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Sony FE 12-24mm f/4 G

Imaging Performance @ 12mm, Single Frame vs Stacked: Pine at Morgan Lake

It is a common misconception that there is “huge depth of field” at 12mm, particularly at f/11. This is not so, as this 2-frame focus stack at 12mm shows in being compared with a single frame at f/11. Depth of field relates to magnification—and when shooting a subject a few feet away against a distant background, even 12mm at f/11 cannot bring full sharpness.

Another way to think of this is “near/far composition”. In such compositions, the foreground is at a much higher magnification than the background. The span or gap between the nearby and the far determines whether stopping down is adequate for depth of field. Often depth of field is a challenge for landscape photography, particularly (and ironically) for wide angle lenses, where for compositional interest one needs to have a strong foreground element at very close range. In the “old days”, Ansel might have used f/64 and gotten “enough” depth of field, but with resolution greatly diminished by diffraction—go see the many large prints in the Adams house in Carmel, California—they are not what I would call sharp by any of today's metrics. Focus stacking is the solution for landscape shooters.

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Diglloyd Guide to Mirrorless offers comprehensive integrated coverage of most APS-C and full frame mirrorless cameras and lenses.

Special emphasis is placed on Sony full-frame, including Sony lenses and the high performance Zeiss Batis and Zeiss Loxia lenses plus Rokinon/Samyang and others. Fujifilm X, Olympus and Panasonic M4/3, Sigma dp Merrill and dp/sd Quattro are also covered in depth. Years in the making, it offers a wealth of material for choosing and using a mirrorless camera.

  • Make better images by learning how to get the best results right away. For example, the best way to set up your Sony camera.
  • Save money by choosing the right lens for your needs the first time, particularly with the numerous lenses available for Sony.
  • Make better images, a sort of “cheat sheet” saving yourself months or years of ad-hoc learning—best practices and how-to and processing parameters are discussed and shown.
  • Jaw-dropping image quality found nowhere else utilizing Retina-grade images up to full camera resolution, plus large crops.
  • Real world examples with insights found nowhere else. Make sharper images just by understanding lens behavior you won’t read about elsewhere.
  • Aperture series from wide open through stopped down, showing the full range of lens performance and bokeh.
  • Optical quality analysis of field curvature, focus shift, sharpness, flare, distortion, and performance in the field.

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Variants Stacked,SingleFrame available in full article

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