Photography Calculator

The hyperfocal distance is the closest point you can focus on while still keeping infinity acceptably sharp. Focus exactly there and your depth of field stretches from half that distance all the way to the horizon — the single deepest zone of sharpness a given focal length and aperture can produce. It's the landscape photographer's headline number, the answer to "where do I focus so the foreground rocks and the distant peaks are both crisp?"

The formula is H = f² ÷ (N × c) + f, where f is focal length in millimetres, N is the f-number, and c is the circle of confusion (0.030mm here for full-frame). The f² on top is why wide lenses have such close hyperfocal distances: halve the focal length and H drops by roughly four. The f-number on the bottom is the other lever — stopping down from f/8 to f/11 pulls the hyperfocal point nearer, extending sharpness deeper into the foreground.

Once you have H, the rule of thumb is simple and worth memorising: focus at H, and everything from H/2 to infinity is sharp. That near limit — half the hyperfocal distance — is the closest thing that will still render acceptably crisp. The calculator reports both H and that near-sharp limit, so you know exactly how close your foreground can be before it starts to soften.

Two cautions from the field. Focusing accurately at a specific distance is harder than it sounds on a lens without a distance scale, so many shooters focus a little beyond H to be safe — it costs a touch of foreground sharpness but guarantees infinity stays sharp. And the underlying circle of confusion is a tolerance, not a guarantee of pixel-level acuity; for large prints or pixel-peeping, treat the hyperfocal number as a strong starting point and stop down a touch more if you can.