hyperfocal distance

We also need to know about something called the hyperfocal distance.

The simplest system is to use a lens set at the hyperfocal distance.

An auto-focusing camera can't find the hyperfocal distance, but you can.

This continues on through all successive 1/x values of the hyperfocal distance.

This makes a bigger circle of confusion and smaller hyperfocal distance.

But in this kind of close-in shooting, the hyperfocal distance may not suit.

This can be achieved through use of the hyperfocal distance of the camera lens.

Zone focusing at the hyperfocal distance is the best way I know to maximize your chances of a sharp photograph.

This statement is true only when the subject distance is small in comparison with the hyperfocal distance, however.

There are two commonly used definitions of hyperfocal distance, leading to values that differ only slightly:

The hyperfocal distance is entirely dependent upon what level of sharpness is considered to be acceptable.

Even better, the zone of focus also extends in front of hyperfocal distance, in this case, to about seven and a half feet.

In optics and photography, hyperfocal distance is a distance beyond which all objects can be brought into an "acceptable" focus.

Achieving this additional sharpness in distant objects usually requires focusing beyond the hyperfocal distance, sometimes almost at infinity.

Therefore the photographer has the ability to keep much or almost all of the scene in focus, with respect to the hyperfocal distance of the lens.

John Traill Taylor recalls this word formula for a sort of hyperfocal distance:

For practical purposes, hyperfocal distance is the point at which the lens can be focused while just maintaining depth of field all the way to infinity.

That's the hyperfocal distance.

Thus the effect of focal length is greatest near the hyperfocal distance, and decreases as subject distance is decreased.

His definitions include hyperfocal distance:

Definition 2: The hyperfocal distance is the distance beyond which all objects are acceptably sharp, for a lens focused at infinity.

Thomas Sutton and George Dawson define focal range for what we now call hyperfocal distance:

At close distances, the hyperfocal distance has little applicability, and it usually is more convenient to express DOF in terms of magnification.

When the lens is focused at this distance, all objects at distances from half of the hyperfocal distance out to infinity will be acceptably sharp.

When the subject is at the hyperfocal distance or beyond, the far DOF is infinite, and the near:far ratio is zero.