Hi,
I was reading the following (to me very interesting) thread on dp:
nikon D3x :" is this what it's all about?" [Page 1]: Nikon D3 - D1 / D700 Forum: Digital Photography Review
It is an interesting story about a D3 user who bought a D3x, expecting to buy the best available camera in the market.
He is a jewellery photographer, who needs lots of DOF, so he uses f40.
The D3xs results were so much worse than the D3 results, that he returned the D3x to the shop (with a loss).
The rest of the thread is about the fact that this photographer ran into the diffraction limits of the D3x higher sensor pixel count (smaller pixels actually).
A D3x just cannot handle f40, due to the diffraction because of the high pixel count!
There are several references to other Internet sources on the subject of diffraction.
One being:
Diffraction Limited Photography: Pixel Size, Aperture and Airy Disks
It has a diffraction limitation calculator...
I filled in the diffraction calculator for my planned K-5 purchase. Assuming:
Maximum print size: 30 cm (appr. A4 paper size / my PC screen size)
Viewing distance: 25 cm
Resolution: 16 Mega pixels
Camera type: DSLR 1.5X
After trying several apertures, the calculator shows that the images will be diffraction limited starting from F16!!
If you want to see the impact of diffraction, there is a link to:
Understanding Lens Diffraction in the thread as well.
Would a K-5 with only 10Mpixels not have been better??
Or should we all have to move to FF for 16 Mpixels in order to be able to use F22??
- Bert