Canon 7D softness?

Whoa! come on guys, dont tell me the 7D doesnt deliver sharp images without post processing ?

All your shots need is a bit more sharpening especially when you downsize them to post here they get softer. If your shots don't look sharp enough when you view them at full size on your screen then go into the camera menu & increase your sharpening from 3 & maybe try 5 & then even more until they look good to you.

I just gave your shots a small Unsharp mask in Photoshop of 100......point 3.....0 & they look just fine to me. They can go even sharper if need be.

shankardarren said:

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shankardarren said:

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shankardarren said:

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Regards Rod

shankardarren said:

Currently using kit 18-55 and 50mm 1.8. Yes i agree better glass is the key but where do i start? im currently a med student who just blew all his cash on a 7D! haha..
Any suggestions

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One factor that may be contributing is noise reduction, unless you set it to low or turned it off altogether.

shankardarren said:

Whoa! come on guys, dont tell me the 7D doesnt deliver sharp images without post processing ?

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Of course it delivers sharp out of camera Jpegs but you have to set the sharpening level to how you want them to look. See my post above about how downsizing a shot makes them look soft so always sharpen a downsized shot before posting or printing.

If you don't want to do any post processing at all then set your camera up in the menu & it will do all the post processing for you. I think Standard picture style is the best for Jpegs that won't be post processed so just go into the menus & increase the sharpening level in the standard picture style, you can also increase the colour saturation & other things to get the best looking Jpegs for your needs.
Regards Rod

The 50mm f1.8, at f1.8, is not sharp. See photozone.de for MTF curve of this lens.

However, if you slide to f2.8, you will see very good sharpness.

Good news, your 7D is focussing well.

7d with 50mm f1.8 @ f2.8 100% crop. This is a topic that has been discussed roughly 100000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 times in this forum, if you look at any of those discussions you will discover that there are many reasons that one might get soft images from any camera. The vast majority of these discussions of turned out to be someone not knowing how to use the camera, but there are some 7d's out there with focus issues.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/22781076@N03/4832196483/sizes/o/in/set-72157624489931828/

Jay S. said:

Not sure f4 is the sweet spot.. Usually the sweet spot is a bit higher, but clearly f4 will provide a much better working aperture than f/1.8 will. If you've never seen a Depth of Field calculator, you should understand how aperture and DOF work. Here's a popular one.

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Yes you must understand depth of field using an SLR camera because f4 depending on your photographic situation may not supply enough depth of field (enough in focus) for your liking. When in doubt, use a smaller aperture (higher f number) until you are more accustomed to knowing when you can use wide aperture (lower f number) and get an image with adequate focus recorded.

shankardarren said:

Whoa! come on guys, dont tell me the 7D doesnt deliver sharp images without post processing ?

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Not true, he must have not been very patient with his 7D or did not want to learn proper focusing techniques. Learn and understand the different focusing modes the 7D has and what is best to focus on of your subjects.

Try a more controlled situation, something not moving and in good light to help you figure out how best to focus on things since this sounds like this might be your first SLR camera. And you can always increase the sharpness setting of the Picture Styles setting.

shankardarren said:

I was using the 50mm 1.8 throughout. Though varying the aperture stops for different shots. So f4 is the sweet spot for that lens then?

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Remember that you use a crop camera and with the 50mm lens you have the comparable angle of view of a 90mm lens. The "old" guideline say that you should be shooting faster than 1/90 sec when handheld. All your pics are slower than that.

These "old" guidelines apply to film which has less resolution than a 7D. So to stay on the safe side you probably have to half the safe handholding speed. So to get tack sharp images you have to shoot around 1/200 sec or faster in the combination you used.

Bottomline is that there is nothing wrong with your equipment, you just have to use it correctly.

CutterUK said:

I got the 7D a month or so after it came out but I sold it a month or so later because I found it delivered soft images, I picked up a 550D and the quality in sharpness was much better, I remember there beinga few threads about this at the time, I've a 60D now and that too delivers sharp images.

It's a pity because I thought the 7D handled so well

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That's too bad because there is absolutely no difference in sharpness between the 3 cameras if you know how to operate them properly.

7D, 300mmf4L, 1/1250s f/4.0 at 300.0mm iso400



100% crop



7D, 300mmf4L, 1/1600s f/4.5 at 300.0mm iso200



100% crop



7D, 300mmf4L, 1/1250s f/4.5 at 300.0mm iso200



100% crop



The 60D and 550D are not sharper than the 7D.

Bob

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http://www.pbase.com/rwbaron

shankardarren said:

Currently using kit 18-55 and 50mm 1.8. Yes i agree better glass is the key but where do i start? im currently a med student who just blew all his cash on a 7D! haha..
Any suggestions

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I have the 50mm 1.8 and while it's a fun lens I find it a little soft wide open (as you were using it) even on my 40D (lower resolution). Stopped down a couple steps it does improve. Plus, the DOF is quite small at 1.8 so careful focus is important.

