So the cool crisp nights are coming and I've been thinking of doing some images of the heavens this year. This had me thinking about infinity focus..
Most of my lenses have an "accurate" marking for infinity with a little angled line to show where it is exactly.. like this: ∞ -'
They all also go beyond infinity, ie you can twist the focus ring 3mm or so beyond the marker. This is probably so that the AF motor doesn't hit a hard stop when focusing towards infinity and that contrast detection can work when shooting something far away (go over infinity and back up to maximum contrast ie. focus).
But.. What happens "beyond infinity", between ∞-mark and the hard mechanical stop? When manually focusing out on a cold autumn/winter night, the lens will surely change a bit due to materials compressing in the cold.. so is it safer to focus beyond ∞, just short of ∞ (thinking hyperfocal here).. or what?
Or should I just stop thinking so much, set the lens exactly on the ∞ mark and shoot?
Most of my lenses have an "accurate" marking for infinity with a little angled line to show where it is exactly.. like this: ∞ -'
They all also go beyond infinity, ie you can twist the focus ring 3mm or so beyond the marker. This is probably so that the AF motor doesn't hit a hard stop when focusing towards infinity and that contrast detection can work when shooting something far away (go over infinity and back up to maximum contrast ie. focus).
But.. What happens "beyond infinity", between ∞-mark and the hard mechanical stop? When manually focusing out on a cold autumn/winter night, the lens will surely change a bit due to materials compressing in the cold.. so is it safer to focus beyond ∞, just short of ∞ (thinking hyperfocal here).. or what?
Or should I just stop thinking so much, set the lens exactly on the ∞ mark and shoot?
