IDguy wrote:
No, the easiest solution is higher fstop. As you note, diffraction is overrated. The masters of sharpness, like Ansel Adams, belonged to the f64 group.
Focus stacking isnβt easy. You have to know how to take the images and process them. Neither is trivial.
But I might try focus stacking since my Z6 automates the first step.
Using a guy who belonged to the f/64 group as a poster child for the aperture you should use on an APS-C camera is just ludicrous.
YES, you can use f/64... on an 8x10 view camera with a 300mm normal lens! But on a full frame camera of 20-24 MP, you'll want to use f/10 or so. On an APS-C camera, make that around f/7.1. On a Micro 4/3 camera, diffraction sets in around f/5.6! It pays to use a Depth of Field calculator app on your computer or smartphone.
I worked in a photo lab in all sorts of roles, for a school portrait company for three decades. We tested equipment constantly to find its optimal range of operation. We never tested a digital camera that didn't exhibit at least some visible diffraction at f/16. The original Canon 5D was limited at f/13 or so.
Our panoramic senior class group photographers HAD used f/64 on our 8x10 group portrait cameras, for decades, with fantastic results. But when they switched to Canon dSLRs, and couldn't get to f/64 on the lenses we used, they tried f/32. Have you ever seen an image where everything from a few feet to infinity was equally *fuzzy*? I've seen hundreds of them! They were all taken at f/32 with a Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8 lens on a Canon EOS 5D. Using the same rig at f/8 or f/11 and focusing at the hyperfocal distance provides VERY sharp results.
One guy lost a $70,000 account by using f/32. It's like pushing rope or herding squirrels to get 300 high school seniors back onto an athletic field for a panorama, not to mention dealing with the angry principal, teachers, and yearbook advisor. So...
When that $#!t hit the fan, I had to run a series of tests to PROVE to the guy that he could use f/8 or f/11 and still get plenty of depth of field at 50mm. (The hyperfocal distance at f/8 is 34 feet. That gives you DOF from 17' to over a mile from the camera. Focus at 26', and DOF is 15' to 108'. The hyperfocal distance at f/11 is 25'. DOF is 12.5' to infinity...)
I printed foot-wide sections of a 20" by 60" panorama of the same scene, taken at f/32, f/22, f/16, f/11, and f/8. f/32 was mush. f/22 was dreamy. f/16 was soft. f/11 and f/8 were usable... in fact they were gorgeous if you stood back about five feet from the print.
Our photo consultants had a huge library of examples of failures. We had example after example of the diffraction problem.