Sweet spot of lenses?

[third3rdwheel]

How to find information on the sweet spot of various Nikon lenses? Is there a list? Or is this by trial and error?

 

[Reportage]

depends what you want to do...eg for Canon,

10-20/24-70/70-200

covered for all ranges and just about all usages.

 

[catchlights]

usually the sweet spot of a lens is at two stops down from the maximum aperture, and not at the both extreme end of the focal length lens if it is a zoom lens.

to confirm this, you can do some self testing, or read lens reviews with all MTF charts.

hope this help.

 

[Squid]

Some information provided at these sites :

http://www.photozone.de

http://www.slrgear.com

 

[calebk]

depends what you want to do...eg for Canon,

10-20/24-70/70-200

covered for all ranges and just about all usages.

I believe by "sweet spot" the Threadstarter is referring to the optimum stopped down aperture setting whereby the lens gives its best resolving power.

 

[zac08]

2 stops down... normally...

or f8 would be a good guide for most.

 

[erictan8888]

MTF charts is a good guide....

 

[giantcanopy]

There will be some few lenses are known to be pretty good wide open already

Ryan

 

[ortega]

1. mount camera on tripod, set camera to Aperture priority mode
2. nice sunny morning scene with details all around the frame
3. shoot wide open
4. stop down aperture and shoot again
5. repeat step 4 until i) you happy or ii) you run out of apertures to stop down (which ever comes first)
6. review the images on your computer and post your findings for all to see.

note: normally check the centre and corners of the image
eg. http://www.clubsnap.com/forums/showthread.php?t=465404
and http://www.clubsnap.com/forums/showthread.php?t=306889