Infinity

When taking photographs of distant scenes in daylight, you can use this Infinity setting. This setting is required because many times you just cannot focus on a distant subject due to low contrast (e.g., a distant mountain, or the Sun/Moon). To use this Infinity focusing setting, press the focus setting button (see the left figure below) a few times until the mountain icon (see the right figure below) appears on the control panel or on the LCD monitor. Then, the lens is locked at infinity. However, the built-in flash is disabled, because its power cannot extend to infinity.

The focus setting button The Infinity Focus Icon

The following two photographs were taken by locking the focus at infinity. Otherwise, the camera would have difficulty to sharply focus on distant subjects due to low contrast. Click on the photograph to view its full size equivalent.

Eagle Harbor

Great Sand Bay

An Important Note

I many situations, locking on infinity may not solve your problem. For example, some foreground subjects will not be focused sharply. The solution to this problem boils down to a matter of depth-of-field. Click here to see the details.