I mainly use RF zoom lenses (24-70, 70-200, 100-500). The f/2.8 zooms are incredible wide open but I find the sweet spot is around f/4-f/5.6 and around f/8 for the 100-500 which is also incredible wide open. We truly are spoilt by modern L glass.
@@paulshepich4776 I have G2 as well. DXOMARK seemed to show that dropping focal length to something 500 might also give better sharpness, they did also mention that more testing is needed. They also don't test with 6D which I have, will need to do some testing myself definitely.
I basically knew everything being covered here, but to hear it all put together in such a concise and logical way significantly increased my effective understanding; so thanks...
Started photography when I was 16, I am now 72. The greatest lesson I have learned is, you never stop learning new techniques. Thank you for these video instructions and tips!
You are an absurdly good educator. It's almost like there's no reason to watch any other educational photography videos on RUclips. The class I'm waiting for is how to afford the Canon RF 600mm F4. :P These videos are amazing. Thanks for what you do!
Every time I think I know a decent amount about photography, one of your videos arrives and gives me a healthy dose of humility - there's still a LOT I wouldn't be able to explain to someone as clearly as you do. I love it! Thanks for another informative video
I appreciate you going into so much detail about the physics behind why things like chromatic aberration happen and why stopping the lens down helps. We've all heard that stopping the lens down improves sharpness, but I've never fully understood WHY until now.
Feel free to watch this video more than once. There is a tremendous amount to unpack here. This is physics. Practical physics that all advanced photographers should know. Simon totally knows his subject and is a great teacher.
Well, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, “The master has done it again”… from a photography perspective I don’t there’s anything you don’t know or can’t explain in a concise understandable video. Just incredible. Here’s hoping you have 1 million subscribers by the end of 2025.
I have been a subscriber on this channel for over a year and am still amazed at the quality of Simon’s videos and information. He has one of the very best channels out there. I am more into landscape than wildlife photography but it doesn’t matter since pretty much all he talks about is very relevant to my situation. I intend to run my own tests following this procedure exactly on my 14-35, 24-105 and 100-400 mm with my Canon R6 MII. Thanks Simon!
This is probably the single best explanation I've seen on this. While I know about lens sweet spots, the rule of thumb, diffraction, chromatic aberration, etc. Your explanation bringing all of that together into the HOW and WHY those influence the sweet spot of a lens was great. Thank you!
Good practical advice. Just one small correction re. lens coatings: they won't help with spherical or chromatic aberrations (or coma). They can only help with contrast, ghosting and brightness by reducing reflections and increasing transmission. Lens aberrations are dealt with: better lens design typically with more lens elements, low dispersion elements, and/or aspherical elements.
I appreciate the scientific approach. It’s a good thing I didn’t find photography in my 20’s. I would’ve geeked myself into never shooting photos, just testing recording results analyzing and re-testing. Now in my 40’s I still enjoy the technical stuff, but I know that the most important thing is to just get out and participate in the activity. Still, your technical approach helps me understand these topics in my native language. So, thank you for all of the time and work that went into the knowledge you share! I know what it took to get it, and it’s appreciated! 🙏
This guy is incredible, the way you explain everything makes it so understanding..straight to the point. Most other donuts on RUclips take you half way around the world plus unnecessary stop points with some idiotic clip from a movie before briefly getting to the point..and even then it's not explained properly! Glad you're not like these guys simon
Hello Simon!! Perhaps there’s not another video in youtube which can explain this topic any better!! The content is designed keeping the sweet spot in mind to explain this very complex concept to techies and artists alike. Please accept my bow to your explanation skill and knowledge! 🙏🏻
A superior "Flowchart" video! It only contains relevant content; presented logically (i.e. without extraneous fluff). Thank you. The only thing missing are chapter markers (which can still be easily added BTW, hint). Chapter markers are great for viewers revisiting a video.
Nice to know that I picked the right technique for testing my whole collection of 60 vintage lenses to try and figure out the sweet spot for all of them:) Thank you for the video, great information delivered in a clear and concise fashion!
Hi Simon, my 18-55mm DX lens has the sweet spot at F/5.6. Thanks for explaining that crop sensors might not need as much stopping down to find the sweet spot. The DXOMARK looks like a great guide to look at. Your video was very helpful and the fact that you also explained about the Telephoto lens was beneficial to me. Many thanks Simon. 😊.
