Sharpening - in camera or on PC?

[puttick]

My understanding is that some sharpening is performed in the camera. As default this is set to "neutral" which must mean "some sharpening" with the alternatives being "weak", presumably no sharpening, or "strong", more sharpening. I have been unable to discover whether this only applies to JPEG images, or is also used for RAW files, though I cannot see why this would be needed.

So, which is preferable:

(1) to set this to "weak" and use software sharpening after downloading to the PC, on the basis of having as "pure" an image as possible in the first instance, or

(2) use the in-camera sharpening routine?

So far, I have left it set to "neutral", and I think I can see minimal sharpening artefacts in my images (large, fine JPEGs) when viewed in Photoshop.

Your opinions, experience, or evidence would be welcome!

Thanks, Nigel

[Don Ellis]

Hi Nigel,

Very definitely, set your in-camera sharpening to neutral or low for both JPG and RAW and do your work in Photoshop.

Don

[johneb2]

Nigel,
Leave the sharpening in neutral mode. For any corrections, use the pc software to adjust. A little tip to remember though is to keep a copy of your original picture when altering it via software! When I first started, I made that mistake several times. Now, I copy all the pictures to a separate location as a precaution. John B.