Simple DoF Calculator App Reviews

it would be nice to have the option to display the DOF in inches rather than fractions of a foot once it is under 6 inches or so. I just have a hard time getting my head around .05 feet. Of course this is a very shallow DOF, but the whole point of using an app like this is to be able to calculate just how shallow.

At first glance i thought the math of this calculator was off. Why was it giving smaller DOF measurements for cameras with smaller sensors? It should be the opposite. But then i realized the difference between focal length and angle of view. If you take two cameras with the same 50mm lens, one camera w/ a full frame 35mm sensor and the other with a 1.5x crop sensor, the DOF of the 1.5x crop camera will actually be slightly smaller. The reason is that even though the camera has a smaller sensor (and therefore greater DOF) that lens is now behaving like a 75mm lens. So it is providing the angle of view and the DOF of a 75mm lens on a full frame body. If you want to compare the same angle of view between the two cameras then you need to compensate for the crop factor. In other words a full frame body w/ a 75mm lens will have shallower DOF then a 1.5x crop body w/ a 50mm lens and both cameras will have the same angle of view.

The inability of this app to translate DOF into inches rather than fractions of a foot made me uninstall it right away and revert to PhotoCalc. Too bad, I would have really liked to give a better review to this app that tries to offer a simple tool in an elegant graphical fashion but fails due to complete laziness on the part of the developer. When Im trying to calculate DOF, I need a quick set of measurements, down to smallest increments, rather than being left with mental gymnastics.

Unfortunately the Nikon D7000 is not supported. It is not in the selection list of supported cameras even though the AppStore description claims it is supported. Disappointing. The app is easy to use and presents the data in a clean manner.

Quite nice! Simple, straight-forward.

Not very useful with long focal lenses. The developer needs to accept the fact that this app for the most part will be used for manual adjustments. For example, I have a manual zoom lens (non-TTL) that covers focal lengths from 650 through 1300. There is no way to calculate a precise hyperfocal plane because the app doesnt cover that range smoothly. The app should cover long ranges in non discrete fashion, because long glass has a very shallow depth of field requiring precise calculations. Forced extrapolations or interpolations just defeat its purpose.

As mentioned by another reviewer it needs a bit more of an expanded range. I used it for some macro photography and it worked great for my 150mm prime at f/22.

Actually at the price offered I consider it free. The calculations are perfect, the interface is great. I like the side by side cameras feature, comes in handy when I have more than one camera on a shooting session.

I did not like this app because the first thing they ask for when opening is your private information. I do not suggest anyone fall for this. Bmsolt

Ive tried a slew of these apps, and this takes the cake in terms of layout and ease of use. The slider wheels are very straightforward to use and the info is well displayed. Im not sure what one reviewer was complaining about when he said they wont give you the distances in inches. It will say something like 1 5.47". But converting 0.47 inches into fractions would be absurd. Also of great importance, the info yielded does seem to be correct, which Ive confirmed by doing photo tests and also cross referencing it with other apps and websites. Interestingly, they dont all come up with *exactly* the same results, but theyre close. The reason for this, and for many other questions about this (and other) apps accuracy, is that depth of field is a very subjective measure. It relies on a determination of what "acceptably sharp" means, and also varies depending on how much you enlarge your photo. That is essentially what crop sensors do, which is why the same 50 mm lens on a full frame will have a different DOF than it will on a crop sensor. Completely separate from that is the question of field of view. You can try and figure it all out--I have, but even I still get confused sometimes--or you can just rely on this app. Because its right. My only other suggestion for an app in this category is called Lens Lab. It has a slightly different take on how to display the info. Kinda neat, but in terms of actual usability, I still prefer this one.

With focus at the hyperfocal distance, depth of field extends from 1/2 the hyperfocal distance to infinity. Yes, I can do the math in my head, but Id like to see that number on the screen too. Maybe to the left of the hyperfocal distance number? Thanks for the nice app!

The 4 number wheels make it very easy to quickly put in numbers. I find the other apps with sliders I could never get the sliders right where I wanted them. This one has the best graphical design that helps visualize the dof numbers it spits out. If they added calculations for lens tilt that would be nice.

Every time I opened it freeze after a couple of seconds and the it closed.

It used to work prior to upgrade to ios 8. Now it just stan still.

This is a fantastic app; it is well designed and easy to use. I love that you can set and keep up to four cameras with their own different settings, really handy if you have more that one, otherwise you would have to scroll through hundreds of them in its database to choose a different one. The last used settings are retained even if you quit the app. As per how accurate it is, I haven’t done any thorough testing yet, but it seems to be pretty good. One request: please add a setting for optionally displaying 1/3, 1/2, or full f-stops - less scrolling is always better, especially if you don’t have to. Thank you.

Nicely designed app - simple, easy to use. I suggest rounding measurements to the nearest tenth of an inch. There are just too many numbers with hundredth of an inch display. Besides, I dont think DoF accuracy to the nearest hundredth of an inch is really necessary.

Very clean user interface, excellent selection of cameras, but doesn’t allow user to adjust circle of confusion diameter or reproduction ratio. What’s worse, I can’t even find their assumptions about these parameters. Excellent for beginners, not so much for pros.

I wish I had found this app years ago, it would have helped me turn so so projects into great projects. What I like best is that its what I need and without all the clutter.

Much better than using a web based calculator, and way better than other abandoned DOF calculators in the App Store. Wish it was possible to add custom cameras (or at least rename the camera choices to match your kit), and the text in the "road" could be larger and easier to read in a hurry, but otherwise a perfect app.

Really nice app. Looks good and its easy to use. Thanks for the update!