You are just such a top notch educator!! I've been struggling with my Nikon 105 lens, I will for sure try your method. Thanks for hands down some of the very best RUclips videos!
Best explanation I’ve heard of f numbers and why they get bigger while the aperture gets smaller is that they are actually abbreviated fractions. So if you took f2 and f 4 you would get f 1/2 and f 1/4 so when you increase the bottom number of the fraction it lowers its size.
Simon, your videos are getting better and better. I learned a lot about how to find the sweet spots on my lenses, especially the zoom lenses. Thank you, sir! You explained with IMO just the right amount of science and detail.
I bought the Tamron 35-150 which is f2 - f2.8. It's an amazing lens, and one I was forcing to stay as wide open as possible; partly due to my "inexperience" with photography, and partly because I just wanted as much light as possible. One day I randomly decided to start shooting at a constant f4, can't remember why, but let me tell you know the image quality was ASTOUNDINGLY different and the lens rarely comes out of f4 now. Part of this learning experience was facilitated by watching your full manual / auto ISO video a while back which makes keeping the aperture smaller a non issue because ISO handling of modern cameras is so good today and we needn't be scared of letting the camera shoot at ISO3200 for example.
Simon...you must be psychic...i was reading up about lens elements/groups mere days ago as i wanted to better understand how lenses are constructed and causes of distortion...this video did a WONDERFUL job. Thanks, as always, friend, for all the great knowledge. You are an exceptional teacher!
It is always great to watch your videos and they already helped me a lot to improve my photos. When it comes to the ‘sweet spot’ of my lenses I ask ChatGPT for assistance. Seems to work for me. 😁 When I use my Nikon AF-S 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II, I get the following recommendations. Best Sweet Spot Aperture: f/4 to f/5.6 • The lens achieves peak sharpness across most of the frame in this range. • f/4: Great for sharpness while still maintaining some background blur for subject isolation. Ideal for portraits and general use. • f/5.6: Delivers maximum sharpness and contrast across the frame. Best for situations where detail is critical (e.g., landscapes, group shots). At 200mm: • The lens tends to perform slightly better around f/5.6, especially for edge sharpness. Wide open at f/2.8, you might notice a slight decrease in sharpness and some vignetting.
Oh my goodness, you must be over 100, Simon with all the information you have shared. Just when I think I have seen your last video with tips and tricks because there is nothing else, another one pops up....amazing.
You're a great communicator. Don't feel the need to change too much. Swish and pop sounds as things come on screen probably aren't needed, nor is repeating the text you're saying on screen. You're great, personally engaging and natural. Stick with that!
Using a current note to test is a great suggestion as they generally have a lot of fine details. I was looking into buying a lens target but found some of them to be quite expensive.
I have a brick house and always test new lenses by shooting an empty exterior wall at all focal ratios. It tells me everything I need to know before I go into the field such as sharpness, distortion, aberrations, coma etc. It has also shown me that unfortunately you often get what you pay for, the higher quality lense usually perform better.
Good to know I have M 50 Mark II and a 15 to 45mm F /10 😂. I was always curious as to what the best. Aperture was on my Canon 15 to 85 mm. I will check it out. Thanks a lot. Great video!
Another excellent video! It drives me crazy when I see professional sports photographers on RUclips banging on about always shooting at the widest aperture. I shoot with Canon 70-200mm f/2.8 and the sweet spot is F/3.2 to f/4. At 2.8 there's distortion and vignetting etc. I only ever use the widest aperture when it's so dark that the sweet spot is not possible.
Thank you for another excellent video! You explained very well what actually happens in the lens instead of just throwing around the terms. I'm going to see if I can get my Panasonic m4/3 100-400 measured using your method, I've always been curious if maybe wide open is not the best (although I often need it to get the maximum of light).
I have a RF 24-70 2.8 on an R5, and I have no idea where the lens is at its sharpest. I would really like to know. I often find it a difficult balance bumping the f number up because of the lack of light. I wish I was a pro.. Great video, Simon. I often find you the most well spoken and structered of photographers.
