Comments on: Hyperfocal Distance – Photographer’s Friend

By: GX67

GX67 — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 02:05:24 +0000

There’s actually a new iTouch/iPhone app that’s useful for calculating hyperfocal distance. I believe it’s called Field Tools, and it’s FREE.

It was gone over in an article at the diyphotography.net website.

http://www.diyphotography.net/three-great-iphone-apps-for-photographers

Link, if you’re interested.

By: Wayan Suadnyana

Wayan Suadnyana — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 14:28:11 +0000

great article…i never knew about it…

By: Lennard

Lennard — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 02:10:42 +0000

Best infos I found in the net about Hyperfocal Distance are the both podcasts from Martin Bailey
“#065 Understanding Hyperfocal distance”->
http://www.martinbaileyphotography.com/podcasts.php?dt=sa&ep=65#Ep65
and “#132 DOF Explained”->
http://www.martinbaileyphotography.com/podcasts.php?dt=sa&ep=132#Ep132
And the pdf-file to the “DOF Explained”podcast, click->
http://www.martinbaileyphotography.com/podcasts.php?dt=sa&ep=132.1#Ep132.1
Really every KB is worth to download. Get a bit more in “depth”.

Lennard

By: Nick

Nick — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 15:59:30 +0000

My D50 and your D50 has a depth of field preview button. You can check the book or look for the black button on the left side below your lens. check it out.
I’m not sure about the D40 but I would check the book

Read more: http://digital-photography-school.com/hyperfocal-distance-photographers-friend#ixzz0KDDyOHIo&C

The D40/x/D60/D5000 lack a DOF preview button. However, since they’re digital, you can always just take a test shot and zoom in on the LCD to see which areas are in focus. I much prefer this to using DOF preview on 35mm cameras. I find DOF preview both more useful and more necessary on my RB67, because DOF is trickier with 6×7 format, and because the gigantic viewfinder means it’s possible to make out detail easily even when the lens is stopped down.

But for those who want to do scale focus work on a Nikon, my suggestion is just to buy a nice old lens with DOF markings. (And, if your camera is DX, use the markings for one stop wider than what you’re shooting at.)

A 28mm f/3.5 H can be found for under $50 easily, it’s a great lens for landscape, infrared, and street, and quite easy to scale focus. It won’t meter on the consumer bodies, but that’s no big deal with digital, anyway.

By: bob gardner

bob gardner — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 15:38:32 +0000

My D50 and your D50 has a depth of field preview button. You can check the book or look for the black button on the left side below your lens. check it out.
I’m not sure about the D40 but I would check the book

By: Turo Jantunen

Turo Jantunen — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 04:21:12 +0000

You can calculate exact hyperfocal charts with http://www.dofmaster.com/doftable.html. Choose your camera body and lens combination and then also sensor size is correctly taking care of those calculations.

By: Bridget Casas

Bridget Casas — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 02:33:15 +0000

I found this interesting and I need to do some more research. I have shot digital for so long I forgot about this! or did I ever know?

Thank you for the information.

By: af

af — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 22:58:08 +0000

Wherever you focus your lens, there will be a range in acceptable focus extending closer and further than the focused-upon point. The precise range depends upon pixel size, but I won’t go into that.

The range will extend twice as far outward as it will closer to the camera. that is, you will be focused on a point one third of the way into the focused range.

The extent of the range depends upon 1) the f-stop: smaller aperture, greater range; 2) the distance: further away, greater range.

For a nice depth of field table, look here: http://www.dofmaster.com/doftable.html

For most landscape shots, I shoot f11 and focus on something, even the ground, part of the way into the range of depths I want to have in focus. Eyeballing it works fine, most of the time.

By: Nathan

Nathan — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 17:29:57 +0000

I’m with Eddy and Peter. The comments have been helpful, but I’m still going to have to do some of my own research. I probably would have anyhow, but it would have been nice if the article provided some of the calculations or summary of some of the basic concepts. I’ve got some older lenses, but have yet to learn about how to use the barrel markings, since my digital lenses don’t have them.

By: Irene Mcc

Irene Mcc — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 16:46:04 +0000

I found this a very disappointing article which left me more confused than before! I’ve been shooting since the early 80’s and still have my Nikon film camera and lenses. Nowadays, with AF lenses calculating focus, it is far harder to ascertain hyperfocal distance and to manually achieve it, especially with lenses that don’t carry the markings on the barrel.

I doubt very much that a beginner could make any real sense out of reading this article and apply it with success.