F8 is sharp. Even on a kit lens.
I'm rather proud of this photo, not because it s a particularly good photo, but because I took it on manual. And I dont just mean manually choosing the settings. I mean Discarding all the advantages of digital. For a whole day I set my camera to shoot black and white jpgs. I normally only shoot in raw but I shot in jpg because black and white raw files are recorded with colour. Also raw files have a bit of headroom and can be used in post to expose the photo slightly better. I didnt want this. Also I switched off Auto Focus and I didn't review my images (ok, I did a few times during the day but shh).
It was a learning experience and it was kinda fun too. At the end of the day, when i was looking through my photos, i had a distinct sense of satisfaction that I haven't had before. It was nice. I never learned photography. So I never did any of that film stuff that most photography students do. I recommend you should do what I did. Try using your digital camera if as if it were a film one. If only for a bit. I know it sounds kinda counter intuitive but you never know, you might even like it.