Looking for an app that calcutates all stuff photographic

[buzzardkid]

Hi,

I'm looking for an app that can calculate lotsa photographic stuff. Platform not important: Windows, Mac OSX, iPhone all are go with me.

What should it be able to do?

I'd like it to:


calculate focal lens lengths & film format combinations to their 35mm equivalents,
calculate the size ratio for film formats to 35mm format,
calculate DOF with focal lens length, set aperture and film format combinations,
and possibly calculate aperture to flash with, based on GN and distance.
Anything else that might come in handy.
First on the list is the most important with me, I shoot 35mm, 6x6, 6x9 and even 9x12 and I can never remember...

Any suggestions?

[Ezzie]

PhotoBuddy for iPhone is what I use. You´ve got it with you when you need it.

[MartinP]

From the wishlist there, you could set up those calculations in a spreadsheet fairly easily. Lugging around a laptop/palmtop is less convenient than a phone of course !

[Roger Hicks]

Dear Johan,

The first is a very short BASIC or similar program to give you the angle of coverage of any focal length on any format. I wrote it years ago but when I changed computers it's so easy I just do it now ad hoc. Calculate the film diagonal (Pythagoras); halve it (to get a right-angled triangle); then it's a simple cotan calculation. Or print out a small table of equivalents.

The second is even easier: A*B/864, where A and B are the dimensions of the larger format in millimetres. That's area. For linear, calculate the film diagonal (Pythagoras again) and divide it by 43.5 (close enough to 35mm full-frame diagonal). You can use this same multiplier to calculate equivalents, e.g. for Linhof '6x7', sqr (56^2 +72^2) = sqr (3136 + 5184) = sqr 8320 = 91.2mm. Call it 90; 43.5 is near enough to 45; halve all focal lengths. Any more accuracy is meaningless because 6x7 and 35mm are different shapes.

The third is is all but meaningless, depending as it does on enlargement size, viewing distance and personal preference.

The fourth is simple mental arithmentic: e.g. GN45 (metres) at 12 metres = near enough 3.6. Make your own informed guess about f/3.4 (half way between f/2.8 and f/4) or f/3.5 (1/3 stop faster than f/4) or indeed f/4 itself (a whisker underexposed).

Don't look for more precision than really exists, and remember that the only really useful 'app' is the one between your ears.

Cheers,

R.

[Guaranteed]

I use DoF Master on my iPhone.

For film format it does,

APS
35mm
6x4.5
6x6
6x7
6x9
4x5
5x7
8x10

For digital it does,

Compact

DSLR

Canon DSLR
Canon 1D/1Ds/5D
Nikon DSLR
Nikon D3
Contax
Epson
Fujifilm
Konica
Leica Digilux3/M8/M8.2
Olympus
Panasonic
Pentax
Samsung
Sigma
Sony

Cinematography

16mm
Super 16
35mm
75mm
1/4"
1/3"
1/2"
2/3"

After that is a bunch of CoC lengths.

Lens length goes from 3mm to 1200mm.

F Stops go from f/1 to f/64.

It gives you a focus distance to enter measured in feet/inches/meters/cm.


Here's a screenshot of my iPhone.

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1363/5165060462_8c12a8959c_o.jpg

Hope this helps you out.

[Ezzie]

Dear Johan,

......

Don't look for more precision than really exists, and remember that the only really useful 'app' is the one between your ears.

Cheers,

R.

Very funny, but none the less very true Roger.

[Pickett Wilson]

DOF Master is a real handy app. I use it a lot.

[Steve_F]

I'm to tight to pay for the DOF Master App. I just have the web address as a 'Shortcut' on my iPhone home screen.
As for GN, when I use my Nikon SB 600 on a chord with my RZ I made a spread sheet with focal lengths and GN at power settings 1/64 to 1/1. Each individual focal length is laminated and they are about 3"x3".

Steve.

[buzzardkid]

Dear Roger,

thanks for helping me out (again, you did so before when I was struggling with the format vs. focal conversion stuff...)

Although I like gadgets like PhotoBuddy (just got myself that Ezzie, thanks!) I hope to one day have mastered all those neat calculations and have them available from the top of my head whenever needed. You are so right when you say the best app is between the ears!

It would be really cool (and useful) to know these rules of thumb by heart and I will try to let the iPhone app only be a back-up, in case of doubt.

[sara]

Has anyone tried any light meter apps?