Dumb Question Probably But...

[magkelly]

I need to ask it anyway.

I've been shooting with my Fuji S7000 for almost 7 years now. I'm pretty versed in all it's quirks and I've experimented with every setting you can possibly use with this camera using every mode, ISO and aperture this camera can do. Some images come out somewhat focused and sharp, but they never come out 100% as I'd like ever, not even with a tripod. I think I can count on one hand the number of images I've gotten with this camera that I would consider truly sharp and focused enough.

Now I know my camera is basically just a glorified point and shoot with some manual settings but is it possible the lens on this camera just isn't capable of taking a really crisp shot? I can get very near to it, sometimes, but it never quite makes it and it really frustrates me. Even my very best shots with that camera are just a bit softer focused particularly towards the center than I'd like.

I got a chance to shoot with someone's camera, a DSLR, and at once I noticed a huge difference in the focus of my shots. They were far crisper and sharper than anything I have ever managed with my Fuji to date. I just loved using it but the experience really left me feeling a lot less happy with my Fuji than I had been over the years.

For a point and shoot I always thought this camera wasn't too bad at all, but having shot with something else I am really beginning to wonder if this camera was worth the buy. I got the best camera I could at the time, but I just don't feel I'm really getting the quality of shot I'd like to get out of it.

Up till I shot with the DSLR I thought it was probably just me. That the photographer wasn't quite up to the camera, maybe, but shooting with an old manual film SLR, the DSLR and realizing those shots are far crisper than anything I've ever taken on the Fuji. It's made me really rethink the Fuji.

Is it even possible for a camera lens to be made to just be too soft?

I mean you just cannot seemingly change it on this camera. No amount of changing aperture, iso, speed, image quality/sharpening settings, ever seems to make a real difference with this camera in terms of focus. I can do it with the camera fully in charge or in full manual mode and no matter how sharp the focus looks in the viewer it's always just a bit soft in the pictures themselves.

Knowing I can take pics that are in much better focus on another camera has really made a huge difference in the way I see my older photos. I still love them for their content, and some of them I have managed to get almost as good as I'd like in the software darkroom, but the vast majority, they just seem very soft to me now, much more so than I'd like.

Any thoughts?

Is it possible that I am not imagining this? That this camera has a lens that is just not capable of truly crisp photography? FYI, I have also noticed this a bit in pics taken on later models of the same camera. Someone locally I know who has a later version of my camera was showing some of his shots to me the other day and I noticed his shots were soft focused just a little bit towards the center too. Otherwise they were excellent shots, but they were not as crisp as they could be. I asked him about it and he seemed unhappy with his model's focus a bit too.

I've always heard such nice things about these Fuji's. For non DSLR's they're supposed to be pretty good if a bit noisy in some situations. But I've never quite gotten the quality of shot I want to get out of this camera and I just can't figure out why. I mean if I can take a really nice crisp shot with a DSLR then shouldn't it be possible to get one out of my Fuji too?

 

[white]

Some girls are bigger than others.

 

[LarryD]

I would says yes....maybe...

Your Fuji uses a sensor that is about 25% the size of the typical DSLR crop sensor.. (although slightly larger than the typical P&S.) Dedicated lenses are also a compromise from the specialized and optimized individual lenses available for DSLR's..

That means that when you view your photo, it has been taken through good but not excellent glass, and enlarged considerably compared to the DSLR, and you see a soft result..

So, that is to say that, if you could get the same quality and sharpness from a P&S camera as you did with a DSLR, then nobody would be buying the DSLR's...........:er:

Now, having said all that, it is possible that you have a focusing issue with your camera. Focusing problems are most apparent at shallow DOF settings..

 

[fiveoboy01]

I'd say what you're experiencing is not unusual.

I've never had a point/shoot camera(in the 200-300 buck range) with the image quality of my DSLR.

The G10/G11 might come close but the lower end ones while great for carrying around and having "ready" for a quick snap, don't compare.

 

[magkelly]

Thanks. This all makes me feel a bit bit better actually! I've been reviewing a lot of my old shots with a view to posting them here, and the more I review them and the more I see here the more it's become apparent to me that no matter what I do on this camera my shots just seem to be focused a bit softer than I'd like.

Shooting with another camera was a real eye opener in a way. I'm now more than a bit dissatisfied with my Fuji. Up till now I just figured I wasn't quite getting it right and/or that the add on lenses for the Fuji just weren't up to snuff. I still do think the latter are definitely not but that's not all that's going on here. (The lenses I bought for this camera are totally wretched glass for what I spent on them!) But even with the camera's own lens sans zoom, I see a softness of focus there I just can't particularly like.

I can't afford the upgrade right now so I guess I'm going to have to spend some time playing with the Pentax SLR for a while. See how things go with the film camera for now. But I am definitely read for more digitally-speaking.

I'm just not satisfied with what the Fuji can give me now at all....

Oh, and what really brought it up for me was starting to shoot exclusively in RAW. I really started noticing it once I switched. I don't know quite why, but I did. It didn't bug me as much before that and using the other cam.

I also think my viewpoint as a photographer is changing a bit somehow if that makes any sense? What used to be perfectly "okay" for me just isn't as good now for some reason. I'm getting much more picky than I used to be, laugh.