“F8 and be there” Most of us have heard about it. I used the F8 set it and forget it when I was shooting dirt track racing. Now it is sometimes referred to as “Hyperfocal Distance” or “Zone Focus”.
35mm lenses had strange little marks like the band ABBA except the marks were like “L” back to back.
When you set your lens at f8 everything from the closest object to infinity would be in focus. Depending on the lens everything from say 8’ to infinity would be in focus. So point shoot, use a light meter to adjust for shutter speed and ASA within the range of the film you were using.
Today no film. However we have ASA, Shutter speed, and aperture to control our cameras.
I have 2 canon lenses that have the “L” a 50mm and a 85mm. These lenses have a little window where you can see the aperture settings. Both of mine show f22 as the as the hyper focus aperture.
Check out your lenses find the hyper focal aperture have fun take some photos see what happens.

“F8 and be there” Most of us have heard about it. I used the F8 set it and forget it when I was shooting dirt track racing. Now it is sometimes referred to as “Hyperfocal Distance” or “Zone Focus”.
35mm lenses had strange little marks like the band ABBA except the marks were like “L” back to back.
When you set your lens at f8 everything from the closest object to infinity would be in focus. Depending on the lens everything from say 8’ to infinity would be in focus. So point shoot, use a light meter to adjust for shutter speed and ASA within the range of the film you were using.
Today no film. However we have ASA, Shutter speed, and aperture to control our cameras.
I have 2 canon lenses that have the “L” a 50mm and a 85mm. These lenses have a little window where you can see the aperture settings. Both of mine show f22 as the as the hyper focus aperture.
Check out your lenses find the hyper focal aperture have fun take some photos see what happens.

I thought it might be helpful to look at real lenses. Posted below is a picture of two Super Takumar M42-mount lenses. The lens on the left has a focal length of 35mm and the lens on the right has a focal length of 50mm.

The numbers closest to the mount {bottom of the image} are the aperture ring.

The next set of numbers
16-8-4-^-4-8-16
are indicators for the distance scale above.

The red indicator mark shows the distance we are focusing at, while the {aperture} numbers on the right show the closest distance in the DOF, and those on the left show the furthest distance in the DOF.

In this case, I set each lens so that infinity is the furthest distance for F/8 {infinity mark is above "8" on the left side of the indicators.

For the 35mm lens, I am focusing at 15', and everything between 8' and infinity will be in the DOF.

For the 50mm lens, I am focusing at 30', and everything between 15' and infinity will be in the DOF.


added: these numbers make an exercise like this much easier, but they didn't last much beyond the advent of auto focus.

I thought it might be helpful to look at real lenses. Posted below is a picture of two Super Takumar M42-mount lenses. The lens on the left has a focal length of 35mm and the lens on the right has a focal length of 50mm.

The numbers closest to the mount {bottom of the image} are the aperture ring.

The next set of numbers
16-8-4-^-4-8-16
are indicators for the distance scale above.

The red indicator mark shows the distance we are focusing at, while the {aperture} numbers on the right show the closest distance in the DOF, and those on the left show the furthest distance in the DOF.

In this case, I set each lens so that infinity is the furthest distance for F/8 {infinity mark is above "8" on the left side of the indicators.

For the 35mm lens, I am focusing at 15', and everything between 8' and infinity will be in the DOF.

For the 50mm lens, I am focusing at 30', and everything between 15' and infinity will be in the DOF.


added: these numbers make an exercise like this much easier, but they didn't last much beyond the advent of auto focus.

“F8 and be there” Most of us have heard about it. I used the F8 set it and forget it when I was shooting dirt track racing. Now it is sometimes referred to as “Hyperfocal Distance” or “Zone Focus”.
35mm lenses had strange little marks like the band ABBA except the marks were like “L” back to back.
When you set your lens at f8 everything from the closest object to infinity would be in focus. Depending on the lens everything from say 8’ to infinity would be in focus. So point shoot, use a light meter to adjust for shutter speed and ASA within the range of the film you were using.
Today no film. However we have ASA, Shutter speed, and aperture to control our cameras.
I have 2 canon lenses that have the “L” a 50mm and a 85mm. These lenses have a little window where you can see the aperture settings. Both of mine show f22 as the as the hyper focus aperture.
Check out your lenses find the hyper focal aperture have fun take some photos see what happens.