Quote:

I took this image at Joshua Tree NP using an Asahi Pentax SMC Takumara f4/300mm lens mounted on an Olympus Evolt E-510 with appropriate adapter. Camera settings were Aperture Priority mode, f22 at 1/125th ISO 200. Picture mode = Natural, Gradation = Normal, Sharpness = -1, Noise Filter & Noise Reduction = Off, WB = Auto (RAW + HQ)

I focused manually and double checked using the depth of field guide on the lens.

Post Processing - Adjusted WB from 3950K to 5400K, added a tiny bit of fill light and increased overall brightness and contrast very slightly. Resized to 640x480 for web.

The image looks slightly out of focus to me, or is this what folks mean when they say a lens produces a soft image? I went with f22 looking for the largest depth of field I could get. Would I have been gotten a sharper image at say f11?

Your suggestions would be greatly appreciated.




Jim,

There are usually two edges to a sword and I think you've hit one here for your lens. I understand the thinking for using f/22 to get max DOF, but the other edge of the lens resolution sword is diffraction. Rather that try to explain it here, I refer you to the following link which I have found extremely useful when trying to maximize lens and camera resolution. It's a bit technical but the calculator at the bottom is very useful.

http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/diffraction-photography.htm

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http://www.lamsonweb.com/Galleries/Photography
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