Wish List

The following is a list of features I have planned for version 2.0. These will appear first in the Palm OS version, and then later in the Windows version.

Port to Linux and OS X: There used to be old versions of f/Calc that would work on Linux and Classic Mac OS, but they fell out of date and had to be removed. The Windows version will be a rewrite using a portability library that will enable native versions for these other platforms again.

Custom frame sizes: You will be able to change the imaging frame size list. This is particularly useful for digital camera users, where CCD sizes vary so much, and for panoramic photographers, who use relatively nonstandard films or nonstandard areas of common films (e.g. 6 × 17 on 120 film).

Lens list: You will be able tell f/Calc about your lenses. This will let you pick a lens by name to fill in the relevant fields. f/Calc will also be able to warn you when focal length and aperture values are out of range for the lens you've chosen.

Lens biasing: You can define several sets of focal length and aperture biasing factors. This can be used to tell f/Calc about a teleconverter, or if you have two cameras with different film sizes that use the same lenses. The latter covers the new digital SLR camera bodies and some new APS cameras that use lenses from the manufacturer's 35mm line. By using a lens bias factor, you can use your predefined lens definitions without having to have a duplicate set with different focal lengths and/or apertures.

Platform interoperability: I'm hoping to allow the Palm OS and PC (Windows, Mac, Linux) versions share some configuration data, especially the lens, bias and frame size lists.

I have more ideas for the 2.x series as well. These could potentially appear in 2.0, but more likely they'll get added to later point releases:

Depth of field tables: This will let you generate a DoF table for a lens. While the current DoF function lets you play around with numbers for experimenting, it's not ideal for in-the-field practical use. The DoF table feature will let you pick a predefined lens and generate a table showing the near and far DoF for that lens's f stops. If you have a zoom lens selected, you can instead get DoF values for values within that lens' zoom range.

Hyperfocal distance tables: This will plot hyperfocal distance against focal length, for a given focal range. You will be able to limit the table to the focal lengths of the lenses you've defined in the lens table, so it doesn't show values for lenses you don't have.

Printable graphs: Where the Palm version has tables, the Windows version will have printable graphs!

Digital photo calculation: Put in pixel dimensions for a CCD or a scanned photo, get out megapixels and maximum print size calculated on the 200 dpi rule: standard photos have a resolution of about 200 dpi. You will also be able to put in a bit depth to get an uncompressed photo size, in megabytes.

Inverse field of view: Given a subject size, subject distance, and film format, calculate the lens you need to use to capture the subject.

Shutter speed arithmetic: This is analogous to the present version's f Number arithmetic. For example, it could tell you what 1/250s plus 2.5 stops is.

Aperture finder: Put in the lens you want to use, the nearest in-focus point, the far focus point and get out the focusing distance and aperture needed to keep everything barely in focus. (This is an inverse of the Depth of Field function.)

More ideas are always welcome. If you have some ideas for new features, please drop me a line. Before you do, though, here are the features that have already been proposed and that I am considering, but have not yet assigned to a future version:

• More advanced forms of the magnification formula that work at close focusing distances. (Useful for macro photography.) I also need to take into account diopters and extension tubes.

• Some kind of support for guide number calculations.

• Some of the calculations use simplified formulformulaeaelig;. For example, the Angle of View calculation should multiply f by (1+m), but since in most cases m (the magnification factor) is near zero, I've left it out.

• Bellows factor correction

• If such a thing exists, fisheye calculations (the Angle of View calculator is only useful for rectilinear lenses)

• Variable aperture zoom calculations: Given a zoom range and an aperture range, f/Calc can approximate the aperture at a given focal length. I doubt there's a formula for this — I would probably have to settle for linear interpolation.

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