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A2A Protocol

Thin-lens optics · 6 sensor formats

Depth of Field Calculator

A free depth of field calculator that runs entirely in your browser: pick a camera, drag the sliders, and watch the zone of sharpness update in real time — near and far limits, total depth of field, and hyperfocal distance, computed instantly.

Circle of confusion 0.030 mm · 1× crop · 35 mm-equiv. 50 mm

50 mm
Aperture
3.00 mlog scale · 30.0 cm – 200.00 m
Near limit

2.73 m

Far limit

3.33 m

Total DOF

60.1 cm

Hyperfocal

29.81 m

Zone split around your subjectBackground blur disc 0.30 mm(1.3% of frame height)
front 27.1 cm
behind 33.0 cm
Focus ruler
2.00 m
4.00 m
6.00 m
8.00 m
10.00 m
focus 3.00 m

Acceptably sharp from 2.73 m to 3.33 m.

Blur preview

1.35 m

soft

2.10 m

soft

3.00 m

subject

4.35 m

soft

7.80 m

soft

27.00 m

soft

Sample points at fractions of your focus distance. Blur scales with each point's distance outside the sharp zone — exactly the physics behind bokeh.

This depth of field calculator uses standard thin-lens optics with industry circle-of-confusion conventions. Real results shift slightly with focus breathing, print size, and viewing distance.

How it works

How the Depth of Field Calculator works

Three steps from camera settings to the exact zone of sharpness.

1

Choose your camera format

Depth of field depends on sensor size, so start by selecting one of six formats — full frame, medium format 44×33, APS-C (both variants), Micro Four Thirds, or 1-inch. Each preset carries its own circle of confusion, the sharpness convention every other number on the page is derived from.

2

Set focal length, aperture, and distance

Dial in the lens (12–600 mm, with common primes one tap away), pick an f-stop from f/1.2 to f/22, and set the camera-to-subject distance on the logarithmic slider. Every change makes the depth of field calculator recalculate the optics immediately — there is no compute button.

3

Read the zone — and take it with you

The results panel shows the near limit, far limit, total depth of field, hyperfocal distance, and how much of the zone falls in front of versus behind your subject. A focus ruler and blur preview make the numbers visible, and one tap copies a shareable summary.

Features

What sets this DOF calculator apart

The full optical picture, sensor-aware presets, and a visual you can actually eyeball — all private, all client-side.

The complete optical picture, not just one number

Cheap DOF tools print a single "total depth of field" figure and stop there. This depth of field calculator gives you the near and far sharp limits, the hyperfocal distance, the in-front/behind split of the zone, and the blur-disc diameter a distant background renders as — the numbers portrait and landscape shooters actually argue about.

Sensor-aware down to the circle of confusion

The same 50 mm lens at f/2.8 behaves differently on full frame, APS-C, and Micro Four Thirds. Six format presets carry industry-standard circle-of-confusion values (0.030 mm for full frame down to 0.011 mm for 1-inch), and the 35 mm-equivalent focal length is shown alongside the real one.

A blur preview you can eyeball, privately

A focus ruler maps the sharp zone against distance, and a live preview blurs sample elements exactly as far outside the zone as your settings put them. Everything renders client-side — like every tool in the browser tools collection, nothing is uploaded, stored, or logged.

Who it's for

Who uses a depth of field calculator

Anyone who needs the zone of sharpness decided before the shutter fires.

Portrait photographers engineering the background

Will f/1.8 be too thin for a group of three at 85 mm? The near and far limits answer that before you chimp a single frame, and the background blur figure tells you how creamy a distant wall or tree line will render. Dial the aperture until the zone covers the group and the blur stays flattering.

Landscape shooters nailing hyperfocal distance

The hyperfocal readout is the fastest way to maximize sharpness from a foreground rock to the horizon: focus at or just beyond the marked distance and everything from half of it to infinity stays acceptably sharp. Watch the far limit snap to ∞ the moment your distance reaches hyperfocal.

Macro and product photographers planning stacks

At close range the zone collapses to millimeters — a 100 mm macro at f/4 and half a meter keeps barely 5 mm sharp. Seeing exactly how thin tells you when to stop down, when diffraction will fight back, and when to give up and plan a focus-stacking sequence instead.

Worked examples

Depth of field examples

Classic camera settings and the sharp zones this depth of field calculator returns:

SetupNearFarTotal DOFHyperfocal
Full frame · 85 mm · f/1.8 · 3 m2.94 m3.07 m13 cm133.9 m
Full frame · 50 mm · f/1.8 · 2 m1.92 m2.09 m17 cm46.3 m
Full frame · 35 mm · f/8 · 3 m1.90 m7.16 m5.26 m5.1 m
APS-C · 50 mm · f/2.8 · 3 m2.81 m3.21 m40 cm44.7 m
Micro Four Thirds · 25 mm · f/2.8 · 3 m2.50 m3.75 m1.25 m14.9 m
Full frame · 24 mm · f/11 · 2 m0.94 m∞∞ (to horizon)1.77 m

Computed with the standard thin-lens model and circle-of-confusion values of 0.030 mm (full frame), 0.020 mm (APS-C), and 0.015 mm (Micro Four Thirds).