another extremely useful video - merci - i recently bought a nikkor 1.4 50mm. manual focus with my D5200. I love the 1.4 bokeh, but am learning better fstops for other kinds of photo
My general takeaways from years or shooting is this: about 2-stops down is around the sweet spot for most lenses (2-stops down from wide open, or from the nearest full stop from wide open, so f/2 on a 1.8 lens for example, the sweet spot might be something like f/5.6- f/8 maybe). Wider lenses tend to run into diffraction sooner than more telephoto lenses (for example my wide angle zoom seems to exhibit diffraction starting after f/11, whereas my telephotos can be shot to about f/16 before diffraction becomes a noticeable problem). Lens sharpness at 100% can be a bit over-rated and should be taken as just one of the considerations (with things like CA, vignetting, bokeh, and distortion also being important factors to consider too, and you need to balance that out -- if you have a fast lens that's sharp but the bokeh looks ugly, that may be worse than a lens that has nice bokeh but maybe isn't quite as sharp). To the comment about ASPC (vs FF), I think it's actually more so that APSC lenses (since they use more of the center of the lens) may be subject to things like diffraction at wider apertures than FF sensors, so for example, you may start to see more diffraction on an ASPC at lower f-stops, so this is abit of a trde-off. They don't use the edges of the image share as a FF sensor would, but you will run into diffraction "sooner" meaning say f/8 or f/10 rather than maybe f/16 with a FF camera). And this is very important: When Simon says 90 degrees, he means the sensor plane should be parallel to your test subjects to ensure maximum possible sharpness -- what I've done sometimes is use a piece of cardboard that is carefully cut so it has (4) 90 degree angles so I can ensure the camera sensor is parallel to my subjects for testing. You have to be careful when setting up your scene and positioning your camera because depending on the lens, if the test subjects are not parallel to the sensor plane (the back of the camera) this can give you a false sense of sharpness issues, or decentering if you're looking for that (Where one side is less sharp than the other side) and small differences, say the camera is NOT completely parallel can sometimes cause this to occur, although at smaller f-stops it may not be as noticeable, and with wider lenses, same thing, so it depends, but always try to make the camera sensor plane parallel to your subject as you can). I think the most common mistake i've seen (and i've done myself to give me false readings) is to have a test chart that is not completely flat on a wall/board and/or the cameara was not truly parallel to the test chart.
Excited to try the just ordered Canon 15-35 f/2.8. Yikes, those cost a lot of $$. No more new lens this year! Was thinking f/4 to f/5.6 is probably pretty close to the sweet spot anyhoo. Great video Simon.
I just avoid the apertures where the lens performs really poorly, but otherwise don't care about which exact aperture is the sharpest. This basically means that I avoid going over f/16 if I can help it, and I usually don't shoot wide open. For example, my Sony 50mm f/1.8 is horrible wide open, but at f/2.8 it's already quite good, so I just treat it like an f/2.8 lens.
This is so important to know. What I do with all my lenses, is go out and use the roof of the shed with traditional asphalt shingles. These work great, because they have so many fine details in them, great for pixel peeping. The trick is to also have something in the background. In my case, there's trees. This helps me figure out on the longer lenses, where "some" diffraction may be far better than not getting the depth of field I might want. However, still keeping in mind, it has to be good enough to still be considered the sweet spot. Then, once I've taken a photo at each f-stop and compared them, I record the lenses sweet spots in a spreadsheet, but most importantly, using a white paint pen, I write it on the inside of the lens cap, so whenever I grab a lens, I take a look at my cap and I know it. Even if I want to go outside of it, to do something creative or gain more depth of field, I'll know right off just how far I might compromise, to still obtain keepers.
I have around 20 lenses (I like to play with vintage Nikon primes) some modern, some older and some vintage. Both pro grade and consumer grades. I once watched a video where a photographer said, F11 isn't always within the sweet spot of your lens and you shouldn't listen to that advice and it's wrong for general landscape photos. All my lenses sweet spot, include F11. When I asked him which lenses he has where F11 was out of his sweet spot, he didn't answer hahaha. I don't doubt there very well may be some! But what lens would he REALLY be using for landscapes where F11 would be out of it? I don't even have an old film era '70's vintage Nikon lens where F11 falls out the sweet spot range. He's using brand new lenses. I remain a skeptic of that claim. Since he never answered me, I have to assume, he's implying some lenses will suffer from diffraction as early as F11! I've yet to get one! I'd consider it a trash lens or at least a trash copy and return it if I ever do too!
Lens quality also depends on focus distance. Are u going to test that? In old-time lens tests on an optical bench , I think it was done at 1/30 image magnification.
