Daniel Grindrod

View Original

f8 Lens Toolkit Review

The PERFECT camera tool for your iPhone

In this video, I review the f8 Lens Toolkit.

The f8 lens toolkit is a fantastic tool to use as a DOF Calculator. It also allows you to compare Sensor Sizes and compare lenses.

The f8 Lens Toolkit is a Camera & Lens Database that allows you to compare various setups.

It's been developed by the same team as the Cadrage director's viewfinder, and you'll find that it features the same giant library of cameras and lenses.

They have a bundle available on the App Store where you can get both together at a cheaper price.

The app features a Depth of field & hyperfocal distance calculator, Field of view calculator, Lens matcher and Camera sensor comparison.

I've been impressed with both of these apps and I'm a big fan of the nice clean an simple interface which works smoothly. 

First up is the Depth of field & hyperfocal distance calculator.

As with the Cadrage app you can set up your custom camera and it gives you the same options such as shooting mode, lens series and adapters. You can also set up favourites to switch between easily.

I've just gone for a canon here.

So you can set your focal length based on the range of lenses you have selected. Your aperture and the distance from the subject.

The depth of field and hyperfocal distance calculator will then adjust to your specifications. It gives you a clear visual representation.

Next up is the field of view calculator. Again here you can adjust your camera, set your focal length and the distance to your subject. It will give you a live visual representation as you adjust your selection.

The lens match tool is probably one of my favourite features of this app. I've used a few apps that have done something similar but this is best I've used so far, probably because of how big the library of cameras and lenses is.

It's a particularly useful tool if your working with a variety of different cameras that have different sensor sizes such as a full-frame mirrorless and a micro four thirds as an example.

Again you can select multiple cameras and lenses on this page to compare and it will give you a live update as you adjust your selection.

So for some reason at the moment, I'm just comparing a Sony to a Sony, if I go into my favourites, I've got an Arri setup which will be slightly different.

You can now see how the Arri's sensor is slightly larger than Sony's full-frame. It also displays the lens calculations live.

I'll switch over the sensor comparison calculator and use something else to give you a more obvious example.

You can now see how drastically different the sensors of these two cameras are. This is a really useful tool when working out what camera package you are going to be using and as an example, need to work how well the lenses you currently own will work with various setups you may hire.

The last tab is the settings. Here you can change the units used, haptic feedback, colour theme, as well as access the contact info for the developers.

Overall this is an incredibly useful tool to have on your phone. If you're going to buy the Cadradge app, I'd recommend picking up the bundle to get the f8 app as well. Having both tools on your phone will no doubt come in handy.