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Don't assume. It makes an a** out of you and me. ;-)
http://www.molimophoto.com

My main issue is low light photography. Under low light, i usually try to leave the aperture wide open letting more light in. I dont mind increasing the iso as noise reduction is possible later. my only concern is shutter speed. yes i want to take shots at 1/250 to 1/400 but the exposure compensates and makes the picture darker. low light + darker = bad..
Anyone has any suggestions? The 50mm 1.8 is already a good lens for low light.

And i know tripod may be the answer but its not practical to be using it for shots!

Well, you can get faster glass, of course, but not a ton faster. 50mm f1.2 and f1.4 are faster, but that makes the DOF issue worse. I love my 50mm f1.4, but that's another story.

Why shutters of 1/250 to 1/400?? That is crazy fast for a 50mm lens unless your subject is moving very fast. 1/80 or so should suffice for that lens. As to aperture, you can see the sharpness graph here...

http://www.photozone.de/canon-eos/160-canon-ef-50mm-f18-ii-test-report--review?start=1

by f2.8 it's already pretty good, at f4 or f5.6 it's REALLY good. Up the ISO to make f2.8 at 1/80th work, or do yourself one better and improve the lighting! A bounce flash does wonders. You don't have the harsh flash look because you bounce light off of a surface (like the ceiling if it's white) and the area of reflection is the light source, not the flash bulb.

Happened to a friend. It's not about RAW processing. It's not about buying 'better glass'. It's the focus.

Read this. A helpful and calm look at the problem which suggests how to check your camera's AF performance and decide whether you need to return it.

http://michaelmiles.com/2010/03/06/answer-fixing-canon-7d-focus-issue/

shankardarren said:

I had a few shots taken from my new 7D and found that most of them were quite soft. And yes made sure my focus was dead on! This softness is just more soft than what i used to get out of my other DSLR's. Im currently using the standard picture mode. Sharpening +3 i presume. Any thoughts on this?

I know post processing has a part to play, but nah i dont want to be sharpening each picture all the time.
Thanks

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But i think my 7D has no focus issues as stated by someone above. Nah, i think due to the Camera's large sensor with high density 18megapix, a better glass would solve the sharpness issue. maybe some good L glass ? Opinions?

This shot was recently taken with my Sigma 120-400 at f-11, 1/1000 sec and stabilizer on. I have always complained that my RAW pics were soft. Did a lot of research: some claim to have tack-sharp RAWs but most have to apply a lot of sharpening. One sharpening website says RAW Canon shots need 7 in DPP, which is the maximum. I find that I have to apply two or three sharpenings in ACR and CS5. Anyway, this is what unsharpened RAW (zero) looks like shen converted to unsharpened JPEG. This is a 100% crop. ISO is 800.

Lots of noise and generally quite unsharp.

thats really bad. hmm, any solutions ?

Any solutions? I don't even know what the problem is. The shot of the cat should have been sharper even if this is a 100% crop. There's noise. The exposure may not be so good. My Sigma 120-400 may be faulty - in fact it is returning to Sigma because I have autofocus problems with it - there was a recall of this lens anyway.

So, I don't know.

I was happy with my 1DsMkII (apart from severe dust problems), and more than happy with my 350D.

Am I a victim of forum psychosis or is my 7D really not quite right. I don't know. One thing, however, is absolutely clear: my RAW shots are softer than any camera I have owned in the past. Why doesn't Canon tell us: "don't worry, it's normal to have to apply 7 sharpening in DPP".

I have yet to BELIEVE those who say their RAW pics are sharp, straight out of the camera, with no picture style applied, no sharpening whatsoever. Come on, show me, prove it to me. If someone here can produce one 100% sharp crop or pic, RAW, unsharpened in any way, then, yes, my 7D IS faulty and needs to return to Canon. But as long as I don't have proof that a RAW unsharpened pic can come out sharp, I can't tell if my 7D works properly.

Here's an unsharpened RAW converted into unsharpened JPEG, taken in the best conditions (tripod, cable, etc), with an excellent lens (17-55 2.8)

To follow up. Same day, same lens (Sigma 120-400), 50% crop and very careful sharpening tweaking in ACR and CS5. Is this acceptable? Why is the cat shot so bad, and this one possibly acceptable? If you enlarge the bird shot, however, you'll see color noise and artefacts possibly due to oversharpening.

Maybe I am actually oversharpening to compensante for RAWs that are too soft.

I think I'm beggining to need real help, technical and psychiatric.

Michel,

Your cat pic is definitely soft and the bird shot does look oversharpened. Without having your camera and lenses in hand it's impossible to say what the problem is but something's not right (check my post further up in the thread for examples from my 7D). Have you compared contrast AF in liveview to phase AF with the camera on a tripod?

Bob
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http://www.pbase.com/rwbaron