its is me or is my E300 not right?

I am very new to the E300 and having trouble getting a decent picture. everything seems just out of focus. mybe using the camera more might help. this photo was taken in raw and rsized tweaked a little and then saved to jpeg. what do you think? and any help full tips would be great.

http://www.ImagePOP.com/is.php?i=4613&img=cherry_blossom..jpg

paul dean said:

I am very new to the E300 and having trouble getting a decent
picture. everything seems just out of focus. mybe using the camera
more might help. this photo was taken in raw and rsized tweaked a
little and then saved to jpeg. what do you think? and any help full
tips would be great.

Click to expand...

My guess would be there's too little depth of field. Probably there's a
bit of the bunch which is in focus, but the largest part falls outside of
this sharp area. The best way to solve this is by shooting in Aperture-
priority and bumping up the aperture to increase the DOF.

cheers,

Bram

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In many cases, blurry or what appear to be out of focus (soft) images are the result of poor camera stabilization. Did you use a monopod or tripod? If you did this hand-held, there's a really good chance that camera shake induced this scene to look this way. You'd never consider this because most folks feel that if they hold the camera tight, it would be steady - but whoa and behold, stabilizing a camera is perhaps one of the most important variables considered here.

Secondly, look at your shutter/aperture combinations - and look at your ISO. If the ISO is too low and the lighting is darker (overcast, etc.), you may wind up with a shutter/aperture combination that does not do the image justice. Did you shoot Aperture Priority, Program Mode, or Shutter Priority? Then, based on what your aperture was (low depth of field), what part of the frame did you focus on.

All of these play a major role.

Unless I'm wrong, I'm banking on the fact that you didn't stabilize the camera.

it was hand held in taking this picture, looks like this could be my problem, I have a tripod so I must start using it. the iso is set to 100 and shutter speed1/500, using aperture priority. looking at the details for the photo the f was set to f22. don't know how I managed it but I must keep an eye on what I am changing. thanks for the help will try a session with the tripod and trying different variations. any ointers where I should start?
been to use to the point and click oly C750 zoom

paul dean said:

it was hand held in taking this picture, looks like this could be
my problem, I have a tripod so I must start using it. the iso is
set to 100 and shutter speed1/500, using aperture priority. looking
at the details for the photo the f was set to f22.

Click to expand...

The shutter speed was Ok, 1/500 should stop most camera shake.
I think the f22 was a bit on the high side. At f22 refraction of the lens
may have spoiled the sharpness and introduced the general softness
you're seeing.

cheers,

Bram

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http://www.pbase.com/brambos

Bram Bos said:

At f22 refraction of
the lens
may have spoiled the sharpness and introduced the general softness
you're seeing.

Click to expand...

Yup. That's my bet as well.

paul dean said:

it was hand held in taking this picture, looks like this could be
my problem, I have a tripod so I must start using it. the iso is
set to 100 and shutter speed1/500, using aperture priority. looking
at the details for the photo the f was set to f22. don't know how I
managed it but I must keep an eye on what I am changing. thanks for
the help will try a session with the tripod and trying different
variations. any ointers where I should start?
been to use to the point and click oly C750 zoom

Click to expand...

Try these settings next time...well, I guess next time the lighting is just like it was that day...

Take 2 stops from the aperture and add to the shutter speed.

So try f11 at 1/2000 sec...or you could do 3 stop...which would be f8 at 1/4000. This si the max shutter speed you will get.

To make this simpler, shoot in A mode and set the A to f8 or f11.

paul dean said:

it was hand held in taking this picture, looks like this could be
my problem, I have a tripod so I must start using it. the iso is
set to 100 and shutter speed1/500, using aperture priority. looking
at the details for the photo the f was set to f22. don't know how I
managed it but I must keep an eye on what I am changing. thanks for
the help will try a session with the tripod and trying different
variations. any ointers where I should start?
been to use to the point and click oly C750 zoom

Click to expand...

1st - 1/500s at f/22 and ISO100 - Are you sure? It makes EV18, i.e. that means 4 times the brightest reflected light I have ever experienced shooting landscapes in the desert.

2nd - I agree that f/22, while helping with DOF, is likely to spoil image quality somewhat, due to light diffraction. I'd stay with f/16 max.

3rd - I guess the problem with your pic is essentially due to shallow DOF. Did you use the kit lens (14-45)? What focal length? Do you know that with 4/3 size sensor, DOF at 25 cm (10") focus distance and f/22, DOF drops from 25 cm at 14mm to 2 cm at 45mm focal length?

