Dlux 5 lens sharpest aperture / sweet spot

[spiritflare]

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Hi

 

Would anyone recommend what is the "sweet spot" aperture of the VARIO-SUMMICRON 5.1 - 19.2mm f/2 - 3.3 lens?

 

Seems Dlux 4 sharpest aperture was f/4.5 but on Dlux5, I've tried f/4.5 - f/5.6 without noticing subtle differences.

 

What have folks found?

 

 

best

[prk60091]

i have read that on leica lenses the "sweet spot" was wide open- whether this is still true and true on the d-lux line- i don't know

 

you could try a brick wall series and report back your findings

[Digitom]

Just a question for my understanding, because I am wondering about the question. What will be the result? Only taking photos with a special aperture, to get "sharper" pics? I can say I am really very satisfied with all apertures and the cam does a great job for everytime photographing, especially in lowlight conditions. setting max ISO to 800. So all these things about "sweet spot" is -for me- just theory, especially when using a compact camera. Maybe I did not see the real sense, just tell me.

[prk60091]

Just a question for my understanding, because I am wondering about the question. What will be the result? Only taking photos with a special aperture, to get "sharper" pics? I can say I am really very satisfied with all apertures and the cam does a great job for everytime photographing, especially in lowlight conditions. setting max ISO to 800. So all these things about "sweet spot" is -for me- just theory, especially when using a compact camera. Maybe I did not see the real sense, just tell me.

 

as i understood the question : there is an aperture at which the lens performs the best- not just in focus but sharp. in most cameras it is somewhere in the mid range aperture (f/5.6). i have read that leica optimized the design of their lenses so that that "sweet spot" is wide open.... it could be marketing or myth

[earleygallery]

It's true that generally a lens will perform best at something like f5.6 - f8, and it's also true that Leica design their lenses to perform excellently wide open, which is partly why they cost so much.

 

With the Dlux you are talking about a very short focal lenght zoom designed for a minature sensor camera, and it has a smallest aperture of f8. Given the limitations of the sensor and the very deep depth of field I really doubt that there is any difference in optical performance in the aperture range worth worrying about.

[Dan States]

Actually you should keep the lens as close to full aperture as possible for best results. Because of the very small image circle, the lenses on micro sensor cameras suffer from the effects of diffraction at apertures as small as f5. On the dl5/lx5 the performance of the lens drops quite noticeably at small apertures. If you are shooting in program mode and iso 200 the camera defaults to f7 or smaller in daylight. Images are distinctly soft in those cases and I believe this is why there have been some users who were not happy with the performance of the lens

 

This is also the case for cameras like the g series canons and the s90.

 

Best wishes

Dan

[spiritflare]

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I have run some tests according to the feedback received and it seems correct - at wide aperture from f/2.0 all the way to f/5.0 it is very hard to distinguish any differences - it appears to be distinctly sharp at each aperture wide open. (unlike some other lenses and digicams such as S95 i have tested which do have their "sweet spot").

 

I find from f/7.0 onwards, it gets distinctly soft.

 

For example, the attachment below is at f/3.3 and is sharp (from my perspective).

just my life | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

 

Thank-you everyone for comments

 

-k

 

 

Hi

 

Would anyone recommend what is the "sweet spot" aperture of the VARIO-SUMMICRON 5.1 - 19.2mm f/2 - 3.3 lens?

 

Seems Dlux 4 sharpest aperture was f/4.5 but on Dlux5, I've tried f/4.5 - f/5.6 without noticing subtle differences.

 

What have folks found?

 

 

best

[prk60091]

I have run some tests according to the feedback received and it seems correct - at wide aperture from f/2.0 all the way to f/5.0 it is very hard to distinguish any differences - it appears to be distinctly sharp at each aperture wide open. (unlike some other lenses and digicams such as S95 i have tested which do have their "sweet spot").

 

I find from f/7.0 onwards, it gets distinctly soft.

 

For example, the attachment below is at f/3.3 and is sharp (from my perspective).

just my life | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

 

Thank-you everyone for comments

 

-k

that is one sharp cat

[Digitom]

I also see really no difference when I look at my pics with different aperture. Sure that mentioned "best aperture" is a theme and worth to diskuxx when we talk about M-lenses, but not in case of compact cameras (beside that I like the possibility of the D-Lux to catch very different (mixed) light conditions in program automatic mode - with every aperture).