Cheapest camera for shallow depth of field (video)?
- Thread starter Gangster
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Depth of focus is a function of focal length, aperture and distance to the subject.
The longer the focal length the shallow DoF.
The closer you are to the subject the shallower the DoF
The wider the aperture of the lens the shallower the DoF.
The size of the imaging sensor has 1 direct affect and 1 indirect.
1) Bigger sensors have a larger circle of confusion and can enlarge images to bigger sizes maintaining better quality, as such bigger sensors have a bigger depth of focus.
2) Bigger sensor allow you to use a longer focal length to maintain the same subject magnification. As seen above, longer focal lengths reduce the DoF. Conversely a large sensor allows you to get closer to the subject with the same lens, which also reduced DoF.
So no, you don't need a DSLR and 50mm prime to get a shallow DOF although that is an easy way to achive that. Any camera with a reasonably big sensor, long focal length lens that you can get close to the subject will work.
There are compact camera that fit this bill, Panasonic LX100, Ricoh GR, Soy RX10.
You need to think how shallow you want to go. Extremely shallow DoF is not I suitable for general video, you will get a blurry mess and will be suspectivel to focus issues. Use an online depth of focus calculator to get an idea of cameras, focal lengths and apertures that will give the DoF you want.
The longer the focal length the shallow DoF.
The closer you are to the subject the shallower the DoF
The wider the aperture of the lens the shallower the DoF.
The size of the imaging sensor has 1 direct affect and 1 indirect.
1) Bigger sensors have a larger circle of confusion and can enlarge images to bigger sizes maintaining better quality, as such bigger sensors have a bigger depth of focus.
2) Bigger sensor allow you to use a longer focal length to maintain the same subject magnification. As seen above, longer focal lengths reduce the DoF. Conversely a large sensor allows you to get closer to the subject with the same lens, which also reduced DoF.
So no, you don't need a DSLR and 50mm prime to get a shallow DOF although that is an easy way to achive that. Any camera with a reasonably big sensor, long focal length lens that you can get close to the subject will work.
There are compact camera that fit this bill, Panasonic LX100, Ricoh GR, Soy RX10.
You need to think how shallow you want to go. Extremely shallow DoF is not I suitable for general video, you will get a blurry mess and will be suspectivel to focus issues. Use an online depth of focus calculator to get an idea of cameras, focal lengths and apertures that will give the DoF you want.