4th - the end point is that making a good close-up with a DSLR is much more critical than with any small-sensor digicam (my CP-995!!!), just because of shallow DOF. I know I shall forget handheld macros like this one:



Nikon Coolpix 995 - 1/285s f/7.5 at 18.3mm iso100
Ciao.
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Paul, I agree with everything said by everyone else. It seems to me that the shutter speed is sufficient to stop image blurring by motion. F22 is possibly not as sharp as f16 or f11, but still it looks somewhat out of focus to me. That could be caused by a couple of things. Was the camera set to use the three focus points, or just the center one? Sometimes when all three are active it will focus someplace you aren't looking and cause a slightly out of focus photo. It is also possible the autofocus isn't right and needs adjustment at the Oly workshop. The only way to really know is to set the camera on a tripod and focus on a subject that is clearly defined. Watch the viewfinder carefully and if it looks sharp it probably is. Also, set the camera to "Manual Focus" and see if you can make it look sharper to your eye than the camera can. Take photos in both conditions and see which looks sharper...either print them or enlarge them on your monitor.

I suspect the camera is OK. I have never heard of anyone having focusing accuracy problems with an E-300 or an E-1. They seem to be really good in that department. You'll probably find the camera is fine. The lack of sharpness is probably due to camera movement which can happen even when we think we are holding steady.
--
BJM

Paul,

I too started out with the C-750, and the interesting thing I found was I was more able to handhold macro shots than with the E-1. I have absolutely no idea why, but it seemed to happen.

On the bright side, if you can handhold "properly", or better yet, use the correct equiptment such as a tripod/rock/tree/fence/inamimate object etc, the results I think are much better than the P&S, welcome to the world of DSLR, there is a learning cuve, but one I feel is worth the effort........

Stick with it, you will be very pleased in the end.

Cheers
Wazza

paul dean said:

it was hand held in taking this picture, looks like this could be
my problem, I have a tripod so I must start using it. the iso is
set to 100 and shutter speed1/500, using aperture priority. looking
at the details for the photo the f was set to f22. don't know how I
managed it but I must keep an eye on what I am changing. thanks for
the help will try a session with the tripod and trying different
variations. any ointers where I should start?
been to use to the point and click oly C750 zoom

Click to expand...

--

If I had all the answers we wouldn't be having this conversation.........

There is some great info in the other replies, but I still mean what I said about macro shots, to do it properly, sit the camera on something still.

Cheers
Wazza

--

If I had all the answers we wouldn't be having this conversation.........

Warren Wright said:

I too started out with the C-750, and the interesting thing I found
was I was more able to handhold macro shots than with the E-1. I
have absolutely no idea why, but it seemed to happen.

Click to expand...

Yah, me too (C-755). I got some excellent macro shots with the 755, but it's much harder with the e-300 + 50mm macro lens, probably because of the greater DOF with the 755's smaller sensor (a guess). Basically, it means that you (in general) have to use higher f-stops and/or greater distance-to-subject to get similar results. If Oly comes out with a 100mm macro lens equal optically to the 50mm, it should be very interesting.

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I was using the kit lens the 14-45mm, focal length 22.0mm,exposure comp 0.0ev, F no. 4, shutter 1/500, white bal auto, iso 100, shooting mode apeture priority, metering mode ESP. will have another go this weekend with a tripod and see how I get on. will try those tips posted. will post up some photos to see what you think.

thanks guys

Paul

This data makes more sense- at f=4 the DOF is just shallow.
If it was not too windy, you might have used 1/60 s and f=8 or 11.

The image is not bad at all, it just could need some more sharpening in PP- it is soft, but not realy OOF or blured.

Doehns said:

This data makes more sense- at f=4 the DOF is just shallow.
If it was not too windy, you might have used 1/60 s and f=8 or 11.
The image is not bad at all, it just could need some more
sharpening in PP- it is soft, but not realy OOF or blured.

Click to expand...

... the image is NOT bad. Simply, with a 4/3" size sensor, you shall forget the great DOF provided by 2/3" or smaller. Thing would go better stopping down. But it is correcct to say that this would mean longer exposure, and risk of motion blur. You might try higher ISO (ISO 200 shouldn't affect image quality too much). Another idea for preventing blur: shoot a handful of frame in sequence (in C mode) and then choose the sharpest one (it is Nikon's BSS principle!). Not an easy equation to solve!
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