Image quality

[seamansroost]

I took my brand new 10D and 24-70L to Yosemite last weekend. I shot all high res jpegs, iso 100, auto white balance, program mode and let it do it's thing. I saw about 40 10D's and two 1Ds's there on saturday. Some areas looked like a press conference. Anyway I am new to digital and did my best.
Mostly on composition as I wanted the camera to do the exposures. As it turns out a friend from work went there too at the same exact time (whithin 15 min) He took a 4 MP sharp digital with a canon lens, (cost $288.00).
We did not know each other went. On Monday morning he plops 8 photo prints on my desk, I had three of my own. Anyway his photos were sooo much nicer right out of the box. Sharper, way better WB, better saturation and they had cut through the haze much better wth no filter. I asked him what he did and he said "I clicked and printed" he dosen't know photography a all technically speaking. I spent hours on Photoshop after the fact and he did nothing and his still were WAY BETTER. $2800.00 vs $288.00. What am I missing? What did I do wrong? Please help if you can.

[henkbos]

It's like telling a doctor you have pain without explaining where! Show us some examples with full EXIF data. In general: ALL pictures need post processing BUT some compacts might have 'internal' processing.

[yogad]

Ok, here is a question.

The out-of-the-box models like the G-series, or sony's cameras make great, really sharp pix.

Not always true with my much more expensive 10D.

Now is that because the 10D gives me what I see, and what I took, not necessarily giving what I want, whereas the out-of-the-box models fix up the pix for me to give me what it thinks I want, and not necessarily what I saw?

Make sense?

YogaD

[Agent_Modder]

yogad wrote:
Ok, here is a question.

The out-of-the-box models like the G-series, or sony's cameras make great, really sharp pix.

Not always true with my much more expensive 10D.

Now is that because the 10D gives me what I see, and what I took, not necessarily giving what I want, whereas the out-of-the-box models fix up the pix for me to give me what it thinks I want, and not necessarily what I saw?

Make sense?

YogaD


Couldn't agree more. what I feel is that 10D gives a very natural image very close to what my eyes saw at the scene. I have seen so many over sharpen, highly contrast pic from many digital cam which I personally don't like. My comment is spend more time with 10D and I believe you will love it as I do.

[diyjoe]

I've had various 35mm EOS cameras over the years and had been toying with the idea of going digital, but had been resisting the temptation to buy a 'cheap' digital camera, opting instead to wait until I could afford a good SLR.

I went for the 10D for all the reasons you seem to be dissappointed with it - I don't want my images levelled and sharpened before I even get a chance to look at them. For me, the camera is a tool to capture the best 'base' image possible, which isn't going to fall over when I start manipulating it.

There's no shame in not getting the best results when you print a completely un-manipulated image - in the old days we used an enlarger, multigrade filters, and dodging and burning to get the best out of an image. Now we use PhotoShop to get what we want out of an image (which thankfully doesn't involve any dodgy chemicals).

Sure, for 10% of the price you can get a camera which will make better prints straight from the camera with no photoshoppery, but will that camera allow you to blow an image up to a massive size? Does it use 16-bit channels?

Hope that helps!

http://www.diyjoe.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/photoprojects/index.html

[yogad]

Dont get me wrong...I am not dissapointed with the results of the 10D. I was just used to my old G1. Now I have to really know what I am doing to get great prints. Maybe a little painful at first...but I am sure I will be better off in the long run!

[SV650]

Like I said in another thread -- I'm really disappointed with the 10D. Same lenses as my Elan IIe. Very soft images. First, I thought it was my focus so I shot some bright light stuff at small aperatures. I've been a photographer for 50 years. Images from my old D30 are shaper. This camera has a problem.

[Andy_T]

Seamansroost,

one thing you should try is shooting the pics in RAW mode instead of JPG.

Gives you the possibility to change the WB later.

Regards,
Andy