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Depth of field calculator

The near and far limits of acceptable focus, the total depth and the hyperfocal distance for your sensor, lens, aperture and subject distance.

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Total depth of field: 5.82 m27% in front of the subject, 73% behind
Near limit: 3.43 m
Far limit: 9.25 m
Hyperfocal distance: 10.8 mSharp from 5.41 m to ∞

Camera on the left; the shaded band is acceptably sharp, the line marks the focus point and H the hyperfocal distance (an arrow when it is off the scale).

A lens focuses sharply at one distance only. In front of and behind it, points blur into small discs; while those discs stay smaller than the circle of confusion, the eye reads them as sharp. Depth of field is the stretch where that holds.

H    = f² ÷ (N × c) + f
near = s(H − f) ÷ (H + s − 2f)
far  = s(H − f) ÷ (H − s)   (∞ once s ≥ H)

f is the focal length, N the f-number, s the focus distance and c the circle of confusion. The calculator uses the common convention of the sensor diagonal ÷ 1500, which is 0.029 mm on full frame, sized for an 8 × 10 inch print seen at reading distance. Choosing a sensor fills that in, unless you have typed your own value.

Focusing at the hyperfocal distance gives the deepest possible zone: from half that distance to infinity.
Big prints, close viewing and pixel peeping all need a smaller circle of confusion, so treat the limits as generous and leave margin on critical shots.
These are thin-lens figures. Close-up and macro work, where the subject is only a few focal lengths away, drifts from them.

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Depth of field calculator

The method behind the numbers.