I'm getting obsessed with sharpness

BillN

Hall of Famer
Location
S W France
Name
Bill
Is there an easy way to test all my lenses?

I keep looking back over my images and I can see "softness" in all of them

I do crop all my bird images but I am been driven towards (another) new body, the D4S, so that I can shoot at high ISO's ……. ISO 2500 and well above - so that I can use very fast shutter speeds.

the D7100 has not helped with it's 24mpx

Help - Paul, (pdh) must know the answer, he's into stuff like that

what do you suggest
 
It is driving me mad - I am having sleepless nights

I have moved from Av priority to manual
and from shooting at a max of ISO 800 to a no max or ISO 2500 on good days
I have moved to a minimum shutter speed of 1/1000th and "bugger" the ISO setting

I won't tell you what is happening to my "lens" purchasing habits

I can see noise and softness in all my images

I am considering upgrading my MBP and iMac and I am going to have my eyes tested next week
 
If you're becoming addicted to sharpness and want to continue with anything you might call a compact, you should get into the Sigma DP Merrill cameras or a Sony RX1, RX1R, A, or A7. Nothing else will quite get you there - maybe the Nex 7... Within a couple of years, probably everything will either be 24 or 36mp though, so if you bide your time...

And of course you need amazing lenses too. This is a course that leads to destruction.....

-Ray
 
Bill's special drive for sharpness is made all the worse by also being obsessed at photographing things that are very far away. I call it the birder's curse. You have no choice but to buy the biggest, most expensive Nikon and buy the 400 f2.8 with a 1.4 TC and prepare for a divorce. If you still have some money left after that, then add the 600mm f4 VR.....you'll be glad you did. And if things still aren't sharp enough, consider a new hobby.
 
I've just gone for a Nikon 300mm f2.8 VR and x 2TC lll ……… I hope that will help
I have a Nikon x 1.4TC that goes well with my Nikon 300mm f4
and I have a Nikon 70mm 200mm f2.8VR which I am now rediscovering with the x 2 TC lll

I've just order a Wimberley WH200 Gimbal to replace the lighter one that I have and have begun to use my Arca Swiss ball head again

The problem is that my technique must be "crap" and I need to shoot at much higher shutter speeds and get a lower mega pixel body, hence the D4S or even a used D3S ……. 15 meg is enough.

OK, I could get much nearer - but that means sitting for hours in a camo hide in camo clothes and also setting up "the shot"

but I need to get everything tested, including me……… so how do I test my lenses?

My wife reckons that I should move to Landscape photography …….. she is probably correct
 
Files from many of the better cameras are just a bit soft. That's so you can dial in the amount of sharpness you want in post production. Or are we talking about something else here? To my eyes, sharpeness and resolution aren't necessarily the same thing. Feel free to correct me. :)

Sharpness and resolution ……. I'll have to think about that

have a look at some of the SA Bird images on my ipernity page and you should see what I mean ……. most are big crops, combination of hand held and tripod …….. best ones with the Nikon 300mm f4 …… some with the Nikon 70 300mm VR f4.5/5.6 zoom
 
It matters how you view your images, I think.

Do you feel the same way when you view them as prints?

I have never printed anything apart from holiday and family shots......... mainly for my wife ...... but even she now uses her iPad quite a lot
We are coming back to the UK next week and I was planning to print maybe 50 of my bird shots .......
 
I have never printed anything apart from holiday and family shots......... mainly for my wife ...... but even she now uses her iPad quite a lot
We are coming back to the UK next week and I was planning to print maybe 50 of my bird shots .......

It's definitely a different experience. I much prefer looking at prints. They seem more 'real' to me.
 
It seems a circular argument searching for a low light body
D4S ........ expensive and fantastic ....... but then you are pushed towards the ......D800 at less than half the price of the D4S and just as good in low light but has 36 million small pixels, more than twice as many as the D4S ....... then the D800 review pushes you towards the D610 at less than a third of the price of the D4S ............ and even both the D800 and D610 can push you back to a used D700.

Bearing in mind I only want the body for small bird photography when most FX images will be cropped down to a quarter or much less of the original size

A good used D3S or a new D800 seem to be the sensible options at around £2,000
 
The eye test might be the best place to start! I keep putting my optician appointment off. I fear he/she is also going to make the suggestion I'm fast approaching middle age!
 
The eye test might be the best place to start! I keep putting my optician appointment off. I fear he/she is also going to make the suggestion I'm fast approaching middle age!

These days I need more than just an eye test!!! ........ but I'm having one next week
 
Is the following sharp

ISO 1000 @f7.1 and 1/1000 - I can only use spot focus as the lens has a TC attached to it

not bad light, taken at 16:30 today

Full sized image taken with the Nikon 70mm 200mm f2.8 VR zoom + Nikon x 2 TC lll
so 400mm x DX x 1.3 in camera crop = almost 800mm

No PP except a very small amount of sharpening in Photoshop Elements 10
tree.jpg


Crop

crop.jpg
 
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