Digital cameras have changed the very nature of how I take photographs in the 21st century. Back in the day of 35mm film, each shot was carefully composed. Exposure was an important facet of every photo.
In the digital age, photography has become point and shoot, even with expensive DSLRs. Why? Adjustments and enhancements are easy to make after the photo has been taken. And, instead of shooting a few rolls of film, it’s easy today to take hundreds or thousands of shots as the cost per photo in a digital camera is dirt cheap.
With all that ease of use and lower cost per photo, who would want a tool that complicates the modern digital photography process? That’s what Photo Calculator does.
More formally, the Douglas Depth of Field and Hyperfocal Distance Calculator quickly calculates acceptable focus range, including the so-called circle of confusion. All you do is enter the settings from the drop down menus and the app displays the calculations.
Photo Calculator handles 0 digital blacks, and 12 standard film formats– 37 digital formats in all. The calculations are the kind photographers need, including depth of field, hyperfocal distance, image area, angle of view, and diffraction.
As useful as the Mac version of the app can be in a studio setting, Photo Calculator would seem to be even more valuable as a smart phone app. It’s available for Mac, Windows PCs, Windows CE, Palm but in a crazy oversight, considering the number of smart phones on the market, not for the iPhone or Android phones.