Sigma 17-70 sweet spot

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Mattfeliks

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There have been plenty of threads mentioning the Sigma 17-70mm, and I have just picked one up myself.

I haven't had a proper chance to play with this yet, but am planning to do a few landscapes tomorrow.

With my kit lens I found there wasn't much point going past f/11 - the sharpness wasn't noticably improved at the wide end. But for the Sigma, does anyone have a favourite aperture for landscapes? Would be good to have a few reccos to try out tomorrow.
 
Mattfeliks said:
With my kit lens I found there wasn't much point going past f/11 - the sharpness wasn't noticably improved at the wide end.
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That's probably diffraction caused by the small aperture. Nothing to do with the lens and nothing you can do about it.
 
I use the 17-70, together with my Sigma 10-20 & very rarely go beyond F11, mainly for the defraction reasons already mentioned..on cropped sensors it kicks in around F8 if I remember correctly..

Unless you are sat on top of a foreground feature & require it sharp, F11 as a maximum will serve you well.. most of my shots are taken at F11, a few at F8 is there isn't much foreground (rare for me) and a very limited number at F16 where foreground is very close & very important


Just to add.... I always use some form of support for the camera, normally a monopod as it's easier to carry around (especially up mountains)... together with the inbuilt Image Stabilisation of my DSLR it works very well although when light levels drop quite low a tripod does become pretty much essential.

Simon
 
simonkit said:
I use the 17-70, together with my Sigma 10-20 & very rarely go beyond F11, mainly for the defraction reasons already mentioned..on cropped sensors it kicks in around F8 if I remember correctly..

Unless you are sat on top of a foreground feature & require it sharp, F11 as a maximum will serve you well.. most of my shots are taken at F11, a few at F8 is there isn't much foreground (rare for me) and a very limited number at F16 where foreground is very close & very important


Just to add.... I always use some form of support for the camera, normally a monopod as it's easier to carry around (especially up mountains)... together with the inbuilt Image Stabilisation of my DSLR it works very well although when light levels drop quite low a tripod does become pretty much essential.

Simon
Click to expand...

Thanks for the tips. I have just got hold of a Redsnapper tripod (though I need to get a new head, darn citylink...) which I'm planning to use for all my landscapes.

I'm moving to Vienna in February, so I'd really like to develop my technique this month.

Do you use a sony (on board stabilisation)?
 
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