Hyperfocal distance

DadaKopf

How do I work out my hyperfocal distance for, for example, a 35 - 80mm lens - can't remember the focal length of nearest focal distance but it's about 1.4ft or something. Y'know, for street photography?

Around about focusing distance 9ft, f9 with ISO 400 or thereabouts?

FinoBlad

does your lens have a depth-of-field scale?

FinoBlad

if ur interested in physics its

but to to be practical, print this off and read all
Depth-of-field explained

DadaKopf

Nope.

FinoBlad

progress eh?
well if you've no depth of field scale i'm not sure how you can use your hyperfocal precisely in the street unless you calculate it for different focal lengths on your zoom and write it in a notebook. you can always make a guess or perhaps even bracket [focusing] for it

[makes me glad to have an old hasselblad system]

DadaKopf

Shut up wiv yer Hasselblad. Some online thingy or other, photo.net said like, if I focus for 9 feet and set the aperture for f9 or something, I should be OK for DoF. So Maybe I should just focus on something I guesstimate to be 9 feet away and and leave the focus well alone? Feckin stoopid job and no money.

norma

I really can't understand why the DOF scale has been removed from most modern lenses. So frustrating.

Anyway, here's what I did. I took the same formula Finoblad posted (However, I multiplied the f/stop by a constant, the circle of confusion i.e. 0.036 for 35mm film or 0.127 for 120. I got it out from the October 2000 issue of Outdoor Photography magazine. Can anyone clarify which is the correct figure to use?). I entered it into Excel, and made a table for each of my lenses at the different f/stops. I printed it out, laminated it and kept it in my camera bag. Then, when I needed maximum DOF, I referred to it.

If you're not interested in making one, you can buy one from here.

I also cottoned on to the idea of using the DOF preview button (although the camera manufacturers, in their wisdom, have omitted those from a lot of cameras too). I hold it down and then tweak the focus to ensure that everything I need will be in sharp focus at my chosen aperture. It's kinda awkward to do, but it works.

Norma.

FinoBlad

Smashin post norma, unfortunatly I'm also a little confused about the precise circle of confusion so can't clarify that for you.

You're right about the DOF preview button too, why do manufacturers leave these things out.

I wouldn't like my main camera to be without DOF preview & DOF scales [and Mirror LockUp] and I think people buy cameras without these and only realise later how important they features are, probably forcing them to upgrade to a more expensive model.
Maybe the answer is to "downgrade"

IMHO Dept of Field is the most important thingie in photography, I've actually seen a photographer take out a measuring tape from his bag and take measurements from his subject to the film plane etc. A bit extreme? maybe!