Sweet Spot for 50mm Macro Lens

[Ardy]

Hi All - I use a E-520 with Oly 50mm macro lens for most of my photography.

I have just read Scott Geitler's great article on image sharpness Image Sharpness | Underwater Photography Guide One of the key parts is the sweet spot for a lens and I wonder if anyone has done tests on the Olympus 50mm macro lens to determine this.

I remember Phil Rudin or one of the other guys on this site suggested using F16 rather than F22 for maximum sharpness on this lens but I am wondering what the extent of the sweet spot is?

regards

 

[Vladimir_VRO]

If you take a look on DPPREVIEW you'll see that this lens is most sharp @F2.1-4. starting from F11 it going to lost sharpness. So I would really avoid to use F16-F22.

 

[deeper thoughts]

I have the pana 45 mm and it looks like its sweet spot is f 5.6

 

[PHIL RUDIN]

I have used this lens a lot as in tens of thousands of images. I like the lens best from F/2.8 to F/11. Keep in mind that the smaller 4/3 sensor gives greater depth of field at any given F/stop compared to the larger APS-c and 35 mm sensors. As a result you don't need to go as high in the F/range to get good DOF in your macro shots. I have also used the lens a lot with the 1.4 and 2X tele converters. With the tele converters it helps to keep the F/stop range around F/8 or so. This is a superb lens and will provide tack sharp image quality.

Even at F/14 as in the images below you won't kind much to complain about.

Image Olympus E-3, 50mm macro, 2X tele converter with Athena macro & extension port, Athena ring-flash, ISO-100, at F/14.

Phil Rudin

 

[tarjan]

Keep in mind the measurements on dpreview show a single lens and how that one behaves. That being said it seems to be accurate for most lenses based on what I have seen. Also think about the fact that sharpness from the lens, even when "lowered" by too high an f stop might still result in the lens having the capability to resolve much more than the sensor can pick up. (in other words, the pixels look the same)

When it comes to what f stop to choose, it is all a balancing act of available light, depth of field and what you are trying to achieve with the image. If you are big into plugins and shoot raw and have lots of natural light, a high f-stop could be great while not having to worry as much about depth of field and your subject. You can take the shot and add a depth of field effect in post processing. If you don't have much light and are shooting strobes, a lower f-stop is a better choice but bear in mind the focal point and your setup is much more critical so you need to think more.

Now olympus, were is that 50mm m4/3 version?

 

[Ardy]

Hi Guys thanks a lot. I will use it at F8 and see what impact it has on depth of field. As most of my shots are macro I am constantly looking for maximum DOF and therefore the use of high F stops.

Never noticed the lack of sharpness in my higher F stop shots but I have seen some great macro shots here with amazing DOF - BigJeff being one of them. Looking forward to checking this out in Tulamben in 6 weeks.

Tarjan - never heard of DOF processing, is this something in Photoshop? Does it give you greater DOF?

 

[tarjan]

nope, other way around. It "emulates" a narrow DOF. Not perfect mind you, but it lets you shoot with a wide dof and in the end create a narrow one. There are a number of plugins out there, I used one on aperture a long while ago on a shot that was "good" but became much better by making a girl in costume the actual focus vs her and the surroundings.

 

[Ardy]

nope, other way around. It "emulates" a narrow DOF. Not perfect mind you, but it lets you shoot with a wide dof and in the end create a narrow one. There are a number of plugins out there, I used one on aperture a long while ago on a shot that was "good" but became much better by making a girl in costume the actual focus vs her and the surroundings.

Very handy with digital camera's where excess DOF is an issue. I assume full frame digitals don't have this issue?