There’s this famous urban legend about a woman who has a lump growing on the side of her face and when she finally goes to the doctor, he cuts it open with a scalpel and millions of baby spiders crawl all over her face. Then there’s the other urban legend about F8 being the sharpest f-stop on every lens. The first was made up to scare the crap out of us about spiders and the second may have been true for lenses built last century, but certainly doesn’t apply to digital lenses. The truth is not all lenses are created equal and the “sweet spot” or aperture setting that will create the sharpest image will vary from lens to lens. (If you really want to geek out on this subject and find out the science behind lens sharpness, check out Ken Rockwell’s blog) So here’s the non techy lowdown...