@ I'm not, no. Because I primarily shoot landscape and Milky Way/landscapes. I only need the sweet spot for where I'll be using my lenses 99% of the time. Outside this, I'm ok whatever I get. I mean, I do have a fisheye and a micro lens, where those might be wroth testing that way, but they're more "fun" lenses to me, where quality isn't a top priority to me anyway.
Amazing video! Technical depth but not too complicated!! Nikon Z Mount 800mm f6.3. Sweet spot for me was about f7.1 but I could not notice a big difference between f6.3 and f9 even on my Z8 with ridiculously hight megapixels. All above is mostly not suitable for birding so I didn't test. I end up using 6.3 most of the time since the ISO tradeoffs are not worth the extra sharpness for me.
Excellent video as that helped tremendously! Thank you I have a Canon 5D MK IV paired with several, but my most recent purchase is the Canon 24-105 f/4 IS USM.
I look forward to playing with this! Wondering how small I can get my aperture for Milky Way shots, since I tend to shoot those wide open, but I'll play more with slightly smaller apertures this season.
Hi Simon! Have a Sony 200-600mm G f5.6-6.3 and a 70-200 GMII f2.8. Where is the „Sweet Spot „ in your opinión based on own experience for this lenses? All the best from Switzerland 🇨🇭!i keep learning from you every single video! Thank you for your beautiful labor!
This is why you should always pay attention to the type of lens you buy, using aspherical lenses you avoid most of the problems of light decomposition that if coated in fluorite make the image perfect. Too expensive? Adjusting the aperture of the diaphragm is the only solution to obtain good results.
Brilliant as always. I do have one question. After importing my images into LRC, I always run both "Remove Chromatic Aberation" and, it it's a zoom lens, I also run "Enable Profile Corrections." I have laboreously gone through images one by one in the past to see if turning this on does any observable damage to the image but have found nothing observable. Does running either, if the image doesn't need any correction, have any negative consiquences? Thank you for being the best photography teacher on the web and with anyone who've I've learned from.
What lens do you use and what is its sweet spot? What camera do you use it on? We'd love to know!
I mainly use RF zoom lenses (24-70, 70-200, 100-500). The f/2.8 zooms are incredible wide open but I find the sweet spot is around f/4-f/5.6 and around f/8 for the 100-500 which is also incredible wide open. We truly are spoilt by modern L glass.
Tamron 150-600mm. I've been thinking I need to figure this out so I guess now I really need to :)
On my Tamron 150-600 G2 on my Canon 90D I find it sharpest at f8. Anything from f7.1 to f11 are good bit the sweet spot seems to be f8.
@@paulshepich4776 I have G2 as well. DXOMARK seemed to show that dropping focal length to something 500 might also give better sharpness, they did also mention that more testing is needed. They also don't test with 6D which I have, will need to do some testing myself definitely.
@@Qwarzzf8 is probably pretty good
I basically knew everything being covered here, but to hear it all put together in such a concise and logical way significantly increased my effective understanding; so thanks...
That’s what I was going for!
Started photography when I was 16, I am now 72. The greatest lesson I have learned is, you never stop learning new techniques. Thank you for these video instructions and tips!
Been an amateur photographer for the last 20 odd year but I still learn new things from your videos...thank you for this
You are an absurdly good educator. It's almost like there's no reason to watch any other educational photography videos on RUclips.
The class I'm waiting for is how to afford the Canon RF 600mm F4. :P
These videos are amazing. Thanks for what you do!
Every time I think I know a decent amount about photography, one of your videos arrives and gives me a healthy dose of humility - there's still a LOT I wouldn't be able to explain to someone as clearly as you do. I love it! Thanks for another informative video
Never seen or read anything more clear and explanatory than this video in 30 years of photography.
Chapeau
I appreciate you going into so much detail about the physics behind why things like chromatic aberration happen and why stopping the lens down helps. We've all heard that stopping the lens down improves sharpness, but I've never fully understood WHY until now.
Feel free to watch this video more than once. There is a tremendous amount to unpack here. This is physics. Practical physics that all advanced photographers should know. Simon totally knows his subject and is a great teacher.
Well, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, “The master has done it again”… from a photography perspective I don’t there’s anything you don’t know or can’t explain in a concise understandable video. Just incredible. Here’s hoping you have 1 million subscribers by the end of 2025.
wow. best explanation I've ever seen of so many optical "problems" in one short video. Congratulations on this.
