Stopping down a lens increases depth of field, but past a certain aperture the light bends around the shrinking hole and spreads out, softening fine detail across the whole frame. This is diffraction, and it sets a practical limit on how far you should close the aperture. This calculator estimates the diffraction limited aperture for your camera from the sensor size and its megapixel count, which together give the pixel pitch. When the blur disc from diffraction grows larger than a pixel, you start losing sharpness at full resolution. Enter your sensor and resolution, and it returns the aperture where diffraction becomes visible and a recommended sharpest working aperture to stay under. Smaller sensors and denser pixel counts hit this limit sooner, which is why phone cameras use fixed wide apertures. Use it to pick the crispest f-stop for a shot. All the math runs in your browser with nothing sent to a server.
Stopping down a lens increases depth of field, but past a certain aperture the light bends around the shrinking hole and spreads out, softening fine detail across the whole frame. This is diffraction, and it sets a practical limit on how far you should close the aperture.
Yes. Diffraction Limit Calculator is completely free, with no sign-up and no usage limits.
Yes. Diffraction Limit Calculator runs in any modern web browser. There is nothing to download or install.
Yes. Diffraction Limit Calculator runs entirely on your device in your browser, so nothing you enter is uploaded to a server.