R5 focus stacking - focus increment?

[Bazsl]

Is there a definitive explanation of the Focus Increment setting in the R5's focus stacking feature? For example, if I set the focus increment to 10 does that mean that the R5 will shift focus by more than the depth of field? If not, why not shoot with a focus increment of 10 all the time? After reading everything I can find I don't understand why the focus increment setting exists. Why do I need it? Thanks for any information you can point me to.

[Bazsl]

The R5 lets you set the closest focus point but not the farthest. For a landscape shot that is not a problem since the farthest point is almost always infinity and the camera will stop when it reaches infinity. For macro you must select the closest focus and the number of exposures. Unfortunately, Canon doesn't provide a hint as to how to calculate the number of exposures.

[FloridaDrafter]

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@Bazsl wrote:

The R5 lets you set the closest focus point but not the farthest. For a landscape shot that is not a problem since the farthest point is almost always infinity and the camera will stop when it reaches infinity. For macro you must select the closest focus and the number of exposures. Unfortunately, Canon doesn't provide a hint as to how to calculate the number of exposures.

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Thank you. I use a dedicated program on my laptop, Helicon Remote, that makes it really easy. So, from your explanation I understand your frustration. I'll set point A and point B then see what the number of shots will be, which obviously depends on your aperture. I'm impatient and sometimes lower the shot count by 1-3 knowing that will increase the distance between focal planes and reduce my quality just a bit. Still I don't have a workhorse laptop so processing time takes a while for a 40-80 shot stack. I process big stacks in Helicon Focus and smaller 5-20 shot stacks in DPP4. It's a fun hobby for sure.

Thanks again for the reply,

FD

[Bazsl]

I found some useful information on the focus interval at (link removed due to Canon Forum Community Guidelines)

[bentleyb]

This focus bracketing needs some work. In the setup needs settings to select nearest focus point and then the farthest focus point you want in the setup menu would help in confining the images within the two settings. As for the focus increment needs some better way to figure it out not this mysterious setting that it is now. The number of shots would not be needed when there is a near and far in focus range setting then the increment sorted out(by some smart people) the number of shots will automatically happen to fit the focus range you set. For me macro shooting I don't need to infinity so having a setting to end the shooting is needed and same for other photography where you want the background out of focus. 

This just trial and error thing when using different lenses can get daunting. So a way to set in the focus bracketing menu, lens focal length used and camera aperture the firmware would do the calculation for us to fit in the focus range you set I mentioned earlier.