Hyperfocal lenght and infinity position

[Shavou]

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I have been shooting with Leica for many years and always wondered what is the correct positioning of the infinity icon when shooting with hyperfocal distance.

See attached, I am shooting at f8 - do I place the infinity icon in the middle of the line, or on either side??

 

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Edited February 10, 2023 by Shavou

[spydrxx]

Most will suggest centering it, but really it is a personal preference depending on the extent to which one wants to provide greater emphasis on near or distant objects. In most cases it is irrelevant though unless one has significant enlargements made.

[wda]

Can you assess the accuracy of the camera and lens via live-view? That would be more accurate than theory.

[lct]

10 hours ago, Shavou said:

I am shooting at f8 - do I place the infinity icon in the middle of the line, or on either side?

Middle preferably but it is just an approximation. On a 35mm lens at f/8, 5m or 6m subject distance should fit for an average CoC value of 0.03mm but this value itself is not made for pixel peeping on high res sensors.

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[28framelines]

Can someone help me understand what hyperfocal distance is, and specifically how it works on M cameras? Is it where, if you set the aperture to a given value, you simply focus the lens so that the infinity marking is at that f stop on the lens markings? Why would someone want to do this, specifically?

[lct]

See: https://www.dofmaster.com/hyperfocal.html

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12 hours ago, Shavou said:

do I place the infinity icon in the middle of the line, or on either side

Turn the focusing ring such that the lens is all the way retracted. This is when it is focused on infinity. Observe where the infinity sign stands with respect to the focus mark.

[Stuart Richardson]

3 hours ago, 28framelines said:

Can someone help me understand what hyperfocal distance is, and specifically how it works on M cameras? Is it where, if you set the aperture to a given value, you simply focus the lens so that the infinity marking is at that f stop on the lens markings? Why would someone want to do this, specifically?

It is all an estimation anyway. It is basically the distance from the camera, near to far, that appear sharp at any given focus distance and aperture. As you probably know, wider apertures mean shallower depth of field, and smaller apertures wider depth of field. Hyperfocal focusing is the method where you choose not to focus on a particular object in the composition, but rather set the distance on the lens such that everything you want in focus is in the depth of field. This was commonly used in street photography or candids, when there was not enough time to focus accurately. So for example, if you want to take a picture of a person standing in a landscape, but still have the foreground and background in focus, you might choose not to focus on the person, but focus a bit in front or behind, if that will better distribute the depth of field.

All that said, depth of field is more of an impression than a rule, and the markings on the lens are just Leica's idea of what the depth of field might be. The truth is that focus is a plane, and you can only choose one spot that is truly in focus. The greater the magnification, the easier this is to see. So while the hyperfocal distance markers on the lens might say that everything from 2m to infinity is in focus at a given f stop and focal distance, that is only true for a certain magnification. So it might look totally in focus in a 8x10 print, but in an 40x50 inch print, it would be clear that the depth of field did not cover the whole range.

Long story short, hyperfocal distance is primarily in the eye of the beholder, and is always an estimate about the tolerable level of sharpness.

[pippy]

FWIW, if I need to set my focus for Happenstance Snapping, in practical terms I tend to follow - almost - the answer given by Al Brown in post #3 and use the indices for an aperture reading one half-stop wider than the scale suggests might be acceptable.

Hyperfocal Focussing does not put everything into focus between X and Y; it merely means that for all reasonable intents and purposes anything between points X and Y will, on a physical print of the image, be 'in acceptable focus when viewed at correct viewing distance'.

Focus is always only absolutely correct one plane. Full Stop. Focus on an object 0.7m away using a 50mm lens set to f1.4 and pretty much everything a centimetre or so either side will be less sharp. Stop down to f11 and far more will be acceptably sharp but, still, it will only be stuff that is 0.7m away which will be perfectly sharp; it's just that more of the rest becomes acceptably sharp at smaller apertures.

Hyperfocal in theory is one thing; it's up to you to decide what you consider to be acceptable.

Philip.

[spydrxx]

I often think of the old news photographer's adage when I hear the word "hyperfocal", which is "f/8 and be there".