HyperDOF - an early Xmas present for you

[TomPierce]

I wrote a small app for the Palm OS that I'd like to share with the forum as an early present for the Holiday season.

It is a Depth of Field and Hyperfocal Distance calculator that runs on Palm OS 3.1 or better. It will calculate the Hyperfocal distance and the 4 DOF distances for your lens and camera setup. Its simple and quick to use.

When I am shooting and have DOF concerns, I usually don't have my PC with Curtis' wonderful spreadsheet running, but I almost always have my Palm-equipped cell phone handy. Since I'm a programmer by profession, the solution seemed inescapable.

Boring technical details follow:
Written in NSBasic Palm 4.4 (compiled as a Fat App meaning the NSBasic runtime and the MathLib runtime are included in the app) should work on OS 3.1 and above (although I don't guarantee the colors)

Warranty: None
Money Back Guarantee: I guarantee it won't burst into flame. If it does, you get your money back.
Cost: Free
Size: 144 KB (148,240 bytes) Size on Disk: 148 KB (151,552 bytes)
Download (Save as) Link: http://www.tompierce.com/HyperDOF.prc (please ignore the outdated website)

Moderators: This was my best guess as to the forum this should be in - please move it if necessary.

Enjoy!

[Big_B]

Great idea :) I'll move this to Talk about Photography

[Curtis N]

I'm sure that using a high-tech gadget on location looks more impressive than a pile of paper hyperfocal charts.;)

I know such applications are available elsewhere (for a price). It's great you are sharing this with the forum. I don't have one of those gadgets, but if I did, this sort of program would surely come in handy.

Thanks, Tom!

[Curtis N]

Ok, I'm giving this a bump because
a) I'm a DOF geek, and
b) I think it would be quite useful for anyone who happens to have one of those Palm thingys.

Tom, why don't you post a link in the Photography Tips & Tutorials (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=52418)sticky thread?

[TomPierce]

Thanks for the bump Curtis.

I wrote this little app for myself, and I just posted it here in case anyone else might like to see it.

I'm only a minor DOF geek myself (althought it sure helps explain why I have trouble with long lenses at wide apertures handheld - if the DOF don't get me then the shakes will <g>)

Sometimes I wonder if people realize that at f4 at 12 ft with a 200 mm lens on a 20D the DOF is less than 2 inches. I like the flattening perspective that a long lens gives, but with the narrow DOFs then focusing is critical.

On the other hand, if you shoot a 25mm lens at f16 on the same camera at the same distance the DOF is 100 feet deep - you can practically focus once in the morning and then not have to change it all day.

[neilg]

Thanks for posting your work Tom, I have just found this thread and uploaded the app to my palm, from a quick glance it looks good, hopefully it will come in helpful too, also like your explanations in the help section.