I wanted to see how much detail my Voigtlander 20mm lens could pick up when focused at infinity. I went into the field next to our house and pointed up the road, thinking the “neighbor’s” garden would be far enough away for such a wide lens. I tried focusing first on the large tree, middle left. Then I exposed again, this time simply turning the lens to infinity. To my surprise, the focused shot is much sharper, all the way through the scene. It may be that the distance still wasn’t great enough, or just a peculiarity of (my copy of) this lens, but it certainly says to always focus the lens, and never assume. Of course, it is probably also reminding me that DOF goes in front and beyond the plane of focus, and I might need to give thought to exactly what might be found beyond infinity!
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