What Is Depth of Field?

Depth of field is the span of distances that renders acceptably sharp in a photograph. Only one plane is ever perfectly in focus; everything else projects as a disc of blur on the sensor. As long as that disc stays smaller than the circle of confusion — about 0.030 mm on a full-frame sensor, proportionally smaller on smaller formats — we perceive it as sharp. Depth of field is simply the region where that holds.

Three controls move the zone. Opening the aperture (f/1.4 versus f/8) shrinks it dramatically. Longer focal lengths compress it — the classic portrait look of an 85 mm at f/1.8 keeps roughly 13 cm sharp at three meters. And focusing closer collapses the zone, which is why macro work at 1:1 magnification measures depth of field in fractions of a millimeter. None of these act in isolation, which is exactly why a depth of field calculator beats intuition.

Photographers pair this depth of field calculator with the rest of the free browser tools on this site — for example the Meta Glasses Converter for prepping photos — and the A2A Protocol Validator when the work turns to agent ecosystems. Everything runs client-side with the same no-upload philosophy.

The Math Behind This Depth of Field Calculator

Every number on the page descends from one equation. The hyperfocal distance H = f²/(N·c) + f combines focal length, f-number, and circle of confusion; the near and far limits then follow from the focus distance s: near = s·(H−f)/(H+s−2f) and far = s·(H−f)/(H−s). Once s reaches H the far limit passes to infinity, which the ruler marks with an unbounded zone. The background blur readout is the disc diameter a point at infinity paints on the sensor, f²/(N·(s−f)) — essentially the textbook f²/(N·s) at working distances — the figure that separates "gently soft" from "creamy bokeh".

The circle of confusion deserves its reputation as the load-bearing convention. It assumes a roughly 20 cm print viewed at a comfortable distance; enlarge to a poster or crop hard and the tolerable blur shrinks, tightening the effective zone. This calculator uses the industry-standard values — 0.030 mm full frame, 0.020 mm APS-C, 0.015 mm Micro Four Thirds — so its output lines up with the classic printed DOF tables photographers carried in their bags.

Curious about other ways we put browser-only computation to work? The blog covers engineering deep dives, and the A2A documentation explains the protocol this site is named after. Prefer the raw theory? Every formula above is plain geometric optics — no proprietary magic, just math you can verify on a napkin.

FAQ

Depth of field FAQ

The optics, the conventions, and the limits of the model.

What is depth of field?

Depth of field (DOF) is the range of distances in front of your camera that appears acceptably sharp in the final image. It is not a hard boundary — sharpness falls off gradually — but photographers agree on a circle-of-confusion tolerance (commonly 0.030 mm on full frame) and define the zone as where the blur stays under it. A shallow zone isolates a subject against a blurred background; a deep zone keeps a whole landscape sharp.

How do I calculate depth of field?

Depth of field is calculated from focal length (f), f-number (N), focus distance (s), and the circle of confusion (c). First find the hyperfocal distance H = f²/(N·c) + f. The near limit is then s·(H−f)/(H+s−2f) and the far limit is s·(H−f)/(H−s), which becomes infinity once the focus distance reaches H. This depth of field calculator runs those exact equations on every slider move.

What is hyperfocal distance?

Hyperfocal distance is the closest focus distance at which the far limit of acceptable focus reaches infinity. Focused there, everything from half the hyperfocal distance to the horizon is acceptably sharp — the classic landscape technique. It shrinks with shorter focal lengths and smaller apertures: a 24 mm lens at f/11 on full frame has a hyperfocal of about 1.77 m, while an 85 mm at f/1.8 pushes it out to 134 m.

Does a crop sensor give me more depth of field?

At the same focal length, aperture, and distance — yes, roughly in proportion to the crop factor, because the smaller sensor demands a tighter circle of confusion. A 50 mm at f/2.8 focused at 3 m keeps about 40 cm sharp on APS-C versus 60 cm on full frame. But if you match framing by stepping back or shortening the lens, the advantage largely disappears: equivalent framing gives roughly equivalent depth of field.

Why is the zone behind my subject deeper than in front of it?

Focus falls off asymmetrically: about one third of the zone lies in front of the focus point and two thirds behind, growing even more lopsided as you stop down or use wider lenses. The split bar in this calculator shows the exact proportion for your settings — at close portrait distances it approaches 50/50, which is why eyes at f/1.4 leave so little room for error.

How accurate is this depth of field calculator?

It uses the standard thin-lens model and published circle-of-confusion conventions — the same physics behind classic DOF tables. Real-world results shift slightly with lens breathing, focus breathing, pupil magnification, print size, and viewing distance, and at small apertures diffraction softens the practical zone. Treat the output as a rigorous planning estimate, not a promise engraved in stone.

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