Photopills

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Have been looking at hyperfocal information for use in landscapes and the website I was looking at recommended using Photopills to calculate the required distances. A quick look on my phone shows it costs about £9.50 and has all sorts of information regarding sun, moon, milky way, etc. positions but I get the impression that the hyperfocal thingy is merely an aside. Is astro all it is really for?
 
Photopills update:

Well I bought Photopills out of curiosity and have sat through about an hour and a half of 'Outdoor photography' videos explaining how to use it. Perhaps I'm missing something but I can't see that this does a lot more than using Stellarium (which is free) with a bit of photographic knowledge. It seems to take some things that a person could work out intuitively just by looking, then lays them down in a planner with all the settings worked out in advance. I do feel as if it is over-complicating what is pretty straightforward if one has a bit of nous.

I'll continue with some of the instructional videos but I can't see me using this very much for Milky Way pictures as Stellarium can put me in the right place at the right time merely by entering a date, a time and a location and turning up the brightness slider for the Milky Way...and there it is.

I'm sure I'll find a use for it but I'm glad it cost less than ten quid.
 
ShinySideUp said:
Have been looking at hyperfocal information for use in landscapes and the website I was looking at recommended using Photopills to calculate the required distances. A quick look on my phone shows it costs about £9.50 and has all sorts of information regarding sun, moon, milky way, etc. positions but I get the impression that the hyperfocal thingy is merely an aside. Is astro all it is really for?
Click to expand...

I was looking at some apps as well, but after viewing a few videos etc it seems the easiest way to find the hyperfocal distance is to simply look at the distance to the closest subject you want in focus and double it and this is where to focus. Easy enough if close, but perhaps a little more tricky for further away objects!

But I'm also wondering if focus stacking may be a better option? Obviously any subject movement could cause an issue here, but I wonder if it would save having to try and figure out distances?
 
gman said:
I was looking at some apps as well, but after viewing a few videos etc it seems the easiest way to find the hyperfocal distance is to simply look at the distance to the closest subject you want in focus and double it and this is where to focus. Easy enough if close, but perhaps a little more tricky for further away objects!

But I'm also wondering if focus stacking may be a better option? Obviously any subject movement could cause an issue here, but I wonder if it would save having to try and figure out distances?
Click to expand...

Not exactly a swift method of shot capturing though, depends if a shot is worth that much effort.
 
ShinySideUp said:
Not exactly a swift method of shot capturing though, depends if a shot is worth that much effort.
Click to expand...

I think the D850 has focus shift built in and I remember seeing it do something like a 10 point focus shift in about 3-4 seconds. Surely that's quick enough for almost any landscape shot?

I'm not sure how it would work with a long exposure and water though.
 
gman said:
I think the D850 has focus shift built in and I remember seeing it do something like a 10 point focus shift in about 3-4 seconds. Surely that's quick enough for almost any landscape shot?

I'm not sure how it would work with a long exposure and water though.
Click to expand...

Quite, a subject that doesn't move is paramount so it's use is limited to still-life or landscapes, not much use otherwise. I have a D850 and have used it for a focus-stacked macro picture of some insect eggs but it still took quite a time to set up, if I'd been in a hurry or the eggs had been on a leaf in the wind it would have been a useless feature but horses for courses, I suppose.
 
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