Blackduck wrote:
Nikon D80 18-135mm Nikkor 3.5-5.6 lens
Focal length 75mm
1/1250 shutter
f/13
no flash
ISO 1600
When I view this picture on ACDSee the trees farthest away are kinda blurry. Not as sharp as I'd hope. They are probably 600yrds awaye from where I took the picture. I think the problems are
1)Less than average glass
2)no VR
3)nothing. That is the best any average slr and average glass could do.
What do ya'll think?
Everyone has made some very valid points so far, i'll add my 2 cents and hope i don't screw everything up...
1) maybe, but at f13 most of that equalizes somewhat, I suspect there might be a different issue.
2)wouldn't make much difference at 1/1250 of a second unless you have a SEVERE case of the shakes....
3) i think they can do better....
first and foremost ISO 1600 is gonna be noisy, which can make an image look less "sharp" so bump the ISO down to 100...now this is gonna kill you shutter speed, so you'll need to use a tripod to makeup for it, but the resolution will be much better.... also with f13 at 75mm, if your camera was focused on a subject nearer than approximately 66 feet, you depth of field won't extend 600 yards
so make sure you're focused at the hyperfocal distance to give you max depth of field to the rear (google "depth of field calculator" for some helpful info).... also, I suspect your image could use a bit of sharpening and post processing.... but realize that a sensor can only resolve a finite amount of detail, and while i don't think you've reached the limit, it is important to remember there is a limit....
one other thing, at a certain point diffraction, from the use of small apertures, limits the DSLR's ability to resolve an image, meaning that the quality actually gets worse with a smaller f-stop....this usually happens around f-8 or f-11...so I try to avoid these if at all possible (but sometimes, like your image, you really need the smaller aperture).... just be aware of this diffraction, there isn't much you can do about it besides avoiding small apertures....
