Sharpness test

[peter nap]

I had a number of soft to horrible photos using the camera offhand. I am diabetic and have developed a shake when I go without eating. I started suspecting that was the problem but wanted to check my usual walking around lens first. I took this picture at about two feet from a tripod, manual focus with IS off. The light is less than perfect but ....

It looks fine to me, what do you think?
The focus spot is right in the middle



Another one further out

[bob_r]

Peter,

There are charts available that you can shoot to test your lens for focus issues, but I've found that a brick wall shot at a 45 degree angle works prettty well.
Here's one I shot the other day just to make sure that my 100-400 was still spot-on. This works pretty well for me and you might give it a try.

[peter nap]

Thanks Bob!

[Edd]

Okay here's a question that I have been pondering over for sometime but can't answer.

If you look at Bob's shot the in focus part of the shot is a band that runs vertically up and down the image, however in Peter's shot the in focus part of the shot is a band that runs diagonally from bottom left to top right.

Why the difference ?????

I first noticed this when using extension tubes with my Tameron 28 - 80mm, but don't see it otherwise.

Ed

[Farmerj]

If I had to take and Edumacated SWAG.

Curvature of the two surfaces. One's flat, the other is round.

[Edd]

If I had to take and Edumacated SWAG.

Curvature of the two surfaces. One's flat, the other is round.

But I've seen this on flat surfaces as well !!!!

I had considered about the tree being round but wondered if there were any other explanations.

Ed

[larrysch]

Peter - as long as you took the time to use a tripod - turn off the IS - go the extra step and use "mirror lock up"
that will remove some of the camera shake - and of course - if you have it - use a remote Button Release Switch or your camera's timer.

[Bonish Photo]

Peter, sorry to hear you're having troubles with your camera

Another thing you could do, which isnt the best to do, but might help with the issue is to bump up your ISO This will give you faster shutter speeds which will usually give you better, sharper images. Not always a given, but it can help.

As the others have said, use your tripod, use either the self timer or a cable shutter release and the mirror lock-up and if you're still getting blurry images, then I'd send the camera and lens in to be calibrated.

And make sure you recycle that Rotella plastic bottle you found in the yard

[elkhornsun]

I have read technical comments as to why the old 1/focal length minimum shutter speed is not adequate for digital sensor equipped cameras and while I cannot say I understood the logic I have found this to be true when comparing different cameras and lenses. I can hand hold a more massive D3 and use much slower shutter speeds than I can get away with when using a light D300 camera. With a MFT camera and zoom combination which ways a total of 17 ounces and is lighter than most of my DSLR lenses alone, I find I need to use at a minimum twice as fast a shutter speed as with my APS-C and full frame DSLR cameras. It also became obvious that in-camera optical stabilization is no where near as effective as a lens equipped with OS. You might want to move to a few fast f2.8 zooms that make

There are options for how to deal with this with varying costs and degrees of difficulty for use. One is a gyroscopic device such as is used for aerial photography. Further down the cost scale are some of the rigs used for shooting video with a DSLR as they are designed to dampen camera shake which is more noticeable with video. A tripod, or even a monopod can help dramatically if used properly. The last option is to use double your shutter speeds. For a 105mm lens use a shutter speed of 1/200 and stay at 1/125s or faster for all your lenses. With today's ISO 1600+ cameras this last option is relatively painless to implement.

You might want to move to a few fast f2.8 zooms that make it possible to use faster shutter speeds and ones with OS, even if they are from a third party manufacturer like Sigma.

[Amy09]

Peter, sorry to hear you're having troubles with your camera

Another thing you could do, which isnt the best to do, but might help with the issue is to bump up your ISO This will give you faster shutter speeds which will usually give you better, sharper images. Not always a given, but it can help.:

But is it worth is to have a grainier when you bump up the ISO? I shot in the oklahoma native american museum one time, and got really grainy pictures because I bumped my ISO up, it's not always a good first resort. Also, to check focus, another idea is shooting stairs and checking your lenses. I learned this from a guy in Indonesia (back when I was just starting out )