Hyperfocal Distance

In the days of film lenses used to have hyperfocal distance guides etched into the barrels of the lenses. These were really usefull for working out available depth of field. Just one way i think manufacturers have taken a step backwards.
 
glynh said:
In the days of film lenses used to have hyperfocal distance guides etched into the barrels of the lenses. These were really usefull for working out available depth of field. Just one way i think manufacturers have taken a step backwards.
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No really true.

Prime lenses today still have depth of field scales, but they are mostly next to useless, as they almost always were, with minimal info that's often innacurate. And even when it is accurate, it only refers to full frame format, so is over a stop out for crop format cameras.

Zooms don't have scales because there's just not enough room to engrave everything on the barrel for all focal lengths, let alone two different formats.

If you want a really good DoF calculator, in a neat rotary style to stick on your lens cap, then you can print a fully customised one exactly how you want it here www.dofmaster.com
 
HoppyUK said:
No really true.

Prime lenses today still have depth of field scales, but they are mostly next to useless, as they almost always were, with minimal info that's often innacurate. And even when it is accurate, it only refers to full frame format, so is over a stop out for crop format cameras.

Zooms don't have scales because there's just not enough room to engrave everything on the barrel for all focal lengths, let alone two different formats.

If you want a really good DoF calculator, in a neat rotary style to stick on your lens cap, then you can print a fully customised one exactly how you want it here www.dofmaster.com
Click to expand...

I have zoom lenses with scales from my film day :)

I used to find the scales useful, nowadays you can work out what the hyperfocal distance should be but how do you actually focus at that distance?
If there is no scale on the lens you have to guess where the distance is, which means that it is often inaccurate.
 
How accurate do you need to be when you set focus to the hyperfocal distance? Bob on, or somewhere close?

I went through a phase of focusing my lumix 20mm f1.7 to its hyperfocal distance at a given aperture, then left it in manual focus and made sure everything I shot was a bit further than 6 feet away. It seemed to work well. Now I have the 14mm f2.5 which focuses so much faster I can afford to drop back to AF.
 
What I've done, a spreadsheet on Excel for each of my lens, and the HFD for the various apertures from the widest all the way up to f/11. Printed this out and taped it on to the outside of the lens's hood. For zooms, I've done the same at increments in the zoom range.

Saves me from having to fiddle with DoF calculator when out in the field, and puts in at an easy to read location.
 
thanks for that, have bookmarked that page for further reading
 
Practically, the point at which your lens looks acceptably sharp when focussed on infinity is your Hyperfocal distance (Check on your images). If you then focus (and mark your lens) at this point, your focus will extend from half this distance to infinity.

This obviously differs with the aperture being used.

Bit technical but more viewable than charts, if you're serious about landscapes etc its worth knowing your settings.
 
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