Not sharp, but from what? And cc please

mattinthehat · Apr 24, 2011

I'm trying to get sharper images and this is about the best I can seem to do. But it is still a little soft. It was shot handheld with a canon xs with the 80-200 (cheapo from a few years back) and it doesn't have IS.

It was shot at 1/100 at f8.0 at 128mm.

So blurry from handheld shake, or cheap lens or some other curse? Any additional CC would be great as well.

Thanks!

D-B-J · Apr 24, 2011

You have a wide aperture, which correlates to a shallow depth of field, and you did not follow the "hand-held rule" as i'll title it, which is your shutter speed should atleast be 1/focal length. So 1/125 might have been more appropriate of a shutter speed, or even 1/160th.

Regards,
Jake

Whooops! Misread your aperture. You should have opened it up to allow your shutter speed to be faster, again to follow the rule. 5.6 would have been appropriate im sure.

dxqcanada · Apr 24, 2011

I do not see the wagon wheel hub as being unacceptably out of focus.
The wall is OOF because of depth of field.

The lens you have is not the best quality glass:
Canon EF 80-200mm f/4.5-5.6 II Lens Review

Try doing some tests with the camera mounted on a tripod.

Stryker · Apr 24, 2011

What's your ISO? Bumping up your ISO will increase your shutter speed, that is if your still want to shoot at f/8. 1/100 is quite slow for a focal length of 128mm. Try D-B-J's suggestion and you'll have a crisper shot.

KmH · Apr 24, 2011

The lines from the brick mortar, interact in a bad way with the diagonal lines of the wheel spokes.

Your focus issue is because neither the wall nor the wheel are not in a plane parallel to the image sensor. The DOF (depth-of-field) is always in a plane parallel to the image sensor.

At your settings the total DOF is only 0.57 feet or 6.8 inches - with 49% of that (3.33") in front of your focal point and the other 51% (3.47") behind the focal point.
Online Depth of Field Calculator

molested_cow · Apr 24, 2011

I'd set the camera on a tripod and test with different aperture settings.

Since I got a new camera, I had trouble with what I used to do when using my F4~5.6 70~300mm lens(too much chromatic abbreviation). I did a bunch of tests at different aperture and realized that the lens gives the best/sharp photo at F13 when zoomed to 300mm.
It made a huge difference in the pictures. In your case may be it's the hand shake, may be it's CA. Put it on tripod will eliminate one factor.