18-55mm kit lens softness? or is it just me...

[ilario]

Took these shot some time ago with the kit lens. The rest of the pictures have similar softness too.

1/4 sec, f27, iso 100, 24mm, no flash, center weighted metering, AF-S mode. Mounted on tripod.



a crop:


Am I using too high an aperture value, is it an issue with the lens, or any sort of problem?
Thanks!

[overdodo]

The aperture at f27 is most probably the cause.

Too small aperture, diffraction of light becomes an issue.

Try taking a shot at f8.



cheers

[NoMoney]

I believe if you shoot @ F11 or f8 should be alright.

[ilario]

Thanks... so i see that the most extreme apertures of a lens is always the worse part? Never thought of f27 cuz i always thought only the wide end is bad.. cuz got tripod and want everything sharp so kiasu lor

[Redsun]

Bro,its diffraction
thats why its not sharp
try F8-11
to know more about diffraction,read here
http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/diffraction.htm

[cereal]

There's also some test report here

http://www.photozone.de/Reviews/Nikk...report?start=1

If you use ~f/6.7-f/11 you'll be a happy camper in most situations. Quote from the article

[catchlights]

the sweet spot of most lens are two to three stop down.

with wide angle, f11 can cover a lot depth of field, don't need to shoot above f22, you get diffraction more then depth of field.

[cereal]

oops.. din realise that it's a pentax... but should be ard the same

[night86mare]

f/8 to f/11 is the best for the kit lens from my experience

above f/16 you start getting diffraction problems, will degrade picture quality

which is why most of the time most professional landscape photographers will limit their apertures to at around f/13 to f/19.. you slowly trade off depth of field for sharpness

for kit lens, pentax's version is one of the best out there, believe me; i've seen other brands and for the price, it doesn't come any better than this. even most tests agree.

shooting wide-open will give you softness too, btw

[ilario]

i see... thanks for being so informative! Next time i'll be sure to shoot between f8~f16.