topic Re: Setting hyperfocal distance in EF & RF Lenses

Setting hyperfocal distance

kvbarkley — Fri, 04 Mar 2016 23:14:41 GMT

I know this is a bit old fashioned, but any ideas on how to set hyperfocal distamce on a lens - like my new 18-135 STM - that does not have a distance scale?

Re: Setting hyperfocal distance

ezpop — Fri, 04 Mar 2016 23:18:32 GMT

There are some apps for free. See if thing like this will help to solve your problem

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.aimenrg.dof&hl=en

Re: Setting hyperfocal distance

kvbarkley — Fri, 04 Mar 2016 23:24:33 GMT

Not exactly. I don't want to *determine* the hyperfocal distance, I want to *set* it. On my 17-85 I have a rudimentary distance scale that I can use in manual mode to get in the ball park. The 18-135 has no distance scale.

Re: Setting hyperfocal distance

Waddizzle — Fri, 04 Mar 2016 23:33:49 GMT

I use AF to get in the ball park, and then I shut it off.

Re: Setting hyperfocal distance

kvbarkley — Fri, 04 Mar 2016 23:40:38 GMT

That was one of my options, find an object you think is the correct distance and focus on it with AF, and switch to MF.

It would be nice if there was a custom function to allow one of the buttons to be used as a "set hyper focal" since the camera has all the info it needs to calculate and set it. Would be great for night shots when AF doesn't work well, or astrophotography. (Canon: Hint, Hint)

Re: Setting hyperfocal distance

Waddizzle — Sat, 05 Mar 2016 00:01:26 GMT

TCampbell is the astrophotography guru around here. Tim has posted a suggestion on how to best focus your lens for taking a wide angle shot of the night sky. Basically, you use different exposure settings to focus from what you would use to shoot. I saved the settings as a custom shooting mode.

I'll probably get it wrong, but here goes. You want to focus on the brightest star in the sky. My saved settings are f/8, maximum ISO setting, and a 30 second exposure, which is also the maximum. You need to focus manually. Once you're focused, change the settings to what you would use for taking a shot.

Re: Setting hyperfocal distance

ebiggs1 — Sat, 05 Mar 2016 14:51:57 GMT

"... any ideas on how to set hyperfocal distamce on a lens ..."

Can you explain why you want to do this? That may make it more clear on how to do what you need. There is a reason why camera lens makers have eliminated the scales on lenses. Mostly it isn't required any more.

Re: Setting hyperfocal distance

Waddizzle — Sat, 05 Mar 2016 14:53:03 GMT

@kvbarkley wrote:
I know this is a bit old fashioned, but any ideas on how to set hyperfocal distamce on a lens - like my new 18-135 STM - that does not have a distance scale?

Food for tought, I have distances scales on all three of my "L" series lenses, BTW

Re: Setting hyperfocal distance

ScottyP — Sat, 05 Mar 2016 17:08:37 GMT

I always kind of wondered what was meant when they say to "focus on something 1/3 of the way into the scene" to approximate the HF distance. If you have the horizon/infinity in the shot, what is 1/3 of infinity? Do they mean 1/3 of the distance to the most distant thing you care to see in the photo?

Re: Setting hyperfocal distance

kvbarkley — Sat, 05 Mar 2016 17:58:27 GMT

While I was thinking about the aerial night shot thread, I realized - and I suggested in the thread - that setting the lens to the hyperfocal distance would work well for that case and eliminate missed shots due to the camera being unable to focus. The other reason, as I said, is to set infinity focus for star field shot.

Re: Setting hyperfocal distance

kvbarkley — Sat, 05 Mar 2016 18:00:42 GMT

I think the only lenses I have that don't have distance scales are the 18-135 and maybe my 50/1.8. But the 18-135 is my walking around lens/landscape lens.

Re: Setting hyperfocal distance

macca9091 — Tue, 31 Jan 2017 20:51:43 GMT

I have the same question/issue. Neither of my lenses have MF markings on barrel. Would like to more accurately set MF to get front to back sharpness in wide-angle landscapes with near f/g objects. Focusing 1/3 into frame isn't getting me there.

Cheers!

