Walk around lens

Tim A2 wrote:

If it's just about image quality, chance are there are at least a dozen things you could improve in your own technique that would make a bigger difference than a new lens>

Marc, I value your knowledge and opinion. Can you please expand more on improving technique? Your point about max aperature and focus was well taken.

In my experience, when newcomers to DSLR photography make initial posts about not being happy with the IQ from their new cameras, and then post images they are not happy with, I generally see some combination of the following:

• not controlling where the camera is trying to focus

• trying to focus closer than the minimum focus distance

• turning the focus ring to infinity to shoot landscapes rather than actually focusing

• not choosing a small enough aperture to give enough DOF to get the amount of the scene in focus one wants

• choosing too small an aperture in an attempt to maximize DOF and thus creating diffraction as well as slowing down shutter speed or requiring an increase in ISO

• using too slow a shutter speed for the focal length (which often comes from not choosing a large aperture and/or high enough ISO)

• using a higher ISO than is required by the situation

• not waiting for SR to activate

• using JPEG settings (eg, "natural" mode) that do only minimal enhancement of an image, and then expecting results to be similar to the over-processed look of a typical P&S camera

• using a "UV" (which I think stands for "unnecessary and very-bad") filter

• not using a hood