Hyperfocal distance

[Hookit]

Focusing your camera at the hyperfocal distance ensures maximum sharpness from half this distance all the way to infinity. The hyperfocal distance is particularly useful in landscape photography, and understanding it will help you maximize sharpness throughout your image by making the most of your the depth of field-- thereby producing a more detailed final print. Knowing it for a given focal length and aperture can be tricky.

The easy way to find hyperfocal distance, using any lens is to set the lens to infinity looking through the lens find the object which is close est to you that remains sharp then criticaly focus on that object now your lens is set for hyperfocal distance.

Check out the web for more detailed info on hyperfocal distance.

[cosmicma]

theres a couple problems i see with setting the focus to infinity and these are...
even if you focus on the moon ( which is a quarter of a million miles away ) your lens is never at infinity it is usually just before infinity ( well mine are when i'm taking photo's of the moon ) and the second problem is your apeture is wide open when looking through the viewfinder on most if not all modern cameras ( i'd say all dslr cameras ) and only stops down to your desired apeture when it actually takes the photo
so depth of field what is or isn't in focus can only be determined if you have a DOF preview button

another thing to consider is different lenses act in different ways
a zoom lens will throw everything but the subject out fo focus far more quickly than a prime or fixed focus lens at the same apeture setting also zoom lenses compress the forground so ther is no sense of distance
prime or fixed focus lenses don't

i can see what your saying but it's not as clear or a simple as that

the way i keep everything in focus is to use a small apeture setting and focus somewhere in the middle of the frame and then reframe for the photo

works for me

don't get me wrong i'm not having a go but what you say only really works for old manual lenses and cameras
in the digital world all the hard work as been taken away even if you set your camera to manual it will still auto focus although you can do this manually not many people do and as said above unless you have a DOF preview button and actually use it there's no way of knowing other than experiance or guesswork what will be in focus ( apart from the subject ) untill you take the photo and look at it

the general rule of thumb being the smaller the apeture the more will be in focus but even this becomes muddy because if you go too small image quality degrades due to resolution issues which can get really technical very quickly and not what this thread is about so i will leave it there for now

[Hookit]

What can I say but it works with my D3 and my back up D300 using fixed and zoom lens. Of course you have to go on to manual but then I never use auto focus.

[Cellarman]

You have a good camera and lens, so why ignore autofocus?

Hyperfocal distance is very good in theory, but a lens is only truly sharp in its plane of focus, so as the image moves away towards the ends of the depth of field, then the image becomes less sharp.

Except in macro, depth of field is generally 2/3 behind the plane of focus and 1/3 in front.

[wildlifesnapper]

Hi

hyperfocal distance isn't just a theory - it works!

It's more for landscape photography and manual focus , you can get from a foot or so to infinity in focus using it with a wideangle.

neil

[Hookit]

Cellerman, I have been a pro for over 35 years and I do not like auto focus I still use a Western Euromaster for the best exposure. It is a matter of choice. And being a pro I like to ensure I get the very best for my customers. And I like to be in control of the camera not the camera in control.