Rebel T5i

Nifty 50

Ef-s 55-250mm STM

@ebiggs1 wrote:
"... any ideas on how to set hyperfocal distamce on a lens ..."

Can you explain why you want to do this? That may make it more clear on how to do what you need. There is a reason why camera lens makers have eliminated the scales on lenses. Mostly it isn't required any more.

Re: Setting hyperfocal distance

Waddizzle — Tue, 31 Jan 2017 21:57:51 GMT

Maybe you should buy an actual wide angle lens. Your 50mm prime and telephoto zoom are not wide angle. I recommend trying out a budget wide angle, manual focus lens, like the Robinson 14mm f/2.8.

Re: Setting hyperfocal distance

kvbarkley — Wed, 01 Feb 2017 01:08:32 GMT

You will probably need to get a distance finder like golfers use. Find something in the frame the hyper focal distance away and focus on that. You might need to make a reference chart at each Aperture for reference.

Re: Setting hyperfocal distance

macca9091 — Wed, 01 Feb 2017 05:01:59 GMT

@Waddizzle wrote:
Maybe you should buy an actual wide angle lens. Your 50mm prime and telephoto zoom are not wide angle. I recommend trying out a budget wide angle, manual focus lens, like the Robinson 14mm f/2.8.

Appreciate the reply.

Re: Setting hyperfocal distance

macca9091 — Wed, 01 Feb 2017 05:02:55 GMT

Thanks, great suggestion for my current issue.

Re: Setting hyperfocal distance

Waddizzle — Wed, 01 Feb 2017 08:53:43 GMT

@macca9091 wrote:
Thanks, great suggestion for my current issue.

You do not need a gadget to read distance. With an ultra wide angle lens, set the aperture to f/4 - f/8, and everything beyond a several feet from the camera will be in perfect focus, because the hyper focal distance is that short.

Re: Setting hyperfocal distance

macca9091 — Wed, 01 Feb 2017 15:38:00 GMT

Thank you

Re: Setting hyperfocal distance

TCampbell — Thu, 02 Feb 2017 01:40:40 GMT

Somehow I missed this thread.

When we shoot photos of the night sky we actually do refine the focus on a star. There are two reasons.

1. You can't really use a high f-stop. It's dark. There's almost no light. The Earth is spinning. If you close down the aperture, then you have to take a longer exposure. This is going to elongate the stars and you'll have star trails instead of pin-point stars. If you actually want star-trail photos that's great, but if you want Milky Way shots or deep-sky shots then it's going to ruin the shot.

Consequently these shots are usually taken at or very near the wide-open setting for that lens.

2. This means that the f-stop wont save you if you miss focus. So you'll want to be careful to dial in the focus as fine as possible.

The common technique (this is just to help focus - not for the real exposure) is use live-view mode, switch the lens to manual-focus mode, crank the exposure to max (max out the ISO, set the aperture to wide-open, and set the shutter speed to 30 seconds). This is because Canon uses "exposure simulation in live view" and that will make it brighten up the points of light for each star.

Find a nice bright star (this time of year, that would be Sirius - follow the three stars of Orion's Belt to the "left" (east) and the brightest star you find in that direction is Sirius. It's the brightest star in the night-time sky.

Center, focus the lens to near the infinity mark (so that's "close" but just not perfect) and then zoom the live-view to 10x magnification. Now *carefully* refine focus to bring that star down to a pin-point.

Don't forget to return the exposure settings to what you actually plan to use. Point the camera to the section of sky you want to shoot (without bumping the focus ring).

Now you can take your shots.

You can also get focus-masks such as the "Sharp Star" focus mask by Lonely Speck or you can buy a "bahtinov focusing mask" (that's not a brand, it's a type of focusing mask). Both of these cause points of light to produce diffraction spikes which will converge at a common center point when you've nailed perfect focus.

I have taken shots at f/8... but only on a tracking head (no landscape ... deep sky objects). If you can spare the time and the alignment of the tracking head is bang-on accurate then reducing the aperture can help correct for lots of lens issues such as field-flatness (even focus across the field) and other optical issues. But if on a fixed tripod you generally have to shoot at a very low focal ratio or you wont get enough light before the Earth spins too much.