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Canon 5DS R
Spotted Boulder

Example: Getting Close to 50 Megapixels in Real Photography (Spotted Boulder, Canon 5Ds R)

This example shows how far more real-world detail can be obtained with focus stacking in the case of a very high resolution DSLR.

Prelude

A 50-megapixel camera like the Canon 5Ds R will not deliver anything close to 50 megapixels of detail with many if not most subjects. That’s because depth of field sufficient for pixel-level sharpness is more and more limited with higher pixel densities: the required circle of confusion is smaller with a higher resolution camera (smaller pixels) than with a lower resolution camera (larger pixels).

The murky concept of depth of field as traditionally used is a non-concept unless “sufficiently sharp” is precisely defined (e.g., a specific reproduction size). But while that is better than the usual non-definition, it is still a marginal concept: if one is going to invest in a 36 or 50 megapixel camera (or higher), the goal is presumably to obtain the maximum detail that the sensor can record, whenever possible, and to the extent feasible. Not some arbitrary assumed print size (which changes over time, if one considers even one concrete case case such as 8K displays).

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Diglloyd Making Sharp Images articulates years of best practices and how-to, painstakingly learned over a decade of camera and lens evaluation.

Save yourself those years of trial and error by jump-starting your photographic technical execution when making the image. The best lens or camera is handicapped if the photographer fails to master perfect shot discipline. High-resolution digital cameras are unforgiving of errors, at least if one wants the best possible results.

  • Eases into photographic challenges with an introductory section.
  • Covers aspects of digital sensor technology that relate to getting the best image quality.
  • Technique section discusses every aspect of making a sharp image handheld or on a tripod.
  • Depth of field and how to bypass depth of field limitations via focus stacking.
  • Optical aberrations: what they are, what they look like, and what to do about them.
  • MTF, field curvature, focus shift: insight into the limitations of lab tests and why imaging performance is far more complex than it appears.
  • Optical aberrations: what they are, what they look like, and what to do about them.
  • How to test a lens for a “bad sample”.

Intrigued? See Focusing Zeiss DSLR Lenses For Peak Performance, PART ONE: The Challenges, or (one topic of many) field curvature.

Variants stacked,mid available in full article
f9 @ 1/50 sec focus stack 3 frames, ISO 100; 2016-10-28 09:14:30
Canon EOS 5DS R + Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L III @ 16mm

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