Dissapointed with 550D

Hi Experts..

I need a help. I am learning photography bit and bit. More than 1 year ago bought Cannon 550D. came with standard 18-55 Lense and got some picture if I take 100 may be 5 ok. Focus not sharp colour is not there dull etc etc.
T
Mmm Thought my be lense issue bought Sigma 70-300 Ops same thing all dull dull.

Yes thought again bought second hand 70-70mm Sigma. Oh horrible all pictures like got in foggy day no sharpness.

Then bought Cannon 85mm Prime lense yes little bit happy with potraits but not succes with scenaries.

After done all stupid experiments bought 24-105 L series lense coz then I can not blaim the lest paid top 900USD. Went a tour took more than 600 Pictures. **** All dull horrible.
Now thinking to buy 7D

can u pls explain what can be the reason.

Can you post an example? What are your settings? how are you taking these images? I can tell you that while 7D excels at a lot of things and has a lot of advanced features its still a 18 MP crop sensor camera (like the 550D).

In your case it's probably all about camera settings. I am assuming that you are shooting in jpeg and not doing any editing. If you do some adjusting on the Picture Styles then you can make your photos better. Try pressing the Picture Styles button and selecting one of the custom settings, then set the camera on a tripod and take a bunch of pictures of the same scene (cereal box on the table, bathroom counter top, book case.......) and start making adjustments to color, contrast, sharpness. Learn what setting changes what and pretty soon you'll find a good setting that works for you. Once you are happy, go out and test it on a walk around the park. Make more changes as needed.

The focus might not be sharp because your shutter speed is too long for the subject you are shooting and you are getting motion blur. Try doing a little reading up/research on motion blur to help you learn more about it and how to prevent it.

Sounds like setting issues caused by the implement behind the camera.

Stop spending money; the problem is not with your gear. You need to slow down, read some books on exposure and PRACTICE a lot.

Photography is about light; light is your paint, so to speak. If you're painting with dull colors, you get a dull painting. If you're photographing in dull light, you get a dull photograph. Learn to understand how light affects your images in both quantity and quality; early morning/late evening light, for example, is preferred by many due to the warm, soft qualities of it, vs the harsh/biting direct light of mid-day.

Your shutter speed, aperture and ISO are your controls of the light (brushes). How much light comes into the scene, how long the light is allowed to hit your sensor, etc are controlled by those things.

Also, you'll have to be conscious of "camera shake" where you're bobbing the camera around as you're trying to take a photo. Practice your stance, getting a good, solid one down to minimize that shake.

Remember to keep your shutter speed, at a minimum, around 1/<focal length>, rounded up; so, if you're shooting at 85mm, you'd want a shutter speed of, at least, 1/100.

Are you using UV/protection filters, by chance?

1Tanker wrote in post #15063581
Are you using UV/protection filters, by chance?

shouldn't matter unless they are super cheap filters. I have a filter on almost all of my lenses with no issues.

And yea posting example pictures will help a lot.

it's you....

I found the same kind of problems when i first got a DSLR, i shot and i shot and i shot, it took a while but eventually i got to grips with how the lens and camera performed and started to notice improvements, unlike a point n shoot you really have to think about exactly where you want the point of focus and how much is in and out of focus in the frame, you cant just aim and shoot. The next big improvement was shooting in RAW and processing the images myself to get the colour and sharpness i wanted (my files strait out of the camera are always flat and post processing really makes them pop) watch some videos on you tube and just shoot at every chance you get, you will slowly but steadily start to notice improvement. Stop buying new equipment, pro gear wont help, if you cant get the best out of the 550d kit the 7d with an L lens wont help, the camera does not matter, its all about the skill of the person behind said camera

also post samples and ask as many questions as you can think of on here, many are eager to help people learn

So you spend about $1500 just to see if it was the camera or lenses fault, and THEN seeked help?

Got to be some settings and tecnique, i'm afraid. Please post some examples and what settings youre useing. All those lenses cant be faulty, practise, practise and more practise will be the answer.

Pick another hobby and give me all your gear!!
Seriously though, you should have asked for help BEFORE spending more money.
Photography, while heaven for gear heads, is more about the skills and knowledge of the person behind the camera than the camera itself.
As mentioned above, post some of your pics, along with the EXIF data, THEN we can offer you some assistance.

I had a T2i and got thousands of great photos from it. It sounds more like a settings problem, check out the picture settings, or check if you have it set to shoot raw and you aren't processing them afterward. Make sure it's set to Jpeg and even take some shots with it set to auto. If it's still producing dull shots then it could be a problem with the camera. Is there anyone on the forum local to you that you could spend some time with who will give you some pointers.

what you need to do is replace your awful gear.
you will need at least the 5D mkIII, and 24-70 mkII. I would also consider picking up the 85L prime lens. A couple of speedlite 600's wouldnt hurt either. only way to get an acceptable photo.

Post some photos. It's hard to help you without examples to see what's going on. I can guarantee one thing though: a 7D isn't going to help. The kit you have is perfectly capable of taking fine images. There's a reason people spend 4 years in college studying photography, then apprenticing, then gathering experience. This isn't easy. It's easy to trip the shutter and put an image to silicon, heck you may even get lucky now and again, but what's hard, is getting a great image to silicon reliably, that takes a lot of practice and experience.