I have been a subscriber on this channel for over a year and am still amazed at the quality of Simon’s videos and information. He has one of the very best channels out there. I am more into landscape than wildlife photography but it doesn’t matter since pretty much all he talks about is very relevant to my situation. I intend to run my own tests following this procedure exactly on my 14-35, 24-105 and 100-400 mm with my Canon R6 MII. Thanks Simon!
too kind!
This is probably the single best explanation I've seen on this. While I know about lens sweet spots, the rule of thumb, diffraction, chromatic aberration, etc. Your explanation bringing all of that together into the HOW and WHY those influence the sweet spot of a lens was great. Thank you!
Good practical advice. Just one small correction re. lens coatings: they won't help with spherical or chromatic aberrations (or coma). They can only help with contrast, ghosting and brightness by reducing reflections and increasing transmission. Lens aberrations are dealt with: better lens design typically with more lens elements, low dispersion elements, and/or aspherical elements.
I appreciate the scientific approach. It’s a good thing I didn’t find photography in my 20’s. I would’ve geeked myself into never shooting photos, just testing recording results analyzing and re-testing.
Now in my 40’s I still enjoy the technical stuff, but I know that the most important thing is to just get out and participate in the activity. Still, your technical approach helps me understand these topics in my native language. So, thank you for all of the time and work that went into the knowledge you share! I know what it took to get it, and it’s appreciated! 🙏
This guy is incredible, the way you explain everything makes it so understanding..straight to the point. Most other donuts on RUclips take you half way around the world plus unnecessary stop points with some idiotic clip from a movie before briefly getting to the point..and even then it's not explained properly! Glad you're not like these guys simon
Hello Simon!! Perhaps there’s not another video in youtube which can explain this topic any better!! The content is designed keeping the sweet spot in mind to explain this very complex concept to techies and artists alike.
Please accept my bow to your explanation skill and knowledge!
🙏🏻
This is the best explanation of these phenomena I have ever heard. I've said it before, but you are one heck of a teacher.
Thank you, I appreciate it!
Fascinating. Just one problem..........I think that I will have to watch it again, and again, and again, and again, and........
A superior "Flowchart" video!
It only contains relevant content; presented logically (i.e. without extraneous fluff).
Thank you.
The only thing missing are chapter markers (which can still be easily added BTW, hint). Chapter markers are great for viewers revisiting a video.
This is the best explanation of this topic I have ever seen (viewed). Excellent presentation.
I’m glad you found it helpful!
Nice to know that I picked the right technique for testing my whole collection of 60 vintage lenses to try and figure out the sweet spot for all of them:) Thank you for the video, great information delivered in a clear and concise fashion!
That’s a lot of lenses!
Man, the timing is crazy. I was just starting to work on this for my lens, it´s like the video was made for me.
Holy moley! First time I’ve understood all the different aberrations and focus issues and why. Thank you. Excellent video!
Those technical terms finally make sense!!!!! Thank you as always for these fantastic videos 😁
I thought I knew all about aperture settings! So well put together, informative and clear. Thank you!!
This is one of the better explanations, and most useful I have seen, on this subject. Thank you, sir.
Without a doubt, the best explanation of this I have ever seen. Thanks.
Love your videos and assistance to the photography world!
Your compassion to help others is greatly appreciated!
Thanks for the kind words!
This was fantastic, Simon! Great job of distilling this detailed information down to concise, easy to understand examples.
Hi Simon, my 18-55mm DX lens has the sweet spot at F/5.6. Thanks for explaining that crop sensors might not need as much stopping down to find the sweet spot. The DXOMARK looks like a great guide to look at. Your video was very helpful and the fact that you also explained about the Telephoto lens was beneficial to me. Many thanks Simon. 😊.
Thanks Simon 😊
You are just such a top notch educator!! I've been struggling with my Nikon 105 lens, I will for sure try your method. Thanks for hands down some of the very best RUclips videos!
It’s always a good day when a new Simon d’Entremont video comes out! A great video as usual! Thank you!!
I am a amateur photograph and focus on marine and wildlife at my local beach. Your videos have helped me so much and i really appreciate it.
Glad I can help!
Best explanation I’ve heard of f numbers and why they get bigger while the aperture gets smaller is that they are actually abbreviated fractions. So if you took f2 and f 4 you would get f 1/2 and f 1/4 so when you increase the bottom number of the fraction it lowers its size.
Simon, your videos are getting better and better. I learned a lot about how to find the sweet spots on my lenses, especially the zoom lenses. Thank you, sir! You explained with IMO just the right amount of science and detail.
