Sharpness Setting - Picture Style 30D

I have been looking at the picture style settings on my 30D. On Standard, the sharpness setting I believe is 3 out of 7. Why would this not be higher. Should I bump it up? Pros and Cons?

Quick responses REALLY appreciated!!

Thanks!

Disclaimer: This is an opinion.

Don't mess around with the in camera sharpness settings. The result is less pleasing than sharpening in Photoshop during your regular workflow.

Thanks Liza - I have seen your sports shots on Flickr. I have you as a contact as well. I am in my second day of shooting the Alabama Super Six High School Football Finals. I am out there with a lot of "professionals" but some of my shots turned out better than what made the paper and on-line news media. Yet, I have a ways to go.

Most of my sports shots are on Smugmug these days. Many of the guys shooting the games are sportswriters first and photographers second. They aren't quite as particular about their images. Enjoy shooting the finals!

If you find the sharpness too soft for your tastes on Standard and do not want to post process your shots, then increase it. Increasing the sharpness will increase noise/artifact, it a matter of degree. If you shoot RAW and process or shoot JPEG and process, you can probably get it to look cleaner/better. If you don't want to process, then it's worth a try to see how it looks. Personally, I find the OEM amount of sharpening to be on the conservative side. It's a personal taste thing really.