Hyperfocal distance advice

rclarke80

rclarke80

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Rich
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Hi folks,

I've read bits on hyperfocal distance but just can't nail it. Is there any real basic points that should get me on my way?
 
Personally i found i get better results by manually focusing about a third in to the frame
checking the the top and bottom and tweaking if needed .
 
raymond bradshaw said:
Personally i found i get better results by manually focusing about a third in to the frame
checking the the top and bottom and tweaking if needed .
Click to expand...

I posted this on a previous thread:

With HFD, closest sharp focus is always exactly half the HFD. This is very handy to remember! This is how I do it, with just a few numbers stuck on a label inside the lens cap of a 17-40mm super-wide, on full frame. You can guess the inbetween settings well enough. HFD technique doesn't really work with longer focal lengths as the distances get impractically long.

Full-Frame
HFD..........f/5.6..........f/11.........f/22
17mm........5.6ft............2.8ft.........1.4ft
24mm........11.2ft..........5.7ft.........2.9ft
35mm........24ft.............12ft..........6ft

Decide what it is in the near foregound that you want sharp, and estimate that distance visually, say it's 3ft. Now double that distance (visually, easy enough to do at close range) and using centre point AF, focusing on something at that distance, ie 6ft, and lock it. Lens is set at 24mm, so check the table and the nearest to that distance, ie 5.7ft, so set f/11 and you're done.

These figures are for full frame. Go to DoFmaster http://www.dofmaster.com/dofjs.html for crop format and draw up your own table.

More discussion on hyperfocal distance focusing here:
http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=384043
 
Right I think I might be getting somewhere, thanks. Also downloaded the app, will put it into practice tomorrow and see how get on. Thanks again.
 
HoppyUK said:
I posted this on a previous thread:

With HFD, closest sharp focus is always exactly half the HFD. This is very handy to remember! This is how I do it, with just a few numbers stuck on a label inside the lens cap of a 17-40mm super-wide, on full frame. You can guess the inbetween settings well enough. HFD technique doesn't really work with longer focal lengths as the distances get impractically long.

Full-Frame
HFD..........f/5.6..........f/11.........f/22
17mm........5.6ft............2.8ft.........1.4ft
24mm........11.2ft..........5.7ft.........2.9ft
35mm........24ft.............12ft..........6ft

Decide what it is in the near foregound that you want sharp, and estimate that distance visually, say it's 3ft. Now double that distance (visually, easy enough to do at close range) and using centre point AF, focusing on something at that distance, ie 6ft, and lock it. Lens is set at 24mm, so check the table and the nearest to that distance, ie 5.7ft, so set f/11 and you're done.

These figures are for full frame. Go to DoFmaster http://www.dofmaster.com/dofjs.html for crop format and draw up your own table.

More discussion on hyperfocal distance focusing here:
http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=384043
Click to expand...


Hoppy is there a big advantage with using a method like this over magnifying a spot in live mode and manually focusing on that spot. I'm not sure that I described what i do accurately but i figure out dof first based on where i'm going to be focusing and i end up with a sharp image. Truth is I really don't understand how your chart or any chart relates. :help:
 
shaylou said:
Hoppy is there a big advantage with using a method like this over magnifying a spot in live mode and manually focusing on that spot. I'm not sure that I described what i do accurately but i figure out dof first based on where i'm going to be focusing and i end up with a sharp image. Truth is I really don't understand how your chart or any chart relates. :help:
Click to expand...

Not sure I understand your question. It's a method for using hyperfocal distance setting to maximise depth of field, from infinity to close distance. You can argue about the merits of HFD technique, and people do, but that's a different topic.

How you focus on the HFD point doesn't really matter. If you prefer to do it in live view that's fine.
 
HoppyUK said:
Not sure I understand your question. It's a method for using hyperfocal distance setting to maximise depth of field, from infinity to close distance. You can argue about the merits of HFD technique, and people do, but that's a different topic.

How you focus on the HFD point doesn't really matter. If you prefer to do it in live view that's fine.
Click to expand...

Perhaps I need to give this another look because I think I'm missing the value of it.
 
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