Can you stop down the aperture on a Canon PowerShot SD780 IS for more depth of field?
Asked 9/19/2010
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I use a Canon PowerShot SD780 IS as a small carry-everywhere camera. For close-up shots, depth of field is often too shallow, and the camera seems to keep the lens wide open unless I'm in very bright light. Is there any built-in setting, exposure trick, or firmware option that can make this camera use a smaller aperture for close-ups and increase depth of field?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
15y ago
2 Answers
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As Matt stated, there is the Canon Hack Development Kit (CHDK).
However, the SD780, along with many other compacts, do not have an iris for aperture control. Basically the CHDK will allow you to control the ND filter, which acts as a fake aperture. It will only allow you to use longer shutter speeds (or increased ISO), and will not increase depth of field.
The physical aperture is fixed, but you can increase the f-stop (aperture / focal length) by zooming in with the lens. Of course, increasing the focal length itself will narrow the depth of field more than the amount you decreased the f-stop.
The only way to potentially get a deeper depth of field is to shoot from further away and perhaps crop. The act of magnifying will actually change the circle of confusion and again narrow the perceived depth of field, but it may be the best chance. You can take multiple shots and use Super-Resolution to try to regain some resolution. Only one commercial software at the moment implements Super-Resolution, but you can use Matlab if you have it :)
Originally by user389. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user389
15y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
Probably not. On the SD780 IS, the lens is generally considered to have a fixed physical aperture rather than a true adjustable iris. CHDK may let you control the camera’s ND filter, but that only reduces light; it does not create a smaller real aperture, so it won’t increase depth of field.
Exposure compensation also isn’t a reliable solution here, because on this type of compact camera it may change shutter speed and/or ISO rather than stopping down an actual iris.
If you need more depth of field, your practical options are:
- move farther from the subject and crop later
- avoid zooming in for close-ups
- improvise an external aperture by placing a small centered hole in dark paper over the front of the lens (this can reduce light and may cause vignetting)
So the short answer is: there’s no normal setting or firmware trick that will truly stop down the SD780’s aperture for greater depth of field.
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