I’ve recently had the opportunity to test a nifty piece of Photo Software called Camera Module by Douglas Software , a program that will help you to calculate the available depth of field and Angle of View for any given focal length, distance, and aperture.

You can use the software to answer questions such as:

  • With the Canon 20D (1.6 crop sensor), we have a subject that is 4 meters wide, and are restricted to being no more than 3 meters away, what lens would be required to cover the subject?
  • What is the hyperfocal distance with a 50mm lens at apertures of f8 and f5.6 on the Canon 20D?

While the use of the Angle of View feature is fairly obvious, it’s also a bit unnecessary. For most photographers it is a simple matter of looking at a scene to visualize which lens will be required to capture the field of view desired. While there may be some very specific situations where you’d want to know exactly what is needed, gut feel is more than enough for nearly every scenario.

The hyperfocal distance calculator is a bit more practical, as performing the calculations by hand can be tricky and error-prone. Focusing your lens to the calculated hyperfocal distance will provide the theoretical maximum depth of focus (e.g., the range of distances from the camera which are “acceptably sharp”).

Once you have got used to Camera Module, calculating optical equations becomes refreshingly simply. Let’s say, for example, you want to know what the depth of the field is with a 35mm camera with a 100mm lens at a distance of 2 meters and a circle of confusion of 0.05mm at a aperture of f8. Using the module, you specify the 35mm film format, select the manual option for Circle of Confusion and enter .05. Then you should specify a focal length of 100mm, an aperture of f8 and specify the Manual option for Distance and enter 2. Finally, click on the Calc icon and the program will immediately respond with a calculated figure.

The best thing in this software is that all your efforts are restricted to a few simple clicks when selecting the calculation options. Since you’re not normally in front of your PC while photographing it makes a whole lot of sense that you’d want a PDA-based version of the Camera Module software instead. I did not get to test this version of the software, but my understanding is that the feature set is the same.

Versions available for download from Douglas Software:

Conclusion
Camera Module for Windows by Douglas Software is a handy piece of software for calculating hyperfocal distance and angle of view for virtually any optical setup you may have at your disposal. Unfortunately, the availability of free alternatives providing a richer feature set and the reality that the “hyperfocal distance” is not necessarily the optimal focus target make it hard to recommend the software to the average photographer.


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