ForHosting KIT · Developer Utilities

500 rule calculator

This 500 rule astrophotography calculator turns two simple camera numbers — lens focal length in millimetres and sensor crop factor relative to full-frame — into the classic maximum shutter time before stars begin to trail on a fixed tripod.

● BetaFree · in your browser

Run — free How it works & API

Use it from WebAPIEmailTelegramApp soon

The formula is fully deterministic: maximum shutter seconds equals five hundred divided by focal length times crop factor. A full-frame twenty-four millimetre wide lens yields about twenty point eight seconds; a fifty millimetre lens on a one point five crop APS-C body yields about six point seven seconds. The engine also reports the thirty-five millimetre equivalent effective focal length so you can compare lenses across formats. Use it free in the browser for night-sky planning and teaching demos, or call the API at $0.002 per successful request when you need reproducible shutter ceilings in apps, field cards, or CI fixtures without re-implementing the rule by hand.

How to use it

Enter your values in the form above. The tool checks them before calculating and shows the result on the same page.

Check your inputs

Use the labels and units shown next to each field. If something is missing or outside the allowed range, the page points to the field to fix.

Use it again or automate it

Use the browser tool for individual checks and the API when you need the same capability in an automated workflow.

What you can do with it

Get an answer now

Enter one set of values and see the result without building a spreadsheet or script.

Compare scenarios

Change one value at a time and rerun the calculation to understand what affects the result.

Automate repeated work

Use the API when the same calculation needs to run inside your product or workflow.

FAQ

How do I use this capability?

Complete the fields above and run it on this page. The form highlights anything that needs attention.

For developers — API access

Everything on this page is available programmatically. This section is for teams who want to wire it into their own systems; everyone else can just use the tool above.

API endpoint

POSThttps://api.kit.forhosting.com/hobby/rule-500

Prefer to automate it? One authenticated POST creates the task; the result comes back by webhook or a signed link. The same capability also runs here on the web, by email and from Telegram — and soon from our app too.

Call it from your stack

curl -X POST https://api.kit.forhosting.com/hobby/rule-500 \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $KIT_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"focal_length":24,"crop_factor":1}'

const res = await fetch("https://api.kit.forhosting.com/hobby/rule-500", {
  method: "POST",
  headers: {
    "Authorization": `Bearer ${process.env.KIT_KEY}`,
    "Content-Type": "application/json"
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    "focal_length": 24,
    "crop_factor": 1
  })
});
const { task_id } = await res.json();

import os, requests

res = requests.post(
    "https://api.kit.forhosting.com/hobby/rule-500",
    headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {os.environ['KIT_KEY']}"},
    json={
    "focal_length": 24,
    "crop_factor": 1
},
)
task_id = res.json()["task_id"]

<?php
$res = file_get_contents("https://api.kit.forhosting.com/hobby/rule-500", false, stream_context_create([
  "http" => [
    "method"  => "POST",
    "header"  => "Authorization: Bearer " . getenv("KIT_KEY") . "\r\nContent-Type: application/json",
    "content" => '{"focal_length":24,"crop_factor":1}',
  ],
]));
$task = json_decode($res, true);

body := bytes.NewBufferString(`{"focal_length":24,"crop_factor":1}`)
req, _ := http.NewRequest("POST", "https://api.kit.forhosting.com/hobby/rule-500", body)
req.Header.Set("Authorization", "Bearer "+os.Getenv("KIT_KEY"))
req.Header.Set("Content-Type", "application/json")
res, _ := http.DefaultClient.Do(req)

Example request

{
  "focal_length": 24,
  "crop_factor": 1
}

Example response

{
  "task_id": "tsk_a1b2c3d4e5f6a1b2c3d4e5f6",
  "type": "hobby.rule_500",
  "status": "queued",
  "_links": {
    "result": "/tasks/tsk_…/result"
  }
}

The API is asynchronous: the call returns a task_id immediately and the result arrives by webhook. Polling is capped at 1 req/s per task.

Pricing

Per request$0.002

Published price — no tokens, no invented credits. A failed task is never charged.

Limits

max_abs_value 1000000000000000

Errors

HTTP	Code	Meaning
`401`	`unauthorized`	Missing or invalid API key.
`402`	`insufficient_balance`	Your balance doesn't cover the task price.
`404`	`unknown_type`	That task type doesn't exist.
`429`	`rate_limited`	Too many requests. Use the webhook instead of polling.

Read the full KIT documentation →

Run — free