Great to hear!
Simon just gave us homework, I going to do this for all my primes for sure.
I bought the Tamron 35-150 which is f2 - f2.8. It's an amazing lens, and one I was forcing to stay as wide open as possible; partly due to my "inexperience" with photography, and partly because I just wanted as much light as possible. One day I randomly decided to start shooting at a constant f4, can't remember why, but let me tell you know the image quality was ASTOUNDINGLY different and the lens rarely comes out of f4 now.
Part of this learning experience was facilitated by watching your full manual / auto ISO video a while back which makes keeping the aperture smaller a non issue because ISO handling of modern cameras is so good today and we needn't be scared of letting the camera shoot at ISO3200 for example.
Great video Simon, I particularly liked the in video examples like vignetting and barrel distortion while showing yourself. Much easier to understand.
Simon...you must be psychic...i was reading up about lens elements/groups mere days ago as i wanted to better understand how lenses are constructed and causes of distortion...this video did a WONDERFUL job. Thanks, as always, friend, for all the great knowledge. You are an exceptional teacher!
Glad it was helpful!
Tons of great info packed into a short and "sweet" video. Thanks, as always.
Glad you liked it!
Well done Simon! Although I knew most of the information, your presentation was superb, interesting and clear.
It is always great to watch your videos and they already helped me a lot to improve my photos.
When it comes to the ‘sweet spot’ of my lenses I ask ChatGPT for assistance. Seems to work for me. 😁
When I use my Nikon AF-S 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II, I get the following recommendations.
Best Sweet Spot Aperture: f/4 to f/5.6
• The lens achieves peak sharpness across most of the frame in this range.
• f/4: Great for sharpness while still maintaining some background blur for subject isolation. Ideal for portraits and general use.
• f/5.6: Delivers maximum sharpness and contrast across the frame. Best for situations where detail is critical (e.g., landscapes, group shots).
At 200mm:
• The lens tends to perform slightly better around f/5.6, especially for edge sharpness. Wide open at f/2.8, you might notice a slight decrease in sharpness and some vignetting.
Love your work man!
Keep the awesome videos coming!
Oh my goodness, you must be over 100, Simon with all the information you have shared. Just when I think I have seen your last video with tips and tricks because there is nothing else, another one pops up....amazing.
I love helping people get better pictures!
What a terrific explanation for something that has always been a mystery for me. Thanks!
Very comprehensive. Nice job, Simon! Hope you had a good time putting it together.
Very professional presentation, as usually! Thank you Simon!
Many thanks!
I'm going to try it out as soon as possible with my RF 50mm, Thanks!
You're a great communicator. Don't feel the need to change too much. Swish and pop sounds as things come on screen probably aren't needed, nor is repeating the text you're saying on screen. You're great, personally engaging and natural. Stick with that!
Your explanations are always clearer than others. 👏🏻 Many thanks!!!
You are welcome!
Brilliant video - thanks Simon. I also use f10 & f11 on my M50 but will use your test method on my R6 (with different lenses). Cheers, Steve 👍
Excellent explanation. I had a vague understanding of most of the issues you discussed, but your video really clarified it. Thank you!
Glad it was helpful!
Using a current note to test is a great suggestion as they generally have a lot of fine details. I was looking into buying a lens target but found some of them to be quite expensive.
I knew the what, but never the why, very informative video
Great Video ! It would be interesting to have a video also on the effect of small apertures in the resolution of CCDs with small pixels.
As usual, a nice succint, yet thorough and unbiased video. Tx.
❤
Glad you enjoyed it!
Amazing summary and story telling skill.
I SOOO appreciate your excellent instruction! Thank you!
I have a brick house and always test new lenses by shooting an empty exterior wall at all focal ratios. It tells me everything I need to know before I go into the field such as sharpness, distortion, aberrations, coma etc. It has also shown me that unfortunately you often get what you pay for, the higher quality lense usually perform better.
Interesting, it sounds like a good technique.
Good to know I have M 50 Mark II and a 15 to 45mm F /10 😂. I was always curious as to what the best. Aperture was on my Canon 15 to 85 mm. I will check it out. Thanks a lot. Great video!
Great video! I just did this exercise and found some useful results. Thank you sir !
I'm glad it helped!
Great video with terrific commentary, good explanation with pictures and video
Thank you kindly!
