How to achieve Shallowest Depth of Field
 

Without going to Letus Extreme, how do I achieve the shallowest depth of field for interviews and such with an XHA1 or an XLHI or an HV30?. Can I combine a simple technique of Zoom In to the max, subject close up, ND engaged, f stop at around 2.8, WITH some plug in that works with Final Cut Pro Suite 2. I have looked at a lot of plug ins and there seems nothing out there that comes in even closed to the Letus Extreme, but I suspect it won't be too long before there is or the camera manufacturers start doing something!


Tim

It's unlikely that you'll get a plug-in that accurately replicates the optical characteristics of shallow DOF.

The other things you mentioned are about the best you can do from the camera standpoint without going to a DOF adapter.

-gb-

You got the right idea. You're going to need a lot of light and ND so you can crank the iris wide open. You already know pretty much what you can do with the lens you have.

You can also dial in some shutter (up to 1/250th if it's a talking head with next to no motion in the background) to force the iris open more, if you run out of ND.