Advanced App for DoF calculations

[ulf]

I have bought an advanced App for DoF calculations.

https://www.lumariver.com/lrdof-manual/

 

I was looking for a calculator for setting up my tilt lenses and found this App.

It is available for at least the two major phone platforms.

 

It seams to be very powerful with a lot of settings and ways to configure to match your gear.

It will be useful for me not only with my TS-E lenses but also for more normal DoF calculations.

Still it has nice visualisation of the DoF field and a relatively easy operation.

It is designed to be easy to use in the field, even with complex setups with tilt lenses.

 

Without having tested it in reality with my camera and lenses the first impression was so positive that I want to share my find.

 

[Shane]

If you want wavelength based DoF tables look here http://www.georgedouvos.com/douvos/Intro_to_TrueDoF-Pro.html

[enricosavazzi]

DOF calculators are not a trivial subject. There are dozens of DOF calculators on the web, and they often use approximate formulas and give different results starting from the same basic data. Quite a few threads on photomacrography.net deal with contrasting results obtained from different DOF calculators.

 

At present the main practical use for an accurate DOF calculator is computing the step sizes in focus stacking with a motorized focus rail, which usually allows a very precise and repeatable step size in known units. We are not talking about in-camera stacking, which gives little control over step sizes and even less knowledge of the actual distance between steps. Many cameras just give you a choice between 1 and 9, but don't tell you what the numbers mean and how the corresponding sizes co-vary with other parameters.

 

If you want to understand the details, start at https://www.photomacrography.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=25&p=286829

and check out the other threads referred to from there.

 

If you want a precise calculator, Zerene Systems (the maker of Zerene Stacker) quite recently started to offer a free online version of the DOF calculator available in Zerene Stacker, which is commercial software. Not only it is very precise, it also uses two different methods to calculate DOF (one based on geometric optics, the other on wave optics). The results are quite similar, but not identical. The calculator also gives you control on which parameters you enter and which are calculated from other parameters. You could say even too much control, if all you are after is just one oddball estimate, but if you need to get accurate results and/or want to understand why you get a given result, this is the best way I know: https://zerenesystems.com/cms/stacker/docs/dofcalculator

Check also the links to other discussions in the page at the above link.