Another excellent video! It drives me crazy when I see professional sports photographers on RUclips banging on about always shooting at the widest aperture. I shoot with Canon 70-200mm f/2.8 and the sweet spot is F/3.2 to f/4. At 2.8 there's distortion and vignetting etc. I only ever use the widest aperture when it's so dark that the sweet spot is not possible.
I really appreciate your explanations. I always learn something when I see your videos
Glad to hear that!
Thank you for another excellent video! You explained very well what actually happens in the lens instead of just throwing around the terms. I'm going to see if I can get my Panasonic m4/3 100-400 measured using your method, I've always been curious if maybe wide open is not the best (although I often need it to get the maximum of light).
Short video most information about oprical phenomena well done! Thank you.
I have a RF 24-70 2.8 on an R5, and I have no idea where the lens is at its sharpest. I would really like to know. I often find it a difficult balance bumping the f number up because of the lack of light. I wish I was a pro.. Great video, Simon. I often find you the most well spoken and structered of photographers.
another extremely useful video - merci - i recently bought a nikkor 1.4 50mm. manual focus with my D5200. I love the 1.4 bokeh, but am learning better fstops for other kinds of photo
Great video, Simon!
Thanks!
Great video as always Simon!
I’m glad you liked it!
Cheers for another great video Simon 🙏
My pleasure!
Great info Simon.
My general takeaways from years or shooting is this: about 2-stops down is around the sweet spot for most lenses (2-stops down from wide open, or from the nearest full stop from wide open, so f/2 on a 1.8 lens for example, the sweet spot might be something like f/5.6- f/8 maybe). Wider lenses tend to run into diffraction sooner than more telephoto lenses (for example my wide angle zoom seems to exhibit diffraction starting after f/11, whereas my telephotos can be shot to about f/16 before diffraction becomes a noticeable problem). Lens sharpness at 100% can be a bit over-rated and should be taken as just one of the considerations (with things like CA, vignetting, bokeh, and distortion also being important factors to consider too, and you need to balance that out -- if you have a fast lens that's sharp but the bokeh looks ugly, that may be worse than a lens that has nice bokeh but maybe isn't quite as sharp).
To the comment about ASPC (vs FF), I think it's actually more so that APSC lenses (since they use more of the center of the lens) may be subject to things like diffraction at wider apertures than FF sensors, so for example, you may start to see more diffraction on an ASPC at lower f-stops, so this is abit of a trde-off. They don't use the edges of the image share as a FF sensor would, but you will run into diffraction "sooner" meaning say f/8 or f/10 rather than maybe f/16 with a FF camera).
And this is very important: When Simon says 90 degrees, he means the sensor plane should be parallel to your test subjects to ensure maximum possible sharpness -- what I've done sometimes is use a piece of cardboard that is carefully cut so it has (4) 90 degree angles so I can ensure the camera sensor is parallel to my subjects for testing. You have to be careful when setting up your scene and positioning your camera because depending on the lens, if the test subjects are not parallel to the sensor plane (the back of the camera) this can give you a false sense of sharpness issues, or decentering if you're looking for that (Where one side is less sharp than the other side) and small differences, say the camera is NOT completely parallel can sometimes cause this to occur, although at smaller f-stops it may not be as noticeable, and with wider lenses, same thing, so it depends, but always try to make the camera sensor plane parallel to your subject as you can). I think the most common mistake i've seen (and i've done myself to give me false readings) is to have a test chart that is not completely flat on a wall/board and/or the cameara was not truly parallel to the test chart.
I LOVE this channel!!!
I so appreciate your videos. So helpful!
Excited to try the just ordered Canon 15-35 f/2.8. Yikes, those cost a lot of $$. No more new lens this year! Was thinking f/4 to f/5.6 is probably pretty close to the sweet spot anyhoo. Great video Simon.
Ur the best 🔥 from Brooklyn NY
I just avoid the apertures where the lens performs really poorly, but otherwise don't care about which exact aperture is the sharpest. This basically means that I avoid going over f/16 if I can help it, and I usually don't shoot wide open. For example, my Sony 50mm f/1.8 is horrible wide open, but at f/2.8 it's already quite good, so I just treat it like an f/2.8 lens.
This is so important to know. What I do with all my lenses, is go out and use the roof of the shed with traditional asphalt shingles. These work great, because they have so many fine details in them, great for pixel peeping. The trick is to also have something in the background. In my case, there's trees. This helps me figure out on the longer lenses, where "some" diffraction may be far better than not getting the depth of field I might want. However, still keeping in mind, it has to be good enough to still be considered the sweet spot.
