Quote:
Originally Posted by deuel_1
I am not sure if it is unique to Panasonic, though its origin is a blog dedicated to the Panasonic GF1.
I first read about it here
And the origin is this page about half way down |
Ah it looks to be unique. Seems like such an odd way to set hyperfocal distance, but I guess a few switch changes is better than inputting f stop, distance to subjects, iso, etc into an exposure calculator for it.
That said, the guy was using f/8. In low light indoors, you won't be able to take group shots at f/8 at 2m. This will be even more difficult when trying to shoot at a big aperture like f/1.7-f/2, which is what you'll need for indoor low light situations.
Check this site out:
Online Depth of Field Calculator
Just as an example, let's say you're using a GF2, 17mm lens @ f/2, and your group is about 4 ft away from you (this may change depending on your situation indoors, but play around with the numbers).
At those numbers, your hyperfocal distance is ~32ft. That's not going to be available to you in an indoor situation, clearly.
That said, your limits of
acceptable (this is subjective) sharpness is between 3.5-4.5 ft in front of you. That means that if your group were all standing in a line 4 ft in front of you, they would all be acceptably sharp. Knowing groups though, this is hardly the case and they usually stack infront of each other in rows. So that means they would all have to fit in a 1ft plane to be all in focus at f/2. This plane distance increases as you increase the f number, but you end up increasing your shutter speed (and possibly introducing shake) to compensate. This is why indoor low light photography is quite difficult without the use of some flash.
Hopefully that doesn't confuse you too much, but the more information the better imo. It seems that you may not understand that setting to hyperfocal distance isn't a remedy for everything, and surely doesn't apply to every situation.