Newbie has some hyperfocal help to share.

[8bit Barry]

Hi there

This is my first post.

I thought rather than just getting a load of 'hellos' I would offer some help, seeing as that is what others readily do here.

I have a G3 which I bought about 2 weeks ago. I am film user mainly, owning a EOS3 and a variety of lenses. I bought the G3 because I need a daytime camera I can stick in my pocket, especially for holidays when I can snap away, scout for good locations and take test shots before returning with the heavy weight goodies.

Anyway, I bought a Raynox 6600 lens, and the adapter tube and ring. I went to this website (http://www.dofmaster.com/dofjs.html) and found it has a useful hyperfocal distance chart creator with presets for all digicams. I have made a CUSTOM 1 setting for you to follow and store on the G3. You can set and forget, to get maximum hyperfocal shots at the flick of a switch when needed.

Set camera to Av set to f8
Set focusing Manually (M) to 5 foot.
Press MENU, press Up arrow on the navigation. This will take you to the bottom of the list. Save as Custom 1 or 2.

You will no be able to switch to that Custom function from turning on the G3 and take a shot with a hyperfocal distance of 1.28ft to Infinity!No more blurry fore grounds.

Using the Raynox 6600 wide angle, which is a 0.66x lens, you simply multiply the 7.2mm focal length by 0.66 which gives you 4.7mm (or 5mm for good measure), if you set the focus manually to 2ft, you get a depth of field from 1ft to infinity! Have a look at the picture below for this setting. I used a tripod (when dont I !!)

Barry


http://www.loona.eclipse.co.uk/morris.jpg

[S45_fornow...]

The hyperfocal stuff is great. I learned it years ago from my film camera days. Once you get the settings nailed down for your digicam, out of focus shots will pretty much be a thing of the past.

[jjocsak]

Looks like the G6 has the same lens, so it should work with it too, but will it work for F2.0 also?

Jeff

[lostdoggy]

Looks like the G6 has the same lens, so it should work with it too, but will it work for F2.0 also?

Jeff

No, Hyperfocal is base on front and back focus. At f/2 hyperfocal is very short on both front & back. The higher the f/stop the greater the fron and back focus.

here is a good link to better understand hyperfocal:
http://www.dofmaster.com/alternate_setup.html

[jfrancho]

That is the link to the Windows XP non admin workaround install directions. Try this: http://www.dofmaster.com/dofjs.html

[lostdoggy]

Oooops bad link

[lostdoggy]

It was the thought that counts right????

[jfrancho]

I knew you had good intentions! I'm so happy I'm not the only one posting links to that site every four hours.

[jjocsak]

No, Hyperfocal is base on front and back focus. At f/2 hyperfocal is very short on both front & back. The higher the f/stop the greater the fron and back focus.

here is a good link to better understand hyperfocal:
http://www.dofmaster.com/alternate_setup.html

According to that site if I have an Focal length of 7.2 (G6 Wide) and F/2 then focus at 14.2 feet I have everything from 7.29 feet to infinity in focus. So in low light conditions this would work better. Am I seeing this correctly?

Jeff

[jfrancho]

No, I get 7.1 as the near focus, using the calculator. The headlight looks a little closer than 7.1 feet, so no, it would not work. You can still take the shot, but DOF would be different than displayed in the image above.

[jjocsak]

No, I get 7.1 as the near focus, using the calculator. The headlight looks a little closer than 7.1 feet, so no, it would not work. You can still take the shot, but DOF would be different than displayed in the image above.


I guess I was talking in general for a custom (C1,C2) setting.

[jfrancho]

You can use any valid setting, and it will give some result. The DOF calc allows you to determine ahead of time what results to expect. When shooting large landscapes, it can also be handy to determine the Hyperfoacal Point to optimize sharpness.

[8bit Barry]

Quote - No, I get 7.1 as the near focus, using the calculator. The headlight looks a little closer than 7.1 feet, so no, it would not work. You can still take the shot, but DOF would be different than displayed in the image above.

Yes I was closer than 7 feet, in fact I was probably less than 2 foot fom the head lamp. Remember I was using a wide angle Raynox 6600 lens, a 0.66x multiplie so 7.2mm X 0.66 = effectivily a 4.752mm lens. Raynox specifythat the edges will be blurry using this lens on the G2/G3, so I flicked the zoom once to zoom in a little and remove the extreme edges. I guesstimate that this is a 5mm lens setting.

On the DOF site, the maximum depth of field is as follows for my wide angle Raynox lens, you can set the chart to what you want by setting the focal length to 7.2mm for a standard Canon G3/G5/G6. Here is my example, just make sure your ' Far limit of acceptable sharpness' is set to infinite and you will always get a sharp result!You can then play around with the f stop value and possibly get a handheld value that will work too.

http://www.loona.eclipse.co.uk/DOF.JPG

[Bosman]

Here is a great link to a DOF calculator, just select your specific camera and the focal length, use the actual not the 35mm equivalent and then the distance. This makes it really easy.

http://www.dofmaster.com/dofjs.html

Cheers,

Joe

[jfrancho]

Here is a great link to a DOF calculator, just select your specific camera and the focal length, use the actual not the 35mm equivalent and then the distance. This makes it really easy.

http://www.dofmaster.com/dofjs.html

Cheers,

JoeYep it is, and we've been talking about it since the original post.

[Bosman]

Yep it is, and we've been talking about it since the original post.

My bad, I missed the post with the link to it.

Sorry,

Joe

[jfrancho]

My bad, I missed the post with the link to it.

Sorry,

JoeJust bustin yer chops. I wish that link were posted more anyway.

[Bryan Bedell]

Wow, that's really helpful! I wish the camera would tell you that info real time, like maybe a scale on the MF line that shows your range... Just typing different numbers into that site and seeing how it affects DOF made me understand the relationships between all the elements better.

One question... the site lists the "real" focal lengths for the G6 lens as 7.2 at wide and 28.8 at full zoom. So how would one calculate points between those two? that's a range of 21.6mm, and the G6 has 12 "notches" of zoom, so would each "notch" be 1.8mm? (7.2, 9, 10.8, 12.6, 14.4, 16.2, 18, 19.8, 21.6, 23.4, 25.2, 27, 28.8) Or is it more complicated than that?

Bryan

[Bryan Bedell]

that "28.8)" is "twenty-eight point eight parentheses" not a smiley face, by the way. I'll leave the smiley faces to Marie, ha. (see, i just type "ha")

[dbump]

Bryan,
Regarding focal lengths, have you been to this site:
http://homepage.hispeed.ch/flowe/digifoto/focal_lg.htm
(Flowe is a contributor to this forum, btw)
He also has some great info on DOF:
http://homepage.hispeed.ch/flowe/digifoto/hfd_dof.htm

I think your idea of indicating the DOF on the LCD is awesome! That's the kind of refinement I'd like to see camera makers pursuing, rather than more and more pixels.

[S45_fornow...]

FYI anyone following this thread:

I read somewhere recently (where??) that the circle of confusion value for the sensor on the G6 that is stated on the dofmaster website was incorrect...

Here is a link to the hyperfocal chart I used while I owned a G6:

http://www.pbase.com/bukubebe

Please note that this is from someone else's website...