Hyperfocal (again)

[Mattman]

I'm trying to understand this better. I made a custom setting for indoor shooting as follows:

Av mode
Ap - 5.6
Manual focus on 5ft.
Full wide zoom
ISO 50
white balance - Flash (do I need this?)

I am using the 420ex for all indoor shooting.

If I take a photo with these settings it is supposed to be in focus anywhere from 2.5 to over 250 ft., right?

When I zoom in on different areas of photos taken in a room about 20x20ft., (that I've taken using this custom setup), some areas are in focus, others are not.

Am I doing something wrong? Should I use a smaller aperture? Also, does it matter what the flash setting is in the custom mode if I'm using the 420ex?



Thanks,

Norm

[marcel wouters]

Norm,
the hyperfocal distance for G3 and ap 5.6 is 5.03ft!
Be shure to be over 5.03, this is very important choose 6 ft to be shure! With a distance undert 5ft the dof decrease dramatically.

[Mattman]

Thanks, I'll give that a try.

But, does it matter what the flash setting is in my custom mode if I'm using the 420? And, is it a good idea to set the white balance to "flash" if the custom setting will always be used with the 420?

Thanks

[Man-Fai Wong]

Mattman wrote:
When I zoom in on different areas of photos taken in a room about 20x20ft., (that I've taken using this custom setup), some areas are in focus, others are not.

You cannot zoom in much when using this hyperfocal setting. As you zoom in from full wideangle, you will decrease the DoF drastically. Depending on your shooting style, you may be able to zoom in just a few steps (to ~45-50mm equiv) and still keep your immediate subject, but not distant ones, in focus. At 50mm equiv, your in-focus range has already shrunk to ~3.5ft to ~9.5ft.

Basically, you have to "zoom" w/ your feet, if you use this setting.

_Man_

PS: Nevermind. Looks like I misread that line in your post. :D

[Bean]

Mattman wrote:
Thanks, I'll give that a try.

But, does it matter what the flash setting is in my custom mode if I'm using the 420? And, is it a good idea to set the white balance to "flash" if the custom setting will always be used with the 420?

Thanks

Yes, that is a good idea if you are shooting jpegs with flash. IF there is a lot of ambient light, you may want to switch the balance to something else. If shooting RAW, it doesn't matter.