Is there an ideal Fstop ( or a range of Fstops) for taking great landscape photos?

Spencer Heidtbrink: the old timers ,were called F/64 er,s because they used an extremely small f/stop f/64, for out side photos, this allow for very slow exposures ,which gave the black and white film of their time ,very fine grain and sharp details, look up Weston and his photos of Yosemite park

Christy Tirabassi: All lenses have what is called a "sweet spot" in the aperture range. It will always start at about 2 stops down from wide open. Typically though, ANY lens will give it's best sharpness in the f8 to f11 range. With a wide angle lens, which is most typically used for landscapes, even an f11 aperture can give very good depth of field. If you find you are needing more DOF, just start closing down the aperture a stop at a time until you get what you need. Another alternative is to only use the sharpest aperture, such as f8 and use photo "stacking" with the proper software to achieve sharp DOF in the entire photo. You take several photos with your focus point a! t different areas of the scene. The photos are then combined into one with full sharpness from foreground to background. Helicon makes this software. http://www.heliconsoft.com/heliconfocus.htmlsteve...Show more

George Dingeldein: I tend to use f/8 or f/11. If you have a lot of detail in the foreground, try f/22.

Cody Shimko: Well, Ansel Adams was a great fan of f/64 and even started a F-64 club.. However, you won't find many lenses with f/64 these days... Especially on hand held cameras..Different lenses have different "sweet spots" in them. Some are in focus, some are in f/stop range and some are both. This is often discovered 1 of 2 ways. Either you know what your looking for and find it (and can see the difference) and the other is you shoot enuf to notice some pics look better than others and wonder why, and go looking....The focus indicator, whether in feet or meters is just a "scale" and are approximate settings and can not be trusted. F/stops ARE solid ! settings and can be re-produced rather accurately. Not saying ! they are 'true' but at least they usually have click stops and can be re-set to the same setting..Most can't see the difference. Most don't care, and find it too big of a pain to bother..Often, but not always, f/5.6 is a good start. Again, you would need to do a few controlled test shots, using tripod, camera's self timer (to avoid any shake) and your lens. USE manual.. and take a few test shots at different f/stops on a manually focused "item" and check on your screen for subtle changes when home. Change only the shutter speeds and f/stops (to get the proper exposure) and do NOT re-adjust the focus..I know, this is more work than most wanna go thru today. Most everyone want everything just given to them it seems but trial and error with your lens or lenses is the only way to find out. Common logic says a small f/stop (f/16~22) is sharper, but no, it isn't. Focus is STILL the function of the lens.. NOT the f/stop setting. Depth of field (DOF) is controlled by the f/stops..! ...Show more