Apertia · Library
How do you check the final frame when the target extends to infinity?
A 24 mm landscape from 1 m to infinity: Apertia's planner gives one frame at f/10, while f/8 needs two frames ending at the 2448.2 mm hyperfocal setting.
How a stack reaches infinity
When the farthest sharp point is set to Infinity, Apertia's stack finishes with a frame focused at the hyperfocal distance, whose far limit is unbounded. The rule in the planner is direct: as soon as the next required near limit lies at or beyond the near limit of the hyperfocal frame, that frame is added and the stack ends. A finite far limit, however large, never completes an infinite target.
Before any stack, the planner first tries a single frame. For an infinite far point it focuses at twice the lens-side near distance and needs N = f² ÷ (c × (2 × Dn − f)). Only if that f-number, rounded up to a listed stop, passes the single-frame diffraction limit does it build a stack.
Check the end of the sequence
- Set the farthest sharp point to Infinity rather than a large number.
- Read whether the plan is one frame or a stack.
- For a stack, confirm the first shot's near limit equals your nearest sharp point.
- Confirm the last shot is focused at the hyperfocal distance and its far limit reads Infinity.
- Check every joint in between for gaps after rounding.
Worked example: 24 mm on full frame from 1000 mm
The planner's single-frame solution focuses at about 1975.7 mm and needs f/9.962, rounded up to f/10. That is below the f/11.18 limit, so the plan is one shot. If you keep the aperture at f/8 instead, two frames are needed: the first focused at 1651.8 mm covering 1000 to 4928.2 mm, the second at the 2448.2 mm hyperfocal distance covering 1236.2 mm to infinity. The two intervals overlap, because the hyperfocal frame is chosen as soon as it can take over.
- Planner · single frame
- f/10 at 1975.7 mm
- f/8 · frame 1
- 1000–4928.2 mm
- f/8 · frame 2
- 1236.2 mm–Infinity
- 24 mm f/8 hyperfocal
- 2448.2 mm
Common mistakes
- Typing 100 m as the far point and accepting a last frame that ends at 100 m.
- Focusing the last frame at infinity instead of the hyperfocal distance, which moves its near limit out to 2424 mm and can open a gap.
- Forgetting that a nearer foreground detail outside the original near target is not covered by any frame.
Scope of the infinity check
An unbounded far limit means geometric blur stays within the chosen tolerance for every farther distance, not that distant detail is unlimited. The DOFMaster equations listed below define the hyperfocal distance this check relies on.