New 350D user, blurry pics??

[Wasiq]

I just noticed after a few days of using this camera, even in bright daylight my pictures are coming out blurry for some reason, heres an example, the pic, and then a wheel crop and plate crop from the orig size pic:

http://incyteassociates.com/IMG_1376_resize.JPG

http://incyteassociates.com/IMG_1376w.jpg

http://incyteassociates.com/plate%20crop.jpg



Can anyone please tell me what I am doing wrong? These pics were taken in either P or Auto I can't remeber, but even my Canon S30 pics arent this blurry in Auto mode.

[TheObiJuan]

That's not blurry, it's just soft. Are you using the kit lens?
What are you shooting at? The kit lens doesn't do so hot at smaller apertures. It seems like you have a lot of DOF so it must be small. I wouldn't worry about the softness, it won't show in smaller prints.
A little USM in PS will fix it btw.

[Mohawk]

Look fine to me too. Your 350D is not a point and shoot camera. You normally, almost always, will need to do some sharpening on the images. Read your manual and see about in camera sharpening settings. That may give you your desired results. And then there are the aperture settings as Obi said. You might want to pick up a photography book and do some studying, there is allot to learn.

Mike

[CRE@TE]

Try taking the picture at a lower ISO, I see you took it at ISO 400.

[CRE@TE]

Also, set the camera to the highest resolution. The EXIF i get from your pictures tell the story of your settings.

[Rob612]

Yup, that's an interesting question... why buying a 8 MP camera for taking 1024x682 pics ??

[Wasiq]

The pic is resized...the orig is 3456x2304. Yea I know I need to use to manual settings for better pictures, but I just expected better pictures than this in Auto and P mode. I got the camera and I want my mom to be able to use it too, she can't use any manual stuff so she would only be able to use auto mode, but I was kinda worried about the pictures this thing is giving.

[Osman Olgen]

I would suggest largeet possible f number, smallest iso and max resolution. With small f, you will have smaller depth of field and can't have all areas clear. That's quite normal in my opinion. Another thing is your shutter speed. If longer than 1/60, for a very very clear shot, you need to use a tripod.

[Jack W.]

I just opened your first pic in Photoshop, gave it some USM, and it sharpened up beautifully.
Jack

[Mark_48]

One thing you may want to look at if you're using P mode, is the menu item "Parameters". Here you can set how the camera records the image. One setting will give images that are a bit sharper and more vivid, while the other will subdue the colors a bit and be slightly less sharp. In the Auto mode this is automatically set for the more sharper and vivid setting.

[Andy_T]

Just some thoughts ...

- the pic is great IMO for the kit lens
- ISO 400 is very decent, I normally use ISO 800 as standard for cloudy days
- f/10 is sufficient for DOF as well
- all that is missing is some sharpening.

Best regards,
Andy

[Jim_T]

I agree.. there's nothing basically wrong with the shot.. It just needs sharpening. As Jack W. did.. I downloaded it and applied a bit of sharpening.. It looks great.

As Mark_48 indicates.. If you normally shoot JPEG, you can bump up the sharpen, contrast and saturation in the menu so you don't have to do as much post processing and your pictures will look more like what you get from the average point and shoot.

As far as the license plate sharpness is concerned..... Forget the camera....... What lens are you using ? ..... You have to realize the LENS is what creates the picture.. The camera just records what the lens sees. The kit lens is good, but limited... Better lenses will result in sharper images. There's a reason the kit lens costs $100 yet Canon still can sell lenses of similar focal lengths for over $1000.

The little point and shoots have better optical quality than the average 35mm lenses due to the fact they're so small. The larger the lens gets, the more expensive it is to maintain the same optical quality.

You might want to try the thrifty-fifty (Canon EF 50mm f/1.8).. If you stop it down to around f/8, it gives very sharp images. They go for under $100.00

[Orogeny]

You might want to change your focus point to the center point only. When the camera uses all of the focus points, it chooses what will be in focus and that may not be what you want.

Tim

[zacker]

what about the focus points??
-zacker-
Ps.. kit lens = soft focus. but with your 50mm it should look good. have you tried a few shots in full auto mode?

[likophoto]

The kit lens is pretty bad around the edges (actually, a lot of lenses are softer around the edges). That's why the lic plate came out so blurry. The f stop has a lot to do with it too. Extreme ends of the aperture ranges causes less quality too. The sweet spot on most lenses is the center of the pic shoot around f8.

I'd have to recommend the same thing as the guys above, try shooting with a 50 f1.8 lens at f8. Then see if it's still soft.

[ericgtr]

what about the focus points??
-zacker-
Ps.. kit lens = soft focus. but with your 50mm it should look good. have you tried a few shots in full auto mode?
When you use Automatic Focus and hold the button half way down, you will see the little red lights flashing where the camera thinks the best focus point is (right, left, all, etc.) in the view finder window.

Often times it doesn't know what you are trying to focus on, especially if there are many objects in your view so you can adjust this. When the button is pressed half way down push in and hold this button http://www.megapixel.net/reviews/canon-rebelxt/gfx/rebelxt-icon9.gif and turn the wheel on the top right of the camera at the same time, that will move it around to different focus points manually for you.

I am new to this stuff and just discovered this the other day (I read the manual even though it goes against everything I stand for! :mad: ) and it's proven to be a real assett.