Help Me Get Sharper!

[DScience]

Based on the photo, focal length of 51mm and shutter of 1/60th, on a boat, i'm guessing the lack of sharpness is camera movement.

 

[Solarflare]

I think its well established now that it was (a) diffraction from stopping down brutally to f/20 plus (b) camera movement from a somewhat slow shutterspeed.

 

[donny1963]

The big major problem is, the 18-55 lens is a kit lens and kit lenses are very cheap lens and you get what you pay for in that aspect.

Canon is an able lens producer. Their kit lens is able to produce very good results if used correctly (stop down to about f/8, avoid the extremes of the focal range).

Even a Sony kitlens - the worst of its kind - will produce much better results than the picture in the OP, if used correctly.

the 18-55 is not a very good lens for that type of picture to get sharp images like that, especially landscape pictures from a far distance.

Actually kit lenses from able lens producers are already very good for this kind of picture, because one wants to stop lenses down for landscape anyway.

Now Full Frame Camera's tend to do better quality when it comes to shots like that one your in question with.

Again not an issue. APS-C can produce excellent results when used at base ISO, which is common with landscape. Full Frame mostly gives access to better lenses (or using the good lenses in the enviroment they've been designed for) and a small extra boost.

Your DxOMark for example claims the D7200 (current APS-C) has better dynamic range than my D750 (current full frame).

Because of the higher dynamic range and all that stuff and also because you can use better lenses on the full frame Camera's Now i'm not 100% sure about Canon, but with Nikon you can use FX (full frame) lenses on some of the APSC camera's , but i believe you can't do that with Canon Camera's , i'm not 100% sure on that, but i could be wrong on that, but i know with Nikon you can.

Wrong. You always can use full frame lenses with half frame cameras, no matter what lens and no matter what camera, no matter if its Nikon F or Canon EOS or Pentax K mount.

The only issue is that with Canon, you cannot use half frame lenses with full frame cameras. Thats because EF-S lenses reach further into the camera body than EF lenses and would thus smash the mirror of a full frame camera. Therefore Canon made it impossible to mount EF-S lenses on full frame bodies.

[...] Nikon is a slightly better camera for landscape, [...]

I recomment against taking sides in the eternal battle Canon vs Nikon, plus your opinions are all highly questionable to begin with.

Not really questionable at all, and about what i said on Kit lenses , i never said you can't do landscape with Kit lenses, i just said kit lenses are not all that good quality vs good prime lenses or higher quality lenses like the Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G VR II,

Or even the Nikon 24mm f/3.5D PC-E

A Kit lens cannot compete to top quality lenses, for instance there is a reason the Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G VR II, sells for $2,000.00 vs
a 18-55 kit lens selling for $150.00 and it's not just the sharpness either, these top quality lenses have
complex optical designs, professional lenses are optimized to provide very high image quality, with sharp center to corner resolution.

Special attention is given to reduce various optical problems and aberrations such as distortion, chromatic aberration and vignetting.

professional lenses also yield superb colors, again, thanks to advanced optical designs and coatings.

in addition to the differences in optical design, there are also big differences in the type of lens elements used within lenses.

Aspherical, Extra-low dispersion and Fluorite lens elements cost a lot more to make than regular ones, so you will see many more of those types of elements used in professional lenses.

In addition, professional lenses are often made with special coating such as Nikon’s Super Integrated Coating (SIC) and Nano Crystal Coat,
which dramatically decrease internal reflections,
improve sharpness, contrast, colors and reduce ghosting and flare.

So you can't say that one should expect a kit lens to compete with the professional type lenses.. that is silly..

And on top of that you state my opinions are questionable? After stating that a kit lens is fine when comparing to a professional lens?

Surly You Jest.....

 

[donny1963]

Oh and by the way if you want to continue to argue with me about that, here is a video on how even just a simple 500mm prime lese is made By Canon
never mind a complex top quality lens.



And here is an amazing lense apeture .95

 

[fmw]

If it is of any interest, there were 1/2 frame film cameras. Minox is an example.

 

[tirediron]

If it is of any interest, there were 1/2 frame film cameras. Minox is an example.

Did they? I know the "traditional" Minox B and Riga were more like <1/3 frame and they dabbled in 35 and 110 for a while. Olympus made some really nice PEN 1/2 frames....

