"Understanding Exposure" - Focus via distance settings?

[greg_w]

I'm rereading Scott Peterson's "Understanding Exposure," and I've got a question. He's talking about where to focus in order to achieve maximum depth of field. He says "don't focus the lens at all, but rather preset the focus via the distance settings."

He goes on to day "set your aperture to f/22 and then align the distance above your distance-setting mark on the lens. Your focal length will determine which distance your choose."

Does this apply to modern lenses, or is this another one of those things where he's referring to pre-modern lenses? My kit lens doesn't have any distance markings, but my 50 1.4 does. I'm not sure if they are the same as what he's referring to though.

[PhotosGuy]

and then align the distance above your distance-setting mark on the lens. He's still in the dark ages of manual lenses with better distance markings. Generally, if you auto focus 1/3 of the way into the image, you'll maximize your DOF for that focal length & f-stop.
For macro, it's more like 1/2 - 1/2.

This is what I usually use for exposure:
Need an exposure crutch? (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=89123)

[greg_w]

He's still in the dark ages of manual lenses with better distance markings.

I thought that might be the case. I like the book, but it can be frustrating figuring out which bits no longer apply.

Need an exposure crutch?

I bought a gray card a while back and figured out how much adjustment was required for metering off my palm. I got out of the habit of metering that way. I'm going to try to get back into it.

[Wilt]

The photographic world went BACKWARD (not progress, but regression) when zoom lenses and AF lenses become popular!

http://i69.photobucket.com/albums/i63/wiltonw/IMG_0339a.jpg

This shows a distance scale and a DOF scale on a lens from the late 1970's. You could do what Peterson mentioned. At the distance shown, f/16 would provide DOF from 5' - 12'.

However, when the 135 format lenses got fitted onto APS-C camera bodies, the DOF scale (even when present on the lens) became useless because they are set for 135 format DOF, not for APS-C DOF distances!

[greg_w]

Thanks for the photo Wilt. What he's saying would make a lot more sense if my lens looked like that.