How to set infinity focus 18-55mm lens

hamhimhum

Hi everyone.

Last night I tried to shoot The Milky Way, but my photos were bad.
I want to ask how to set infinity focus on the 18-55mm lens. I always get blurry images when I use manual focus when shooting milky way.

Thanks in advance.

bruto

I notice that several lenses, my 18-55mm included, manually focus a little past infinity. It's pretty common for lenses to pass infinity a bit to allow for thermal changes.

To minimize error, I'd set the aperture somewhere around f/8, which is at or near the sharpest aperture for the lens, and gives you a little depth of field. Scenery mode usually grabs infinity focus when AF doesn't otherwise work, so perhaps you could try that.

If your vision allows you to focus well on the screen, you might also try live view.

hamhimhum

Thanks @bruto.

Jobeleca

Another tip is focusing on a light on land at least 50 feet away, I sometimes shine a flashlight or laser pointer on a tree for this.

bruto

Every lens and aperture has what is known as a "hyperfocal distance". This is the distance setting at which infinity is just within your depth of field. Once upon a time, all manual lenses had DOF scales that made this easy to set, but AF lenses generally don't. 50 is almost exactly the hyperfocal distance for 55 millimeters at f/5.6, just a little generous, so it should work for all the possible settings of the 18-55mm kit lens.

It's always best to err a bit on the long side, so try to go a little over 50 feet if your lens is wide open at 55mm. The closer you are to infinity, the better, up to the point where you go past it. If your lens goes past infinity, it's better to focus a little short than a little long.