relying on sharpening later....

[photobuff]

I have had my Canon 20D for about a month and a 1/2 now and I have a 50/1.8 lense as well as a 70-200mm 2.8L IS. I previously had the 300D for around a year and I seem to be coming up with slightly softer images than I had hoped for....not BAD but for having my sharpness parimeter turned up on "tilt", I would think that would turn my images OVERLY sharp. PS elements helps a ton with certain tools(unmask sharp and quick fix focus) but I was wondering if most people rely on the PS, or other software,to bail them out on this issue.
I read a link on another thread in this section on favorite sharpening tools and it talked about smart sharpening. The first couple of paragraphs seemed to blame digital format for being the culprit of having slighly soft images when shooting. Is there anyone that never fools with their sharpening??? Just curious.

Thanks,
Steve

[GyRob]

your not alone on this one i too found the image's soft Not what i hoped for haveing upgraded from the 300d- most shots have to be sharpend in a photo program im not saying you can't get a sharp straight from camera shot but not many i tried lots of in camera settings some are better than others but none better than Ps . the camera is great but also a big dissapointment thats my view.
Rob.

[photobuff]

Hmmmmm.....thanks for your input, Rob. You know, I spent some good money for this L lense and it makes you wonder if it was worth it. Should have just bought Photshop CS and an average lense and still had money left over. Seems like the real magic happens in processing.......
Open for more opinions.

Steve

[tim]

I didn't notice any improvement in sharpness when I upgraded from the 300D to the 20D, and none was expected. First you need to check your lenses and camera are focusing correctly, for example with ruler test (ruler sits on a shelf/table at 30-45 degrees to the camera, focus on the middle, see what's sharp in the photo). Next try sharpness on different parameter settings, and tweak your own. It could be that your preference leans towards lots of sharpening in software.

[photobuff]

Thanks, Tim...I fumbled through my desk and can't find a friggin' ruler...I have seen this done on the forums before. I will have to try that tomorrow and post what I found.
Is there a specific mode I should be shooting in? AV mode? I will try it with my 50/1.8.......what apreture does this test normally use?

Thanks,

Steve

[robertwgross]

The degree of sharpening that is optimum depends on the resolution of the original image and the size of the finished image, e.g. the size of the print.

The camera doesn't know what size the finished image is going to be, so whatever you force the camera to do automatically may be suboptimal. Doing the sharpening in post-processing allows a lot more flexibility.

---Bob Gross---

[photobuff]

Interesting point, Bob. Thanks for the post. I did the ruler test with my 50/1.8 lense...ruler being at a 45 degree angle, focusing the center AF point on the "6", and used some spread out Apreture settings(1.8, 4.0, 5.6, 8.0, and 11) and the area of focus moved progressively down the ruler like it should. The pics were done handheld but the shutter speed was fast enough to confidently rule out camera shake. I took them at work in a quality control lab so the lighting obviously is top notch. Just seems like the OVERALL sharpness of the picture is slightly inferior.
I am kicking around the idea I am losing some quality when my pics are DL'ing to the computer....pics nice on the LCD but "so so" on the computer. I have always been sceptical of this since day one that I downloaded the software to it.
With the 300D, I went through a different transfer process with that camera and had magazine quality results in the "preview" section of the software and finished results...and that was with the kit lense!!!. It relied on the actual software with the camera to order the transfer of the image .I have Windows XP Home Edition and how I get my pics to the comp with the 20D is:

Right click "START" button
Click EXPLORE
goto the camera icon and the file that reads "EOS 20D" next to it and click on the file
open most recent pic file
left click on picture to view, which takes you to crappy "WINDOWS FAX AND MEDIA VEIWER"
right click and choose "SAVE UNDER MY PICTURES"
(view in PAINT or PS Elements)

Is this how anyone tranfers their pics??? BTW, I take pics in JPEG large fine. If not, how are YOU doing it?

Thanks for letting me confuse you all;)

Steve

[robertwgross]

Steve, two things here:

1. It sounds like you are attaching your 20D to the computer via USB cable. That may be possible, but you will eventually decide to use a card reader.
2. It sounds like you may be shooting JPEG files. That is certainly possible, and many choose that for convenience. Eventually, you may decide to try RAW files. You can salvage more out of mistakes that way.

---Bob Gross---

[gastroboy]

how I get my pics to the comp with the 20D is:

Right click "START" button
Click EXPLORE
goto the camera icon and the file that reads "EOS 20D" next to it and click on the file
open most recent pic file
left click on picture to view, which takes you to crappy "WINDOWS FAX AND MEDIA VEIWER"
right click and choose "SAVE UNDER MY PICTURES"
(view in PAINT or PS Elements)

Is this how anyone tranfers their pics??? BTW, I take pics in JPEG large fine. If not, how are YOU doing it?

Thanks for letting me confuse you all;)

Steve[/QUOTE]

god no....you are saving your camera jpgs with windows fax and media viewer???? no wonder the pictures are so-so... you have a 20D right?

just use the EOSviewer utility that came with the camera CD or alternatively when you go to the explorer and camera icon, just drag the XXXCanon folders into where ever you store your picutres....there is no need to re-save them with anything else....unless you shoot raw then you have to use the other software to conver them.

[GyRob]

You really need a usb 2 cf card reader ,it saves a lot of messing around they are cheap to buy and easy to use .
Rob.

[PhotosGuy]

Is there a specific mode I should be shooting in? AV mode? I will try it with my 50/1.8.......what apreture does this test normally use? You should really only need to shoot one pic at maximum aperature. This is an unsharpened crop shot with the 300D, 28-70 f/2.8 at 70mm & f/2.8, & processed from RAW. Just seems like the OVERALL sharpness of the picture is slightly inferior. I missed where you said what mode you were shooting in? RAW does NOT sharpen in the cam, so you have to do that in PS (RawShooter defaults to some sharpening - you have to watch out for that!). You can choose to sharpen a JPG in the cam depending what mode you have set. See page 55-57 of the 300D manual. I am kicking around the idea I am losing some quality when my pics are DL'ing to the computer....pics nice on the LCD but "so so" on the computer.
1. NEVER go by what the lcd looks like. Use it for composition only & the histogram for exposure settings.
2. You don't " I am losing some quality when my pics are DL'ing to the computer", but you could lose the pics on the card if it's writing when the battery goes flat! Get a card reader.
Good luck.