 

[rbbecker]

Not really questionable at all, and about what i said on Kit lenses , i never said you can't do landscape with Kit lenses, i just said kit lenses are not all that good quality vs good prime lenses or higher quality lenses like the Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G VR II

The post was never in comparison to "professional" lenses or full frame cameras. If I'm using a APSC camera and a kit lens, I obviously don't have the budget or interest in a several thousand dollar set-up. That said, I would have appreciated a response providing help in using my own equipment as opposed to a defense of your pride being hurt. The photos you shared are beautiful, but taken with equipment I'm not interested in buying right now.

Lastly, one manufacturer's ability to mass produce something does not necessarily determine quality. I have never heard of Voigtlander and so would be surprised if they are at all comparable in size to Canon.

 

[donny1963]

Not really questionable at all, and about what i said on Kit lenses , i never said you can't do landscape with Kit lenses, i just said kit lenses are not all that good quality vs good prime lenses or higher quality lenses like the Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G VR II

The post was never in comparison to "professional" lenses or full frame cameras. If I'm using a APSC camera and a kit lens, I obviously don't have the budget or interest in a several thousand dollar set-up. That said, I would have appreciated a response providing help in using my own equipment as opposed to a defense of your pride being hurt. The photos you shared are beautiful, but taken with equipment I'm not interested in buying right now.

Lastly, one manufacturer's ability to mass produce something does not necessarily determine quality. I have never heard of Voigtlander and so would be surprised if they are at all comparable in size to Canon.

I never assumed that you did have a budget for that type of equipment, was just saying what is ideal for highest quality, that's all, lots of people use kit lenses to do what ever it is they wish to accomplish, which is fine, i see no problem in that at all, in fact kit lenses is probably a good choice to start off with, I've seen many nice images done with kit lenses.. In fact i use to use them..

APS-C camera's are not bad at all, i never said that, in fact i use them quite a bit, they tend to me smaller and easy to handle..
And Nikon and Canon Makes beautiful APS-C lenses , great lenses are not just for Full frame, They are for APS-C camera's too, for instance the
Sigma 18-35mm f/1.8 DC HSM Art Lens for Canon is one of the best lenses for APS-C camera's.
This is considered to be a professional lens.
Sigma 18-35mm f/1.8 DC HSM Art Lens for Canon 210-101 B&H Photo

And people always asked me "Can you do Weddings with APS-C camera's?" and the answer is , yes you can, in fact many professional photographers use them, i have used them before and they turn out great images if you use the right lenses for it.. the Sigma 18-35mm f/1.8 DC HSM Art Lens is one of them.
The Tamron SP AF 10-24mm f/3.5-4.5 DI II for Nikon is a great ultra wide angle lens, great for taking group shots in weddings..
i find the one of the best APS-C Nikon Camera's for weddings is, the Nikon D7000 series, I have a D7100 and shot many weddings with it.
For high-end weddings , charging $2,000.00 and up, I use the Hasselblad, which is med format and produces Amazing pictures, and I never have a problem with not having enough light, Ever, Even inside the Church..
But that's because that camera's Sensor is 3 times the size as a full frame camera, and so i can get bright fully exposed images with a 3.5 lens
i only got 1 lens for it right now Hasselblad HCD 35-90mm f/4-5.6 Lens, which i got when i bought my hasselblad Camera i finance it of course making payments every month, it starts at aperture F4 but it's like a 1.8 or 2.0 on a full frame.. Because of the sensor size..

 

[john.margetts]

Lastly, one manufacturer's ability to mass produce something does not necessarily determine quality. I have never heard of Voigtlander and so would be surprised if they are at all comparable in size to Canon.

Voigtlander made the first ever camera lens a very long time ago. They were German and excellent. The name is now owned by Cosina who mostly make cameras and lenses for the big names (including Canon!). They are both very large and very excellent.

 

[gsgary]

Not really questionable at all, and about what i said on Kit lenses , i never said you can't do landscape with Kit lenses, i just said kit lenses are not all that good quality vs good prime lenses or higher quality lenses like the Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G VR II

The post was never in comparison to "professional" lenses or full frame cameras. If I'm using a APSC camera and a kit lens, I obviously don't have the budget or interest in a several thousand dollar set-up. That said, I would have appreciated a response providing help in using my own equipment as opposed to a defense of your pride being hurt. The photos you shared are beautiful, but taken with equipment I'm not interested in buying right now.


Lastly, one manufacturer's ability to mass produce something does not necessarily determine quality. I have never heard of Voigtlander and so would be surprised if they are at all comparable in size to Canon.

You must be very new to photography if you have never heard of Voigtlander, here's a shot with a 40mmF1.4 M mount (Leica fit) on a Sony A7
Handheld

and here's a crop of above photo

Better than most of the Canon L lenses i used to have