Tuesday, December 6, 2011

How do I decide the best aperture to use with my Canon 18-200mm lens and 50D?

Question

I am using a Canon 50D with the 18-200mm lens it came with. Some of my pictures turn out un-sharp, even taking metering and Auto Focus points into consideration. I wonder if this is caused by my aperture selection.

What is the best aperture to use and how do I decide? Does the range (focal length) I am shooting make a difference?

Answer

It depends on the available light and how much DOF you want. But as an overall recommendation you can use f/8.0 to f/11.0. An aperture faster than f/8.0 produces soft corners and an aperture beyond f/11.0 starts to produce soft images due to diffraction.

I guess you're shooting in Aperture Priority (Av) mode, try getting used to other modes like Shutter Priority (Tv) and Manual (M) as well.

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