Ivy (D3200 Test Shot--NOT a 100 percent crop--please view larger)

Here is a 100% crop, unprocessed, hand-held.

It looks soft.  Some of it clearly was not in focus--perhaps none of it was perfectly in focus.  Then there is always some degree of motion with hand-held shots. . . .

--Lannie

Here it is with some processing.

--Lannie

Here is the resized original, which logically should have come first.

The crops above are from slightly left of the middle.

--Lannie

--Lannie

My favourite of your three most recent posts, all tests.  I like this one for the different shades of green and the details found in the leaves.  I suspect this one, like at least one of the others was taken hand held and so may hide the native sharpness inherent in your lens.  Perhaps not fair at screen resolutions but these results are what I would expect from my Canon A540 P&S (no image stabilization). Can you shed some technical details as to shutter speed etc.  I have an interest here as this camera or the D5100 (with kit lens)  is on my radar screen.  Best, LM.

Thanks, Len.  They were all shot hand-held, and this one was shot at f/8, ISO 800, 1/100 sec.

Diffraction might have played a role at f/8, given the pixel density.  I have been told that f/5.3 is about as far as one might want to stop down with this pixel density--that is, before diffraction begins to cause some blurring.   Then again, perhaps being shot hand-held was enough to cause it to be less than super crisp.

I do want to get some shots with a tripod, to see what the sensor is really capable of.

These eight shots were made in quick succession just to see how the metering did, especially on the dappled part of the lawn.  That was all that I was testing here, and all eight were made for a post on the Nikon forum.  I did cut away from the lawn at times to find dark subjects and light subjects.

Thanks for dropping by.

--Lannie

Len, I meant f/5.6, although in truth I am not sure where they are getting these numbers.  There are something like 6000 x 4000 pixels on each side of the sensor.  (That product does give 24 million, so those numbers are close.)

That would give 6000 pixels/24mm = ~250 pixels/mm along the long side (approx. but not quite 24mm). 

At what point do diffraction effects begin?  I do not know, but surely the pixel density on a sensor approximately 24mm x 16mm is surely pushing the limit.

Now, at what point in terms of f-stop this all becomes unworkable is not obvious to me, but I am sure that somebody has done the numbers.

--Lannie

Re: A540 expected results.  Of course I meant the original post, not the 100% crop results.   Re: diffraction, I think most lenses produce their best sharpness about 2 stops from wide open so, about f11 for your lens in telephoto mode.  Then diffraction kicks in to some degree, increasing until your smallest aperture is reached.  Could well vary from lens to lens.  If you can imagine a Bell Curve with max. resolution reached at the apex and falling off to either side.  In practice I think too much weight is given to it but then it also depends on the photographer's tolerance for (obsession with?) fine details.  Some shots demand the utmost sharpness, some not so much.  To satisfy yourself do some TRIPOD mounted tests on a contrasty subject with fine details (brick wall?)  & vary only the aperture.  Use the self timer or a cable release to eliminate camera shake. Should tell you what you want to know.   Best, LM.