D700 & 105 VR portrait photos. Sharp?

[em_dee_aitch]

I am admittedly new to this lens, and this is in fact the first test shot that I took with it, at f/4.



Looks sharp to me, but I want to remind people that these shallow DoF shots of eyeballs in focus prove almost zero about sharpness. It's easy to make even a mediocre tele lens appear sharp by focusing on an eyeball with a shallow DoF. A much more reasonable example of "sharpness" would come by evaluating a landscape shot for details, especially away from the image center, where quality issues get more competitive among lenses.

--
David Hill
http://www.austinweddingphotographer.com
Austin, Texas
Likes Canon for panoramas and the 24/1.4.
Likes Nikon for wedding and everything else.

 

[SUPERHOKIE]

Your images are not sharp at all.
Something is seriously wrong with your gear, or something is wrong
with your techniques.

 

[Solomon]

Could be your gear, it could be you. Up your odds by increasing your depth of field (decreasing your diaphragm).

Wide open shots, regardless of the quality of glass, and VR, require a high level of experience and skill in holding the camera. So stop it down, until you reach that point.

That lens is too expensive for you to leave this question to chance. Spend a day with it shooting at various apertures and conditions. Take 30 shots, download them and look at them, take another 30 and do the same thing, keep trying different combinations until you either stumble on a reliable way to reproduce sharp images that please you or you find that you can not reach that point. If you can't reach that point in a day dedicated to it, it is bound the be the gear, return it to where you got it.

Regards,
Sol

 

[Uncle Frank]

I strongly disagree with that. Due to the rather strong AA filter in the D3 and D700, some sharpening somewhere in the process is essential, whether you allow the camera to do it or add it as part of a RAW conversion. I had the AA filter removed in one of mine, and the diff is pretty notable.

I was basing my comments on my own experiences, David. Since I bought a d700, sharpening is no longer a step in my standard workflow. But I appreciate that others may place a higher value on absolute sharpness than I do.

Anyway, I think it's hilarious that everyone thinks it's so funny to clobber the OP's photos like this. In reality, I think the samples images are way too small to tell if they're really sharp or not.

This is Arablover's second thread on the same topic. Several of the photos on this thread were featured on the earlier one. Arablover provided some of the shooting data, and imho 1/15 to 1/30 is too slow for a 105mm lens, even if it's image stabilized. That's what precipitated my comment about technique.

--
Warm regards, Uncle Frank
FCAS Founder, Event Photographer

Galleries at fdrphoto.smugmug.com

 

[em_dee_aitch]

I strongly disagree with that. Due to the rather strong AA filter in the D3 and D700, some sharpening somewhere in the process is essential, whether you allow the camera to do it or add it as part of a RAW conversion. I had the AA filter removed in one of mine, and the diff is pretty notable.

I was basing my comments on my own experiences, David. Since I bought a d700, sharpening is no longer a step in my standard workflow. But I appreciate that others may place a higher value on absolute sharpness than I do.

Oh, I don't doubt your opinion of your own experience, I'm just harmlessly disagreeing! ha ha. I came to Nikon from the Canon 5dm1, which has a higher apparent degree of sharpness than the mere 0.7 difference in MP can explain. I have to have an AA job done on one body and adjust my sharpening habits just to psychologically "deal with it!"

This is Arablover's second thread on the same topic.

Not sure if this was first, second, or third, but there are three total, two of which are totally unnecessary (I appreciate that he has apologized). The title of this one ends in "Sharp?", while the others end in "Help!" and "Please give me your opinion."

Several of the photos on this thread were featured on the earlier one. Arablover provided some of the shooting data, and imho 1/15 to 1/30 is too slow for a 105mm lens, even if it's image stabilized.

Certainly agree there! Whenever you see me post pictures of my dogs, you can in most cases assume that I think it's because the thread has gone to them

--
David Hill
http://www.austinweddingphotographer.com
Austin, Texas
Likes Canon for panoramas and the 24/1.4.
Likes Nikon for wedding and everything else.

 

[Its me]

I was basing my comments on my own experiences, David. Since I bought a d700, sharpening is no longer a step in my standard workflow. But I appreciate that others may place a higher value on absolute sharpness than I do.

Oh really? Do you have picture controls disabled?

--
-Steve

 

[Thomas Guenther]

not only picture contorl is disabled )

I was basing my comments on my own experiences, David. Since I bought a d700, sharpening is no longer a step in my standard workflow. But I appreciate that others may place a higher value on absolute sharpness than I do.

Oh really? Do you have picture controls disabled?

--
-Steve