Then, once I've taken a photo at each f-stop and compared them, I record the lenses sweet spots in a spreadsheet, but most importantly, using a white paint pen, I write it on the inside of the lens cap, so whenever I grab a lens, I take a look at my cap and I know it. Even if I want to go outside of it, to do something creative or gain more depth of field, I'll know right off just how far I might compromise, to still obtain keepers.
I have around 20 lenses (I like to play with vintage Nikon primes) some modern, some older and some vintage. Both pro grade and consumer grades. I once watched a video where a photographer said, F11 isn't always within the sweet spot of your lens and you shouldn't listen to that advice and it's wrong for general landscape photos. All my lenses sweet spot, include F11. When I asked him which lenses he has where F11 was out of his sweet spot, he didn't answer hahaha. I don't doubt there very well may be some! But what lens would he REALLY be using for landscapes where F11 would be out of it? I don't even have an old film era '70's vintage Nikon lens where F11 falls out the sweet spot range. He's using brand new lenses. I remain a skeptic of that claim.
Since he never answered me, I have to assume, he's implying some lenses will suffer from diffraction as early as F11! I've yet to get one! I'd consider it a trash lens or at least a trash copy and return it if I ever do too!
Lens quality also depends on focus distance. Are u going to test that? In old-time lens tests on an optical bench , I think it was done at 1/30 image magnification.
@ I'm not, no. Because I primarily shoot landscape and Milky Way/landscapes. I only need the sweet spot for where I'll be using my lenses 99% of the time. Outside this, I'm ok whatever I get. I mean, I do have a fisheye and a micro lens, where those might be wroth testing that way, but they're more "fun" lenses to me, where quality isn't a top priority to me anyway.
Brilliant! Thank you.
Great Lecture.❤
Thank you! 🙂
Again a great video! Thank you Simon! :)
Thanks again!
Great explanation on this subject
Glad it was helpful!
Great explanation
Amazing video! Technical depth but not too complicated!! Nikon Z Mount 800mm f6.3. Sweet spot for me was about f7.1 but I could not notice a big difference between f6.3 and f9 even on my Z8 with ridiculously hight megapixels. All above is mostly not suitable for birding so I didn't test. I end up using 6.3 most of the time since the ISO tradeoffs are not worth the extra sharpness for me.
Thank you for explaining this Simon.
My pleasure!
You are the best. Your videos are really gooood
Excellent video as that helped tremendously! Thank you
I have a Canon 5D MK IV paired with several, but my most recent purchase is the Canon 24-105 f/4 IS USM.
Great lens choice!
10/10 Content Bro!
clear and good information
Great video ! Thank you.
I look forward to playing with this! Wondering how small I can get my aperture for Milky Way shots, since I tend to shoot those wide open, but I'll play more with slightly smaller apertures this season.
for milky way, you need all the light you can get, so dont stop down too much. I shoot my f1.4 lens at 1.8 or f2
Hi Simon! Have a Sony 200-600mm G f5.6-6.3 and a 70-200 GMII f2.8. Where is the „Sweet Spot „ in your opinión based on own experience for this lenses? All the best from Switzerland 🇨🇭!i keep learning from you every single video! Thank you for your beautiful labor!
Perhaps f10 and f5.6, but f8 and f4 will be good improvement without too many sacrifices.
Very helpful and interesting!
I'm glad you found it helpful!
This is why you should always pay attention to the type of lens you buy, using aspherical lenses you avoid most of the problems of light decomposition that if coated in fluorite make the image perfect. Too expensive? Adjusting the aperture of the diaphragm is the only solution to obtain good results.
Very good points !!
Great advise as usual, thank you. 😊
Glad to hear it!
I quite like chromatic aboration & colour fringing, I’ve a mystery brand manual lens that delivers it in a really pleasing way
Brilliant as always. I do have one question. After importing my images into LRC, I always run both "Remove Chromatic Aberation" and, it it's a zoom lens, I also run "Enable Profile Corrections." I have laboreously gone through images one by one in the past to see if turning this on does any observable damage to the image but have found nothing observable. Does running either, if the image doesn't need any correction, have any negative consiquences? Thank you for being the best photography teacher on the web and with anyone who've I've learned from.
nothing negative