Noob question on canon eos 20d parameter settings

[suryad]

Hey fellas,

I have been frequenting this forum a lot more than usual and the photographs posted on this forum are stunning...:hail: What gets me is the awesome DOF and the sharp as tack photographs. I was wondering for the EOS 20D users what kind of settings do you have your camera set on? Are you shooting in RAW? Do you have a custom parameter setting? Like sharpness up by 2 clicks and so on? Or is it all dependent upon the kind of glass being used in the pictures? My camera right now is set at Parameter 1 for all the pics I have taken so far.

I hope my post makes sense. I am just trying to better myself with respect to knowing my camera. Thanks.

 

[Rob]

The sharp pictures are all from the film users with prime lenses.






No, I'm joking

Sharpness is created by several things:

1) Your lens. Generally speaking the faster (lower f-number) the better. Generally, primes are crisper than zooms, so a 50mm f1.8 is IMO a must-have lens. Plastic lenses and cheap zooms or mirror lenses are going to be softer than say a Carl Zeiss T* Planar prime. You gets what you pay for to a certain extent.

2) No motion blur. This means that the shot has not been affected by the camera moving. The easiest way to achieve this is to use a faster shutter speed (see point one), or to steady your hands, press the button smoother and more gently and/or use a tripod.

RAW shouldn't make a discernible difference to the sharpness over the finest JPG setting IMO. Also, complete opinion here, over-sharpening digitally is undesirable as it creates artifacts like jaggies and halos (sometimes).

It would help us all out if you posted an example with the settings you used and the type of lens.

Rob

 

[Rob]

Oh and a low ISO removes grain and might give the impression of a sharper picture.

 

[Big Mike]

Like Rob said, sharpness has more to do with the lens & the technique than the settings used.

I usually prefer to shoot in RAW (which does not apply the sharpness settings to the image)...so then the image may be un-sharp...but it then allows me to use photoshop to apply just the amount of sharpening that I feel the image needs.

When I shoot in JPEG mode...I don't remember the parameter settings I use...but I don't need to apply as much sharpening in post processing.

Either way...it's best to be as sharp as possible from the start. Use a fast shutter speed and/or be as steady as possible or use a tripod and remote.