Is it my lens, my camera or me?

[iriairi]

Looking at some of my photos in PS and Bridge, I am surprised and disappointed that they appear a little soft. I am using a Canon Rebel XTi with a 24-105L f4 /IS lens. Below are links to 2 of my raw photos taken with this equipment. Both shots were taken with a polarizer, manfrotto tripod and shutter release and IS was off. When I look at the pictures in 'fit on screen' mode they look crisp/sharp. When I look at them in 'print size' mode, they still fare well to my eyes. When I go to 100% view, they look soft. Even if there were parts that were out of focus, I feel that some part of these photos would have been sharp...

I didn't feel that converting these files from the original capture would convey what I was seeing. If there is a better way to let people see this, let me know.

So is it the camera, the lens, or me? Any advice or direction is appreciated.

http://www.finalsignal.net/photo/RFF20080417-07.dng

http://www.finalsignal.net/photo/SCF20080417-05.dng

[EDITS/ADDITIONS BELOW]
Per request. If you have the time, I left the full raw links above. Not sure why they only came down as partials. I double checked and was able to retrieve them... Thanks for trying though.

This is an 600x800 chunk of the photo


This is a resize of the whole photo



This is a chunk...



This is the resize...

 

[anubis404]

I would post them online and display them here. No one wants to download photos.

 

[Josh66]

At 171x256 pixels it's impossible to tell, not sure what happened but that's all I got from those 2 links...

They're probably not as bad as you think though. They never look razor sharp at 100%.

 

[William Petruzzo]

Yeah, you're being too critical. That's a pretty normal softness and it can be pretty easily counteracted by just slightly increasing the contrast in Camera Raw. Here's a little piece of the full resolution image:

This appears to be about the sharpness roughly across the whole image. I think you're fine.

 

[davebmck]

I downloaded both of your pics, opened them in Camera Raw, zoomed to 100% and applied sharpening to a value of about 100. I could not find any place on the photos that were tack sharp. Doing this with photos taken with my 100-400 L or 100 macro lens, I can get perfectly sharp images (presuming I take the shot properly). I would agree with you that these images are a bit soft.

These images are taken at a very slow shutter speed, but you seem to have taken the proper precautions. Is this a new lens? If so, you may have a bad copy. What I would suggest is that you set up the camera on the tripod and take some test shots at a higher shutter speed. If you still get soft images, its probably a bad lens. If not, its may be your technique.

 

[Josh66]

For some reason when I clicked them I just got thumbnails...

I didn't actually save them, I just selected "open in ..." instead of "save as". I didn't think that would matter though.

 

[davebmck]

I used "open in" as well. Worked OK for me.

BYW, the files are 19mb. My XTi has files about 10mb when I shoot in raw.

 

[iriairi]

The size maybe because I convert to DNG but keep the original RAW files... Which makes me wonder if there are some troubles there. The lens is fairly new, but not brand spanking... I have always kind of felt that it was soft, but thought it was just me, or maybe the XTi, but now I am worried that I have a bum lens...

 

[iriairi]

Ok checked on some test photos I was taking and it wasn't the DNG conversion process...

Maybe it is the speed...

 

[jamesino]

Perhaps you could try shooting without the filter?

 

[usayit]

* In photography, sharpness is all about being reasonably sharp for a particular size and viewing distance. Pixel peepers are simply going to miss out if all they are going to do all day is zoom in at 100% and complain that it isn't good enough. Seriously... go to a gallery and observe some of the most highly admired photographs. Look at them really really close... ... Billboards... too.

* Lenses are reasonably sharp across the DOF range but are only capable of truly focusing on one plane.

* Shooting at either end of the focal range and/or aperture range is not were the typical lens performs at its best. (both photos were done at f/22)

 

[usayit]

oh btw.. nice shots.

 

[iriairi]

oh btw.. nice shots.

Thanks, usayit.

So general concensus is that I am being to picky and critical...

How would I know if it is my lens that is bad? I have done some test shots indoors with the lens on my XTi and my XT, as well as using my XTI with my 50 1.8 and there is not much difference (in softness... there is in other areas...). Did take some at faster speeds and at f8, as well with some improvement. Any other ideas or explanations?

Thanks again for all the suggestions/help so far.

 

[joecoulsonphotography]

What ap was the lens set at? was is a cheap polarizer? It seems that lens is great except at 105mm f4 off center (ref photozone) but I know a cheap polarizer can take an outstanding lens and make it consumer grade. Nice shots though.

 

[Teslahorn]

I assume you were using a tripod and the shutter speed was more than .5 sec, yes? If so, I believe the problem is you! Did you use a remote or a delayed shutter release when taking this shot? If not, then when you pressed shutter button to take the picture, you most likely giggled the camera in the process from the force that you pressed it. Try taking the shots again with your timed shutter release on (I think it is 10sec on the XTi) and see how that does.