Quote Originally Posted by Trowski
at what point does the diffraction actually degrade the image sharpness more than other factors such as hand holding the camera (even with IS)? The advantages of a greater DoF might outweigh a slight loss in sharpness.

There's no hard and fast rule, because 'softness' vs. 'sharpness' depends on what your output will be. Something that looks tack-sharp when posted 800 pixels wide in here may be quite soft if printed at 20x30". You're right that sometimes theadvantages of deeper DoF might outweigh a slight loss in sharpness - it depends on what you're trying to achieve with the image.


If you have an immobile subject, there's a technique called focus stacking that overcomes the limitation by merging the in-focus regions of several images with shallower DoF. There are programs and plugins that automate the process.


Quote Originally Posted by Trowski
On that note, for the first shot, is there enough DoF? I know this is sort of a subjective question,

Yeah, it is. I like the shot the way it is, personally.