Help..my 50mm 1.8D lens

MommyOf4Boys · Sep 26, 2006

I have been using this lens for quite some time now. I do not know if I am doing something wrong, distance from subject causes this, or maybe just dirty.....when I take a photograph as close as I can get and sometimes just a step back I can get some amazing sharp quality photos even when you blow them all the way up to the max resolution (6.1mp for my camera - so 2000 something x 3000 something i think)they look great, buttt when I take a photograph from a few feet or more away from the subject, then the quality is really crappy when I view the photo at anything larger than say 800x600. Is this normal? Here are some examples:

This is a photo taken at just a foot or two away, fully blown up and a piece taken out of the photo - i think the quality is wonderful:

These two were taken at about 5-6 feet away and the quality is less than desirable. The first one was shot at about f/6 and 1/250:

This second one was shot at f/2 1/100

If anyone has any suggestions or advice, please feel free to give it to me!

newrmdmike · Sep 26, 2006

somthing that can happen with zoom lenses is that they can be knocked out of alignment or somthing, anyways you have to have them calibrated, however i don't know if the same thing is possible with prime lenses. i know daniel (thebeginning on the forum) had his zoom calibrated after shipping, or he had at least talked about it, i would ask him about it.

JDP · Sep 26, 2006

Actually, this is a prime lens, so there's no zoom to it.

Odd what you're seeing there Mommy, the 50mm 1.8 and 1.4's are literally one of the finest sharpest lenses Nikon make. Anything f/4 and up should be razor sharp.

What kind of mode is auto-focus in? Matrix? Lens clean? Flash used on all of them?

MommyOf4Boys · Sep 26, 2006

Flash was only used for the last one, yes metering is set to matrix, auto focus is set to AF-A, and as far as I know - the lens is not too dirty as I always keep the caps on it and clean it on a regular basis.

Peanuts · Sep 26, 2006

In the last photo I believe there might be some camera shake (from looking at her head piece), which might cause the slightly OOF affect, and the second one, well, the only reason other then the lens not 'functioning' properly, is, it looks as if the ISO was set extremely high, or, in post processing, the exposure was pushed. Not much hlep am I?

MommyOf4Boys · Sep 26, 2006

Peanuts said:
In the last photo I believe there might be some camera shake (from looking at her head piece), which might cause the slightly OOF affect, and the second one, well, the only reason other then the lens not 'functioning' properly, is, it looks as if the ISO was set extremely high, or, in post processing, the exposure was pushed. Not much hlep am I?

No LOL
I can agree with the camera shake on the last one, but the other one - I keep my ISO at 200 and I did not do post processing to any of these, just right out of the camera to show the variances.

JDP · Sep 26, 2006

Can we see the entire photo from the second pic with the exif data on it? Might help enlighten ONE of use around here. I'm wondering if AF focused on another part of the shot - but with an aperature of f/6, it should still get a lot of the photo in focus

JDP · Sep 26, 2006

Oh, and you've got it locked at f/22, right?

MommyOf4Boys · Sep 27, 2006

JDP said:
Oh, and you've got it locked at f/22, right?

lol yes, the camera will not allow the lens to work unless i do.

I deleted the picture just a bit ago because I was mad lol, but what I will do is take some more shots tomorrow the same way, because I am sure it will happen again and I will post those - full and a close up of an area i focused on.

JDP · Sep 27, 2006

Awesome, I'm sure we'll figure this out!
Anything to keep my mind off of turning 30 today

MommyOf4Boys · Sep 27, 2006

ok, i was not home all day, so I will have to try tomorrow lol...by the way HAPPY BIRTHDAY JDP!! I know the feeling, when I turned 30, I had a total panic attack! LOL As I did when I just turned 32...especially when my son says "wow you are old!" haha

JDP · Sep 27, 2006

MommyOf4Boys said:
ok, i was not home all day, so I will have to try tomorrow lol...by the way HAPPY BIRTHDAY JDP!! I know the feeling, when I turned 30, I had a total panic attack! LOL As I did when I just turned 32...especially when my son says "wow you are old!" haha

heehee, thanks! One day I'll get used to being in a new age bracket. When, I'm not sure hehe