Tips to get cleanest, sharpest images with NEX?

[Skipper494]

Well said! Couldn't agree more.

 

[forpetessake]

Mel Snyder wrote:

peruchox wrote:

Hello,

I'm reading how to get cleanest and sharpest images. On the articles suggest, to know the sweetspots of lenses and cameras. Are there any suggestions for the NEX?

Currently I'm using the Sigma 19mm and 30mm.

Thank you,

1. Shoot at sensor native ISO. For the NEX-6, that's ISO 100

The rule should be, don't use less exposure than necessary. ISO is not part of the exposure, b.t.w.

2. Shoot 2-3 stops smaller than the maximum aperture

Different lenses have different sweet spots, many slow APS-C lenses will be worse 3 stops closed than wide open. There is no simplistic rule which f-stop to use, it's a trade-off; lenses may get better closed, but noise may be bigger when exposure decreased, and motion blur can play role when the shutter gets slower. Everything should be considered.

3. Get rid of all "UV" and similar filters that effectively protect you from getting those results.

My testing showed that only large thick filters (> 72mm) on large aperture lenses contributed to some degradation of image quality. Most people use much smaller lenses on NEX and unlikely to see any issues with filters, just get a good one that doesn't introduce reflections. I use Sigma and BW filters and never had any issues. But again, test your filters, and get rid of bad ones -- what can be simpler.

4. Use lens hoods on all your lenses. Off-axis light, especially sunlight and spots, degrades contrast even on the best primes, and is awful on zooms. Zoom makers know that, and provide those big ugly tulip hoods with their lenses. Guess why. Sony didn't provide one with their PZ - which explains much of the poor results many get with it. A good one costs about $8 on eBay.

Most modern lenses aren't prone to flare. I used a dozen of different lenses for the last decade and many shots were taken with and without the hoods, and it's rare to see a case when a hood would have made a difference. If anything, the wide angle lenses are more susceptible, but ironically, the hoods are the least efficient with them, because due to the wide angle it's hard to avoid light sources getting into the lens.

5. Learn how to hand-hold your camera at 1/6th second, or use a tripod for all speeds under 1/100th. If you can't take good images at 1/6th, where camera motion is clear, it's likely at 1/100th where you can't

It has nothing to do with the absolute values. The rule used to be 1/f (for FF) and 1/1.5f (for APS-C). Image stabilization adds another variable, it can be efficient with some lenses and inefficient with others. The lenses, bodies, hands are all different, which all affect the shake, the rule should be -- know your equipment.

6. Manually focus every shot. Don't depend on AF of any kind. At best, it's a compromise, and at worst, focuses on the background of small subjects.

In my experience, AF is actually pretty good with many cameras and lenses. There are some corner cases, like poor light, low contrast, obstacles on the light path that throw off the AF. It was on very few occasions I could fault AF for poor focusing, it's usually the user's fault that he didn't use the tool properly. Same with the manual focus.