topic Re: Depth of field for video loss of sharpness with EOS 70D, 18-55 zoom lens in EOS DSLR & Mirrorless Cameras

Depth of field for video loss of sharpness with EOS 70D, 18-55 zoom lens

moonlight33 — Fri, 10 Apr 2026 03:31:02 GMT

Hi everyone, I've been on this forum previously for this matter but asking specifically if there are any options I'm missing? Thank you! Shooting video of natural scenes outdoors with Canon 70D, 18-55 zoom lens. I am shooting intentionally at 24 fps and using 50/sec and holding my aperture between 8-11, because I've been advised here that the loss of sharpness is that this lens should only be set at F11 max, to hold sharpness. My problem is that the depth of field is not enough and the final outcome is really limited. I do need more depth of field, and focus about a third into the distance of the scene. Do I need a better lens that will allow F22, etc.? Also, does anyone have a suggestion for the best color setting...such as neutral, or faithful, or.....? Depth of field is quite important for my project. Even with a lens filter to deal with sunny conditions, (on my list to buy) it wouldn't solve the problem of depth of field if I cannot close down the lens past F11. Your responses will be so helpful, thank you!

Re: Depth of field for video loss of sharpness with EOS 70D, 18-55 zoom lens

stevet1 — Fri, 10 Apr 2026 05:02:10 GMT

moonlight33,

The loss of sharpness that comes with apertures higher than f/11 (say the f/22 that you mentioned) is the result of diffraction - or the light passing through a small hole. It's a matter of physics.

Another downside is that at f/22, you are going to lose a lot of light that you will have to compensate for by either slowing down your shutter speed, or by raising your ISO.

As far as Picture Quality settings, you might be interested in this article:

https://www.linkedin.com/advice/0/what-best-picture-styles-controls-enhancing-video-quality

Basically, it says it depends on what you are shooting. For Landscapes, it recommends the Landscape Picture Quality.

Steve Thomas

Re: Depth of field for video loss of sharpness with EOS 70D, 18-55 zoom lens

moonlight33 — Fri, 10 Apr 2026 07:05:27 GMT

Thank you so much for your reply. The problem I have is that the landscapes I am shooting are sunny and too light, so I need to shut down the f-stop. I do not yet have the proper filter to compensate, so I am shooting the video with 24 FPS, 50/sec and F11. I am over exposing which I can only avoid with a filter. I cannot go higher than F11 because I was told the loss of sharpness was caused by this lens..yet, I need the F22 for more depth of field. I have been shooting at the lowest possible 100 ISO. Is there anything I can do to get the depth of field I need with this lens?

Thank you!!

Re: Depth of field for video loss of sharpness with EOS 70D, 18-55 zoom lens

Waddizzle — Fri, 10 Apr 2026 10:16:10 GMT

“ I am shooting intentionally at 24 fps and using 50/sec and holding my aperture between 8-11, because I've been advised here that the loss of sharpness is that this lens should only be set at F11 max, to hold sharpness. “

“ Thank you so much for your reply. The problem I have is that the landscapes I am shooting are sunny and too light, so I need to shut down the f-stop. I do not yet have the proper filter to compensate, so I am shooting the video with 24 FPS, 50/sec and F11. “

I really don’t understand your DOF concerns when you are shooting landscapes. When you focus on landscapes, the focus point should be sufficiently far away from the camera that DOF is a moot point.

I suggest that you purchase an ND filter set.

Re: Depth of field for video loss of sharpness with EOS 70D, 18-55 zoom lens

jrhoffman75 — Fri, 10 Apr 2026 10:23:48 GMT

@moonlight33 wrote:

Thank you so much for your reply. The problem I have is that the landscapes I am shooting are sunny and too light, so I need to shut down the f-stop. I do not yet have the proper filter to compensate, so I am shooting the video with 24 FPS, 50/sec and F11. I am over exposing which I can only avoid with a filter. I cannot go higher than F11 because I was told the loss of sharpness was caused by this lens..yet, I need the F22 for more depth of field. I have been shooting at the lowest possible 100 ISO. Is there anything I can do to get the depth of field I need with this lens?

Thank you!!

There can be a loss of sharpness due to diffraction at small apertures. There can be a loss of sharpness with insufficient depth of field with too large an aperture.

You can use a DoF calculator to determine if focusing at a different distance can help.

You can also just do a test yourself. Set the lens at f/22 and see if the image is sharp enough.

You can use this tool to evaluate.

The loss of sharpness due to insufficient DoF could be much greater than the effect of diffraction.

Re: Depth of field for video loss of sharpness with EOS 70D, 18-55 zoom lens

stevet1 — Fri, 10 Apr 2026 14:23:26 GMT

moonlight33,

Yeah, at 1/50th of a second, you are letting in a lot of light. A lot of videographers will use a 3 stop neutral density filter to offset that. You are right in thinking that a larger f/stop number would help, but I just don't think that using f/22 is the way to go. Your better bet is to bide your time and shoot later in the day or earlier in the morning when conditions are not so sunny until your filters arrive.

You could shoot at 30fps and 1/60th and that might help a little, but only a little.

That's just my opinion.

