Custom DoF Charts!!!

Chriss Kostabill · August 9, 2006

Hello all!!!

I've been searching to the internet for HD Depth of Field tables for almost three months with no success.

But last night I found a way to create charts for HD or any other format by choosing the Circle of Confusion you want.

For HD I choose the 0.010mm (4/10.000 in) as stated on the HiDef Kelly Calculator of the Guild of British Camera Technicians and Panavision Europe.

Any other CoC can be choosed!!!

The way to get them is prety simple...

I had discovered a site named http://cinematography.de/ (please visit it!)

where there is an awsome DoF Charts calculator at this address. Here you can only choose the CoC to be 0.0125 , 0.0250 , 0.0350 and 0.0500.

But as I took a closer look I found that the tables calculated have this link format:

http://cinematography.de/cgi/focustable.pl?f=32&u=0.025&dmin=0.5&dmax=999999&kmin=1.4&kmax=16&unit=m&lang=en

Now you can see the variables that caculates the DoF tables.

Lets analyse them a little :)

[f=32] where 32 is the focal length of the lens you want the charts to have.

[u=0.025] where 0.025 is the CoC of the tables you want to have.

[dmin=0.5] where 0.5 is the shortest distance that your table you want to have.

[dmax=999999] where 999999 is the longest distance that your table you want to have (in short terms infinite).

[kmin=1.4] where 1.4 is the minimum aperture that your table want to have.

[kmax=16] where 16 is the maximum aperture that your table want to have.

[unit=m] here the m is metric. It cant be replaced with an i to get the units to imperial.

[lang=en] here en is english. It cant be replaced with an de to get the chart to German language.

Now if we are start to replace those variables we can have some very cool and detailed custom charts!!!

Eg for an HD (CoC=0.010mm) lens of Focal Length 15mm and a chart that has minimum calculated distanse of 0.20m, min aperture of f=1.4 and max aperture of f=22 we get this link:

http://cinematography.de/cgi/focustable.pl?f=15&u=0.010&dmin=0.2&dmax=999999&kmin=1.4&kmax=22&unit=m&lang=en

Now if you just copy and paste the above link to another brower window you will get the DoF table.

The only think you have to do is to change the variables in the new browser address bar and hit Enter!!!

Notes:

1) It is much more easy to do it in Internet explorer

2) If you want you can use a template I had made in .doc format (Office Word). You can download it here.

3) In my template I had include the Hyperfocal Distanse for the appertures of the table. You can calculate them here.

4) To use my template the only thing you have to do is to calculate the table, select ONLY the DoF values, copy and paste them in the template by selecting all the OLD DoF values. Don't forget to cahnge the FL of the template and all the others variables that you changed!!!

Piece of cake!!!

And for the Bussy or Lazy ones :D you can find the tables I've made here.

The tables are calculated for CoC=0.010mm, min distanse of 0.20m, min aperture of f:1.4 and max aperture of f=22 and also includes a hyperfocall distance for all the apertures!

The focal lenghts of the charts are the followings: 4.7 8 10 12 15 18 20 22 25 28 30 32 35 38 40 42 45 48 50 and 52.

Edited August 9, 2006 by Chriss Kostabill