10D sharpness & focus - a different take

[boBquincy]

I have tested my 10D and proven to myself that although it does (sometimes?) slightly front-focus it is not a problem.
I went to the NC zoo last weekend and took a lot of photos with my 10D and 70-200 f4, mostly in RAW. After downloading, some of the photos appeared to have 'front-focus syndrome' while others appeared just soft overall.
An almost identical photo (of a cougar) I took in March (with my D30) appeared obviously sharper! Wtf?

Now I probably have as many photos of rulers & test charts as the rest of the group, some pretty artistic, and no, I will not post them! ;) I *could not* manually improve on the auto focus, ever! So what's the story with my 10D?

Canon claims that the camera is setup to focus precisely enough for a sharp print at normal viewing distance. Ok Canon, impress me! So I made a print (S9000) of the 10D photo, still appearing less sharp on the monitor than the D30 photo even after mild (150/0.6/1) sharpening. The print was clearly sharper than the D30 print, and yes, I am impressed!

But still confused... ;)
But happy with my 10D...


boB

[slejhamer]

Hi boB,
I too have noticed that my 10D images are much sharper in print than they appear on my monitor, and others have made similar comments on this forum. I assume that my tired 5-year old monitor is the problem, but I don't know for sure.
Cheers,

[lightandlife]

There is no real difference in sharpness between prints and monitors. However, there is difference in perceived sharpness between the two. The print media will fill holes and make prints look smoother, whereas the CRT will present a bunch of dots. LDC monitor will appear to give you sharper pictures.

If your camera is frontfocusing, have it fixed.

I noticed mine front focuses under low light conditions. After experiments, I noticed that frontfocusing occurs when there is not enough light and a flash is needed (i.e., when exposure is longer than 1/60 second). If there is more light than that, it produces sharp pictures. Of course, I got rid of the UV filter now.

[AJSJones]

slejhamer wrote:
Hi boB,
I too have noticed that my 10D images are much sharper in print than they appear on my monitor, and others have made similar comments on this forum. I assume that my tired 5-year old monitor is the problem, but I don't know for sure.
Cheers,

I just replaced a 5yo monitor but not for sharpness reasons - for brightness and color balance reasons!

When you take into account that most monitors don't go much above 100 ppi, and that prints are commonly 240 ppi or greater, it should not be a surprise! Make a print at 100 ppi (or 96 or whatever your monitor shows) and then make the comparison. The reverse is also true : if you use 100% view to assess the effects of sharpening for printing, what will end up looking terrific in the print can look downright ugly on the monitor. Check out some of the PKSharpener output sharpening routines - they gave me a whole new appreciation for how misleading a monitor view can be with regard to how the print will look!

Andy