The man or the machine?

Hello.

I think your problem is simply a defective camera. It it's under warranty so what can you lose, just send it back and test the new one. I bought my Canon t2i brand new last year and I had to send it back right away because it was defective. Maybe your camera's sensor is not set right and you get all a little out of focus. It does not matter how good a photographer you are if you have a defective gear.

Also, maybe this is your first experience with DSLR's but the most common mistakes for people like you will be white balance and color correction issues not sharpness.

Talking about the lenses it is very important to know your gear because each lens has it's own sharper combinations of focal distance and aperture. Also you can check that on the lens comparison tool at dpreview. As a final option you can try to calibrate your lens with your camera and apply correction as needed.

Hope this helps.

Hey,

For some reason I think Toxa will take in some of the insight you gave to all of us!

Cheers, all the best.

Ed

Ronpr said:

D7000 is awsome camera
Here is a good site for you
http://focustestchart.com/chart.html

Toxa said:

Carlos Rivera said:

Toxa said:

I'm not happy with the (lack of) sharpness.

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Lack of sharpness?

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Fantastic sharpness. Could you please share more details about the shooting (settings, lens, distance, lighting, tripod, post production, etc)?

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I used a 50mm 1.4f Sigma set to automatic focus and calibrated using the camera AF fine tune to +14. No flash outdoor natural light and without using a tripod.
Aperture Priority/Auto Focus/Exposure compensation of -0.3
I used the following settings in the camera:
1. Role played by cards RAW+JPG
2. Image size Large
3. JPEG compression Optimal quality
4. NEF (RAW) recording 14-bit
5. White balance AUTO1
6. Picture Control Vivid/Sharpening +6
7. Auto distortion control OFF
8. Color space sRGB
9. Active D-Lighting Normal
10. Long exp. NR OFF
11. High ISO NR NORM
Autofocus
1. a.1 Release
2. a.2 Focus
3. a.3 Normal
4. a.4 ON
5. a.5 ON
6. a.6 AF11 points
Metering/exposure
1. b.1 1/3
2. b.2 1/3
3. b.3 OFF
4. b.4 (.) 8
5. b.5 No

All other settings are set for default values

Over the past few months, I studied a lot and improved my technique, making less blury pictures.

However, my camera indeed had focus issues, already fixed by Nikon (just calibration, no need to replace parts).

I take sharp photos now

LESSON TO NEWBIES: you may not know the techniques, but anyone familiar with a point-n-shoot is more than capable to identify an obvious focus problem in the camera. If, no matter what, you cannot get at least 1 sharp photo on Auto, send the camera to Nikon. It's not rocket science, you are not crazy, and contrary to some fanboys beliefs Nikon DOES ship defect merchandise sometimes, like any other company.

Finally, thanks to everyone in this thread for all the help. You guys rock!!!