What is your aperture's "sweet spot"?

Do you have one?

What aperture do you think gives you your sharpest pictures?

I don't think there is any right or wrong answer to this question. Does it vary by camera or lens?

I've read that it's usually about 2 or 3 stops down from a lens's widest aperture, but I don't know for sure.

Steve Thomas

stevet1 wrote:

Do you have one?

What aperture do you think gives you your sharpest pictures?

I don't think there is any right or wrong answer to this question. Does it vary by camera or lens?

I've read that it's usually about 2 or 3 stops down from a lens's widest aperture, but I don't know for sure.

Steve Thomas

Steve, I haven't actually tested any of my lenses for their sweet spot.

But, on APS-C, a photo taken at an aperture smaller than f/8 will suffer from diffraction.

Dunlin wrote:

But, on APS-C, a photo taken at an aperture smaller than f/8 will suffer from diffraction.

In my experience, diffraction may technically be there at >f/8, but it's generally not a noticeable factor until about f/13 or so.

Len Philpot wrote:

Dunlin wrote:

But, on APS-C, a photo taken at an aperture smaller than f/8 will suffer from diffraction.

In my experience, diffraction may technically be there at >f/8, but it's generally not a noticeable factor until about f/13 or so.

I only really notice it if I'm trying to do a long exposure (without a ND).

Funnily, I recently found a photo in my archive shot at ISO6400 and f/16 in dim light. Why on earth did I do that?

Early on, when I first got my camera, I took a shot in Auto, and was shocked when I realized that the camera had chosen f/5.6 as its aperture.

I've wondered about that ever since.

Steve Thomas

Iron Mike wrote:

stevet1 wrote:

Do you have one?

What aperture do you think gives you your sharpest pictures?

I don't think there is any right or wrong answer to this question. Does it vary by camera or lens?

I've read that it's usually about 2 or 3 stops down from a lens's widest aperture, but I don't know for sure.

Steve Thomas

There are review websites that show the image sharpness of a lens (measured by imatest) across its field of view for different apertures. The performance will vary for different lenses, some high end optics can be at maximal sharpness (centre) wide open or even 1 stop down. Often the edges of the image circle will improve at smaller apertures, even after the centre is already past its maximal resolution (or losing sharpens due to diffraction). The performance of zoom lenses can vary depending on the focal length. The review sites https://www.imaging-resource.com/ and https://www.photozone.de both display this sort of data for a wide number of canon lenses.

Mike

Don't forget copy variance.

This is a good page to examine lens characteristics

http://www.photozone.de

Digirame wrote:

I agree about the depth of field. More and more I'm keen to getting more attentive to where I focus, the focal length and aperture, so that I achieve the DOF that I want.

A lot of times a photographer may think it's the lens that caused the softness in spots, when it's a depth of field issue. I see that a lot. Lately, I am trying to get closer to my subjects and use less focal length if I want everything in focus.

I can’t help myself, but the best combo for that sake was a lens with DoF scale written there and the split prism + microprism focusing screen for manual focusing.

Maybe I wouldn’t miss the autofocus, (except of movement pictures, of course.)

Digirame wrote:

I agree about the depth of field. More and more I'm keen to getting more attentive to where I focus, the focal length and aperture, so that I achieve the DOF that I want.

A lot of times a photographer may think it's the lens that caused the softness in spots, when it's a depth of field issue. I see that a lot. Lately, I am trying to get closer to my subjects and use less focal length if I want everything in focus.

One can use the dedicated camera button to check the actual DoF at the aperture chosen, at the expense of less light in the viewfinder. The focusing is done at full aperture and the DoF corresponds to that. That button is usually on the camera body near to the left down side of the lens.

(You probably know, Digirame , just for OP)

Additionally, Dofmaster.com webpage or app was great to calculate the DoF in advance

Cheapo Marx wrote:

I trust no zoom wider than f/8 but I'll go f/2.8 with a prime if need be.

The f/8 is a good rule of thumb.

Full aperture, on the other side, is hardly the sweet spot of the lens, unless it is the expensively corrected L-series profi lens.

Central sharpness might be good, anyway, the border sharpness less (maybe

non-distracting or welcome), but the main problem could be the chromatic aberation.

With my Sony RX10iv 24-600 mm fixed lens, most of my photos are in the 2.4 - 4-0 range.  Occasionally up to 6.0.

Don

Does Canon's DPProfesional correct for diffraction problems?

So what if anything corrects for diffraction at small apertures?