do these images/crops look too soft? paranoid about my 7D taking soft pictures

this is me (a new, used 7D owner) probably being paranoid, but are my images looking too soft? i know there's tons of threads/posts on this subject, but i'd love to here your guys opinions as i'm a total amateur.

i think the normal pics look good, but when zooming in LR, i'm thinking they may be too soft? shots are RAW and only PP done is a little noise removal. this is my first time doing crops, tried to do it in LR but not sure if it was done perfect. thanks for the input !

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com/​photos/robtk/559622530​9/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com/​photos/robtk/559680892​0/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com/​photos/robtk/559622620​7/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com/​photos/robtk/559622627​1/

The first one looks a little soft, what shutter speed, lens and aperture were you using?

The second one looks fine to me!

Yup, soft and not a little, imo. It's probably not the camera. Could be miss focusing although the second image suggests it is not. Also, is the first crop 100% ?

What was the shutter speed and focal length for those shots ?

shutterspeed was around 50 or 60 i think? it was on my nifty, aperture 1.8. should i always go > than my focal length (i.e. never go below 1/60 if i'm shooting with my 50mm)?

i should add, that's generally the rule i go by but i think it was in AV mode

Shutter speed is way too slow, imo. Try the same shots at 1/125 or faster. That should take care of your shake and subject movement, for a posed image.

I agree, with the 50mm 1.8 on a cropped body like the 7d you need a higher shutter speed!

+2 on the shutter speed

and try stopping it down a little, that lens isn't the sharpest wide open.

doh. forgot to account for the crop with my shutterspeed. but how about these? zero PP, straight out of PS. these were 1.8, 1/125. still soft? or just me?

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com/​photos/robtk/559686463​2/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com/​photos/robtk/559628218​3/

Stop the aperture down some.

I think this one is worse.

Put the camera a tripod. You are probably swaying a bit between focusing and taking the shot. How close were you ?

just took a few at around 3 feet away. aperture 2.8 was ok, but i tried 2.2, on a tripod, 2 second timer, and i'm still getting similar blurry results zoomed in. do i need to send my camera in for calibration? kinda bummed..

Looks like the focus is off, and like everyone has said, a faster shutter speed is in order. A narrow arpeture might help too.

i'm gonna try a few on my t2i, hopefully i get similar results.

Do some research on bumping sharpness a bit in Canon DPP.

The 7D has as strong Anti-Aliasing filter and a little bump in sharpening does wonders.

It's like you are removing the negative side effects of that AA filter.

The 7D shot in RAW needs sharpening in LR3 it's a must.