Steve Thomas

Re: Depth of field for video loss of sharpness with EOS 70D, 18-55 zoom lens

moonlight33 — Fri, 10 Apr 2026 19:07:48 GMT

Thank you to everyone, yes, I previously shot the same scene at F22 and the softness was unusable, quite perplexing. I used to shoot film (photos) with a Canon system/ 28-105 lens and the DoF was whatever I needed it to be...the lens was responsive to my settings. With this digital system lens(which I am relatively new to in comparison) isn't allowing for the DoF that I require. Admittedly, it isn't a very expensive lens. But I am focusing about a third into the scene, as is my usual practice, but the setting is quite expansive... into the distance and I cannot get even a reasonable expanse at the sharpness that I wish for this video. Will the filter do anything to ameliorate this in general? I did shoot this latest setting at 6 p.m. and it was overcast! I'm not able to understand the graph. Thank you again for info.

Re: Depth of field for video loss of sharpness with EOS 70D, 18-55 zoom lens

moonlight33 — Fri, 10 Apr 2026 19:08:55 GMT

Will the filters do anything for the sharpness? I shot this latest video at 6 p.m. on an overcast day!

Re: Depth of field for video loss of sharpness with EOS 70D, 18-55 zoom lens

jrhoffman75 — Fri, 10 Apr 2026 19:21:40 GMT

Can you post a link to a One Drive or Dropbox file of your video?

Are you using a tripod or gimbal?

Re: Depth of field for video loss of sharpness with EOS 70D, 18-55 zoom lens

stevet1 — Fri, 10 Apr 2026 20:37:33 GMT

moonlight33,

No. A filter won't do anything about the sharpness n your photos or videos. It's just like your camera is wearing sunglasses.

From what I have read, lenses are at their sharpest about 2 stops down from their widest aperture.

Steve Thomas

Re: Depth of field for video loss of sharpness with EOS 70D, 18-55 zoom lens

moonlight33 — Fri, 10 Apr 2026 20:46:37 GMT

The latest video shoot (which I am going to re-shoot!)...looks embarrassingly poor...obviously over-exposed, despite fixing it in post...still obviously flawed. Trying to figure out the best filter brand to purchase. I'm using a tripod.There wasn't any wind issue this shoot...do have a weight on it and propped it against a sturdy fence as well. I just cannot understand how my film camera lens was so simple in regard to DoF. Thank you for feedback, I am going to also test out with another fps setting this afternoon. My instinct tells me the overexposure may be part of this.

Re: Depth of field for video loss of sharpness with EOS 70D, 18-55 zoom lens

moonlight33 — Fri, 10 Apr 2026 20:51:27 GMT

Funny! Thank you. 3.5-5.6 is what the lens specs are (18-55).

Re: Depth of field for video loss of sharpness with EOS 70D, 18-55 zoom lens

jrhoffman75 — Fri, 10 Apr 2026 21:20:23 GMT

Do you understand what that spec means?

it means that as you zoom from 18-55 the widest aperture changes from f/3.5 to f/5.6.
Does your camera have an auto video setting? If so try that and at least verify that a proper video can be achieved.

What you are describing is not a diffraction issue.

Re: Depth of field for video loss of sharpness with EOS 70D, 18-55 zoom lens

Waddizzle — Sat, 11 Apr 2026 13:54:52 GMT

I agree with John’s reasoning. You said rhat you focus one third of the way into the field of view. That’s good advice. This chart and illustration help to explain why one would do that.

Re: Depth of field for video loss of sharpness with EOS 70D, 18-55 zoom lens

moonlight33 — Mon, 13 Apr 2026 01:34:03 GMT

I will do some more auto testing and evaluate again, thank you for the suggestion.

Re: Depth of field for video loss of sharpness with EOS 70D, 18-55 zoom lens

moonlight33 — Mon, 13 Apr 2026 06:49:03 GMT

Hello again, thank you for your expertise as I try to do the best with the equipment that I have. I went back into my files to evaluate the settings and found that I had indeed shot a few video clips with the auto setting. I reviewed both clips side to side and created a new project in iMovie in order to set the saturation, levels, contrast, etc. as close as possible for a good comparison. The conclusion is frustrating. The auto settings did not provide forensics of shutter speed or aperture which was used (which they do for my manual settings in the camera), and the sharpness with the depth of field was a bit improved. So, obviously a bit more DoF was achieved, but minimal. It was as if it was a bit more sharp in what was available, but more distance was not necessarily achieved. Next, the video was more choppy of the ocean and birds, with noticeable static/electronic jittering on the water, leading me to believe that 50 shutter speed was not used. My manual settings, obviously over exposed from lack of a filter, was set at 50 and F-stop had been pushed to F16, which was beyond what I knew I should be doing to maintain the best sharpness. In the next scenic shoot, similar setting but early evening, I still was overexposing without a filter but limited my F-stop to F10, to achieve better sharpness. I cannot say for sure that I achieved more sharpness, ...it seems pleasing, but not at all the depth of field which I hoped to attain. I know from the previous mistakes that when I attempted F22 it was not successful. Is this the result of my lens only? If so, by purchasing a zoom (which is needed for my projects) but a higher quality (wider aperture), will I succeed? My background is film photography, I'm not versed in digital tech lenses or video, so your input is wonderful, thank you!

Re: Depth of field for video loss of sharpness with EOS 70D, 18-55 zoom lens

moonlight33 — Tue, 14 Apr 2026 00:47:41 GMT

Hi again, I responded to the Waddizzle post regarding the auto setting. Thank you so much for your help.