Depth of Field Calculator — near & far limits, total DoF and hyperfocal distance

Real-world use cases

• Nail a shallow portrait background

  You are shooting an 85 mm portrait wide open at f/1.8 with the subject 2 metres away on a full-frame body. Punch those numbers in and the total depth of field reads a few centimetres — enough to keep the eyes sharp but melt the background. If the depth looks too thin to keep both eyes sharp at a three-quarter angle, you nudge to f/2.5 and watch the field widen in real time before you ever press the shutter.

• Get a landscape sharp front to back

  On a 24 mm lens at f/11 you want a foreground rock and distant peaks all sharp. The calculator gives the hyperfocal distance (around 2 m); you set focus there and the far limit flips to infinity, confirming everything from 1 m to the horizon falls inside the sharp zone. No more guessing whether to focus on the rock or the mountains.

• Zone-focus for street photography

  You prefocus a 35 mm lens at f/8 to grab candid moments without waiting for autofocus. Enter the settings and read the near and far limits, then set your manual focus to the middle of that zone. Anyone who walks into the band between, say, 1.5 m and 4 m is sharp the instant you raise the camera — the whole point of zone focusing.

• Plan a product or macro shot's focus

  Shooting a watch on a 100 mm macro at f/16, you need the dial and the crown both sharp. The tool shows just how thin the depth is at that magnification, so you decide up front whether to stop down further or shoot a focus-stack of several frames instead of discovering the problem on the computer.

• Compare full frame vs crop before you buy

  Deciding between a full-frame and an APS-C body for video, you compare the same 50 mm f/2 framing on each by switching the format. The crop sensor's deeper field tells you how much harder it will be to throw a background out of focus — concrete numbers instead of forum opinions to settle the upgrade question.

Common pitfalls

• Mixing metres and millimetres. The formulas need focal length and CoC in mm but focus distance in metres; entering a focus distance in mm gives a wildly wrong field. This tool takes distance in metres and converts everything internally, so you only enter the unit shown on each field.

• Using full-frame depth-of-field marks on a crop body. A printed DoF scale on a lens assumes a circle of confusion for one format. Mount it on an APS-C or Micro 4/3 body and the real depth differs; switch the sensor format here to get numbers that match your actual camera.

• Expecting a single CoC to fit every output. The diagonal-over-1500 value suits normal print and screen sizes. If you crop heavily or pixel-peep at 100 percent, that standard is too loose; choose the custom format and enter a smaller circle of confusion.

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