Simon, you'll get the hang of manual pretty quickly, I'm sure. The Super-Tak 28mm is a really wonderful lens out of doors. I prefer shooting mine at f/5.6, but it's quite good wide-open, as you say.
As for the hyperfocal markings, set your aperture, then look at the left and right hyperfocal distance markings for that aperture. Every distance between the two aperture markings will be acceptably sharp, with the sharpest point at about 1/3rd into the scene from the nearest hyperfocal distance. The smaller your aperture setting, the deeper the DOF; once the far hyperfocal marking touches infinity, you'll have "prefocused" the lens from the near hyperfocal distance to infinity. Handy for action shooting!