Wildlife Depth of Field

Know before you press the shutter: will the eye be sharp, will the whole animal fit in the zone of focus – and if not, what is the one change that fixes it?

Wildlife Depth of Field is a depth of field calculator made for photographing animals. Instead of a table of numbers, it gives you a clear verdict and a practical tip.

EYE OR WHOLE ANIMAL • Portrait: the eye must be sharp – a soft tail is fine. • Whole animal: from beak or nose to tail inside the zone of focus. • Head-on, at an angle or side-on – the app works out what lies in front of the eye and behind it.

ONE CONCRETE TIP If the result is not good enough, the app suggests one feasible change – turn to side-on, step back, stop down, zoom out or remove the teleconverter – and shows what it costs in light or in frame size.

YOUR REAL GEAR Current bodies and wildlife lenses from Sony, Canon, Nikon, Fujifilm, OM System / Panasonic, Sigma and Tamron, with minimum focus distance, maximum magnification, apertures, stabilisation and compatible teleconverters, checked against the makers' published specifications. Or enter your own lens by hand and save your favourite setups.

TELECONVERTER OR CROP? Compare no converter, 1.4× and 2× side by side: pixels on the animal, eye and whole-animal sharpness, working aperture and light loss.

SHUTTER SPEED The shorter of two limits: freezing the animal's movement (still, moving, flying) and avoiding camera shake with your stabilisation.

HONEST RESULTS Too close to focus, an unsupported teleconverter or diffraction softening everything – shown plainly, never a green result that is not true.

BUILT FOR THE FIELD • Works fully offline • Red night mode for the hide • Metric and imperial units • English, Polish, German, Spanish, French and Japanese • Two-column layout on iPad in landscape

PRIVATE BY DESIGN No account, no tracking, no ads. Your settings stay on your device.

Results come from an optical model calibrated with the makers' catalogue data – a reliable guide, not a laboratory measurement of your particular lens.

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