hyperfocal distance

[wmaburnett]

This concept i am having a hard time understanding how to do it with my lenses and the distance chart on there, I understand what it is, but not sure how to achieve it. Can anyone simplify it for me so i can use the hyperfocal distance?
Thanks!
~William

[Glen]

William,

Use this link and print the distances out for your various lenses. Works best for primes. http://www.dofmaster.com/charts.html

[owen]

Hi William. For a landscape scene that is relatively straight forward then the cheats way is to change your focus point to the one that is at the bottom of your viewfinder and use that to focus on. It seems to work from f/11 onwards if you're more than a metre and a half from that point and shooting at less than 18mm.

That chart is the real legit way to go if you're keen on getting it exactly right.

[Steffen]

William, you put the infinity symbol over the selected f-stop on the left, and the DOF will stretch from the distance shown over the selected f-stop on the right all the way to infinity.

At that point, your lens will be focussed at the hyperfocal distance for the selected f-stop, which is twice the distance indicated on the right.

Practical example, my AI 24mm f/2.8:

I select f/22 (labeled in orange). If I set the focussing ring so that the infinity symbol is over the left orange marker, the right orange marker will have 0.5m printed above it. Hence, the DOF stretches from 0.5 m to infinity. The lens is focused at the hyperfocal distance for f/22, which is about 1m.

Note: this is for 35mm. The DOF is smaller with the DX format, assuming that you enlarge digital shots to the same size as 35mm negatives. When using DOF charts with DX you can simply substitute the "effective" (35mm equivalent) focal lenght. The DOF scales on lenses can't be converted easily, one has to guess and make some allowance.

Cheers
Steffen.

[wmaburnett]

Thanks for that prgram glenn say if i owned the 18-70, the 60mm micro and the 80-200 2.8 D , i put in 18-200 for the range, do those hyperfocal distances pertain to all three of my lenses, if i just print out that one page and put it in my camera bag?
thanks
~William