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The little red spider (mite?) in the lower right would be an interesting subject too!
I'm jealous you have an L - My macro is limited to a very cheap quantary 70-300. (I'd rather have the range to get my kids on the field or swimming - with some distortion - than just have a ten pixel blob in the middle of the frame). Anyway - not the sharpest lens in the world, but I'll maybe post some recent shots for critique.
Yes, as you stop down, diffraction begins causing a loss of sharpness, minimal at first, but it can be bad if you stop your lens way down.
From my experience with my Nikon D70, I find that my lenses are at their sharpest at f/stops in the range of f/5.6 to f/8, but I don't usually hesitate to go to f/16, Unsharp Masking can improve things significantly if you know what you're doing. I will go to f/22 if I really, really need the depth of field but I try not to ever use f/stops smaller than that. I found a good illustration of what diffraction does on a Flickr page, see that at [ame]http://www.flickr.com/photos/lordv/2655235152/[/ame] . For an explanation of how diffraction works, check out http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tut...hotography.htm .
Yes, as you stop down, diffraction begins causing a loss of sharpness, minimal at first, but it can be bad if you stop your lens way down.
From my experience with my Nikon D70, I find that my lenses are at their sharpest at f/stops in the range of f/5.6 to f/8, but I don't usually hesitate to go to f/16, Unsharp Masking can improve things significantly if you know what you're doing. I will go to f/22 if I really, really need the depth of field but I try not to ever use f/stops smaller than that. I found a good illustration of what diffraction does on a Flickr page, see that at http://www.flickr.com/photos/lordv/2655235152/ . For an explanation of how diffraction works, check out http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tut...hotography.htm .
John
Thanks for the explanation, John.
It's worth adding that the f-stop sweet spot varies with sensor size. The larger the sensor, the smaller the aperture you can go to before diffraction softening becomes an issue. And vice-versa, which is why many smaller sensor cameras, especially compacts, are optimised to work at full aperture, something experienced photographers with bigger cameras would usually avoid unless they wanted a very limited depth of field for effect, usually.
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