Sony ILCE 5100 - why are my pictures so blurry?

Hello guys

Hope this forum is open to question from newbies who just can't understand what's going wrong.. I'm not photo-savvy at all, I basically only shoot when I'm travelling, but I do like to bring back nice pictures from my trips. I previously used entry-level DSLRs and was quite satisfied with the quality of the pictures: for online albums and a bit of printing, that was all I needed

I decided to switch to a more compact model recently, but figured that the extra money I was going to put in was also going to give me a possibly better lens, better sensor, and overall at least similar-quality pictures. Yet somehow I'm really not happy with all the photos I've been taking with this camera. Overall, they can look fine. But whenever you zoom in a little bit and check the details, everything is so blurry, like if I applied a bad "wet paint" effect.

I can't really figure out if that's normal or if I'm using the camera the wrong way. I would expect this kind of effect in a dark environment with a lack of light, but I also get that for outside, daylight sunny shots.

Here are two samples of pictures - first one taken with my FinePix SL260 back in the days, and second one taken with my ILCE 5100 this summer. The first one just seems so much crisper and cleaner to me.

So.. any leads on what I'm doing wrong are appreciated!

- Edit - fetching the exif data to add it to my samples, I notice that the 2nd pic has a much higher shutter speed, paired with much higher ISO too.. Is it as simple as that, ie. I should have a longer exposure time and lower ISO?

Thanks

Bottom photo is underexposed.

The high ISO is the main reason, although at f/22 you'll be getting some diffraction softening also. Try keeping the ISO below 400 for best quality, up to 1600 or 3200 is probably still okay; 12800 is pretty high.

It looks like there was plenty of light, why were you shooting with such a fast shutter speed and small aperture? Take that same picture at 1/500s, f/8, and ISO 200 and it will look way, way better.

If you're not sure, put the camera in auto mode to see what it would recommend, and adjust from there.

Thanks for your replies..

I actually mostly shoot in auto - I took a look in my camera settings and saw that ISO was set to 16000 (I selected 12800 when adding exif data as it was the closest value). Obivously to compensate for that, the auto mode picks a very fast shutter speed and small aperture.

I never actually thought about checking that out as I had never set the ISO to this value! So most likely a wrong manipulation from me or someone else.. which impacted every single picture I took. I set it back to Auto and pictures are of course much better.. I feel a bit stupid considering how simple the problem was, but thanks for confirming my suspicions!

Let in more out, don't shoot at f/22. I don't think I've ever shot at anything more than f/11.

You're shooting at 1/4000, f/22, and ISO 12,800. Not getting enough light with either shutter speed or aperture, so your camera is trying to compensate by boosting the ISO. I would try and keep ISO as close to base as possible, especially if you're outdoors. Cap ISO at iso1600 or so.

TMaG82 wrote in post #17700056
Cap ISO at iso1600 or so.

No offense, but this is bad advice for a modern camera, especially for a novice photographer.

There's absolutely no reason you can't get very acceptable shots above ISO1600 with an a5100.

The first shot is somewhat soft because you're cropping really far and using the kit lens... even a $1000 Zeiss lens won't be tack sharp when cropped that far. You need to lower your expectations to a more realistic level.

The second shot was due to several factors (as mentioned above). The aperture was too far stopped down, f22 Will definitely cause diffraction and the ISO value was really high and it still underexposed, which even further introduced noise.

Really just make sure that you keep your ISO on "Auto" or learn how to properly adjust it manually. I realise that on Sony cameras it's fairly easy to change your ISO on accident, so just try to be aware of it.

EverydayGetaway wrote in post #17703653
No offense, but this is bad advice for a modern camera, especially for a novice photographer.

There's absolutely no reason you can't get very acceptable shots above ISO1600 with an a5100.

The first shot is somewhat soft because you're cropping really far and using the kit lens... even a $1000 Zeiss lens won't be tack sharp when cropped that far. You need to lower your expectations to a more realistic level.

The second shot was due to several factors (as mentioned above). The aperture was too far stopped down, f22 Will definitely cause diffraction and the ISO value was really high and it still underexposed, which even further introduced noise.

Really just make sure that you keep your ISO on "Auto" or learn how to properly adjust it manually. I realise that on Sony cameras it's fairly easy to change your ISO on accident, so just try to be aware of it.

Not at 12800.

Even with a modern APS-C sensor, ISO6400 is going to be fairly noisy, and ISO12800 will be very noisy. Perhaps Sony FF sensor is way better than that.

I have my high ISO capped at 3200, and only shoot at 6400 when I absolutely have to. 12800 is not used at all.

To OP: 1/4000 and f22 is extreme.

Most lenses start getting diffraction past f13 or so. f8 would do just fine.

Hmmm...man! You'd be better off using the iAuto or the iAuto+ mode of the camera, trying to mess up as little as possible with the quite intelligent automatic protocols that the Sony guys have installed in your camera. They are on the knob on the top of the camera. The other one looks like a green camera and the other one as a yellow one.

Then the part two of this message. Go to YouTube and find an excellent walk through video for the A5100 by Maarten Heillbron and follow up his advices: https://www.youtube.co​m/watch?v=q37UL-g_k7o

Your camera is good. Just be patient.