the HVX at the same focal length. But yes, the 20x zoom-assuming you're able to back away far enough-will result in a shallower depth of field.

One thing though is that zooming in all the way gives you "fake" depth of field in that the background doesn't really get any shallower, but you're simply decreasing the field of view so that the out of focus area look even more out of focus.
 
So you mean when you place both the HVX and the XHG1 at the same spot and zoom (that both are able to reach). For example, 5 feet away from a subject. The Depth of Field will be the same?
 
superhardrocker said:
So you mean when you place both the HVX and the XHG1 at the same spot and zoom (that both are able to reach). For example, 5 feet away from a subject. The Depth of Field will be the same?
Click to expand...

Essentially, yes. At a point where both cameras show the same field of view, the depth of field will be equal.
 
Exactly. All 1/3" camcorders are going to have identical depth of field of the same frame.

Where the XHA1 can pull ahead is that it has a longer telephoto, so (as Jade said) if you get far enough away that you can zoom in further, then it can get a shallower DOF for that particular shot. It's not going to prove all that useful indoors, but for exterior shots it can come into play.
 
Barry_Green said:
Exactly. All 1/3" camcorders are going to have identical depth of field of the same frame.

Where the XHA1 can pull ahead is that it has a longer telephoto, so (as Jade said) if you get far enough away that you can zoom in further, then it can get a shallower DOF for that particular shot. It's not going to prove all that useful indoors, but for exterior shots it can come into play.
Click to expand...

Yeah, indoors, you'll need at least five feet to get nice bokeh.
 
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