Depth-Of-Field Hyperfocal Distance Charts

Photo by David Clapp.

When shooting landscapes it can be difficult to get the whole scene sharp and knowing the hyperfocal distance will help you to do so. This is the distance that you should focus on to maximise depth-of-field, thus keeping the whole scene sharp. When the lens is focused at this distance, all objects at distances from half of the hyperfocal distance out to infinity will be acceptably sharp.

You can guess the hyperfocal focusing distance, but life is much easier if your lens is marked with a depth-of-field scale. This used to be regarded as an essential feature, but with the development of wide-ranging zooms many manufacturers now omit one. If you do have such a scale, simply line up the infinity mark against the mark for the aperture you've set and, although the image in the viewfinder will look out-of-focus, the finished image will be sharp from front to back.

Carl Zeiss Tessar 50mm f/2.8 Vertical View
 

There is a mathematical formula which can be used to find the hyperfocal distance:

H = ( f² / Nc ) + f where f is the focal length, N is the aperture and c is the circle of confusion. To create the tables below which can be used for reference, we have taken the circle of confusion to equal 0.029mm for full frame DSLR's, 0.019mm for APS-C Nikon/Sony/Pentax, 0.018mm for APS-C Canon and 0.015mm for Four Thirds.

Full-frame DSLR's

APS-C Nikon/Sony/Pentax

APS-C Canon

Micro / Four Thirds

APS-H Canon
 

When you have found the value required from the tables you simply need to set the lens focus to the distance and the depth-of-field will extend from half that distance to infinity, if you have a lens with a distance scale on. If not you have to estimate the distance and focus on it.