Focus to infinity to take pictures of objects that are far away.
DSLR, or Digital Single Lens Reflex, cameras allow photographers to use a wide variety of lenses on a single camera body. Each lens has a different use, defined, in most cases, by two characteristics: aperture and focal length. Focal length is the range of distances that the lens can focus to, and is usually given in units of millimeters. The closer an object is, the more specific the focus must be. Likewise, for objects farther away, the focus is less specific. As objects get farther away, the focusing distance approaches infinity. Knowing set the lens focus to infinity on a DSLR camera will allow you to take sharp pictures of objects that are far away.
Instructions
1. Set your lens to manual focus, often denoted MF. Many DSLR camera lenses can be switched between auto focus, AF, and manual focus, MF. The setting will be located on the camera body, or on the body of the lens.
2. Rotate the focusing ring of the lens either all the way to the right or all the way to the left. Different manufacturers use different rotation directions for focusing. Find where the lens begins to focus on objects that are close, and rotate the focusing ring the opposite way. Many lenses will have a focus distance window that relates focal points to distances. At one end of this spectrum, there is often an infinity symbol, which can be used as a marker when focusing to infinity. An infinity symbol looks like the number 8 turned on its side.
3. Choose a subject that is far away to test the focus. You should see that beyond a certain distance, all objects are in focus. Infinity focal points are different for every lens, so that infinite focus on one lens might be at 50 feet, and on another lens, it might be 10 feet.
Tags: objects that, that away, camera body, DSLR camera, farther away, focal points, focusing ring