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Histogram for the number of focused dots

histogram focus focusing dots sensor

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5 replies to this topic

#1
fdormoy

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We all know about an histogram showing the percentage of dots for each of the white-grey-black tones which is useful to verify the luminosity of a photo.

But with all the technical improvements made by Nikon, in particular with the D850, is there a chance that Nikon in the future let us see another type of information (histogram or not), which is the percentage of dots of the sensor which are in 100% in focus, 90% in focus, 80% in focus etc.? Or alternatively, for simplicity purposes, just a figure showing the number of dots which are 100% in focus?

 



#2
ScottinPollock

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The short answer is no. It would require a tremendous amount of processing power to measure every focus point in the frame, let alone every pixel.

 

The closest I have seen to this is Panasonic's 4k/6k post focus mode, where it literally cycles through every focus point on the camera, creating a filmstrip like capture of multiple exposures. But it takes a while and the camera must remain still. But they are still two dimensional images with no distance information other than lens to focus point.

 

Bottom line is only one two dimensional plane is in focus... everything else is "out of focus". As to which of the other planes are acceptably sharp depends on magnification, size, viewing distance, and the eye of the beholder.



#3
dcbear78

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How would this help? It is after the fact so it's unlikely to achieve better focus. Nikon do record what focus point was used. You can turn this on in your camera preview options and I believe the data transfers through meta data but only Nikon software (that almost nobody uses) picks this up. I have heard of Lightroom plugins that show it, but then I think back and wonder how knowing this affects my image I have taken? It is in acceptable focus or not. 



#4
TBonz

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I don't see how it would help either.  There is a single focus point which (as pointed out above) can be identified and anything that exact distance will be in focus...other distances may or may not appear in focus based on the aperture selected...all, of course, assuming everything else was also set correctly for the desired result.



#5
fdormoy

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Well... my thinking is that, when my objective is to get the largest area in focus, it could change according to the aperture.  So such indication of the percentage of dots in focus would let me see what is the difference between an f8 and f11 and if not much difference between the 2, I would choose the aperture which is optimizing the exploitation of the quality of the lens.

But I understat that it might require an heavy algorithm whcih could affect the performance of the camera....



#6
dem

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Interesting question. I think an individual pixel cannot be "in focus" or "out of focus". It only registers the intensity of light (R, G, or B).

 

So "being in focus" is a collective property of several neighbouring pixels and Nikon D850 is already showing this information in live view. It is called "focus peaking".







Also tagged with one or more of these keywords: histogram, focus, focusing dots, sensor