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16-50mm Image quality: Broken or normal?

Started Jul 10, 2020 | Photos
maikl80 Junior Member • Posts: 41
16-50mm Image quality: Broken or normal?
1

I have the Samsung NX500 and the 16-50mm PZ. Recently I noticed that a lot of images are not sharp when using this lens - but then I was not sure whether focusing was really accurate or there was a slight shake. So to investigate further today I made a comparison with different lenses using a tripod. I compared the 16-50mm PZ to my 20mm prime lens at 20mm and to the 50-200mm at 50mm as shown below.

I think the images are very unsharp and I wonder whether the image quality of the PZ is just not better or whether there is something wrong with my copy? Of course you would expect a small kit zoom lens to be not as sharp as a prime lens but in my opinion the difference is too large especially when compared to another zoom lens at 50mm.

What do you think?

Left: 20mm prime at F3.5, Right: 16-50mm PZ at 20mm at F4, both focused on orange brick.

Left: 50-200mm at 50mm F8, Right: 16-50mm at 50mm F8, both focused on the letters

Comment & critique:
Please provide me constructive critique and criticism.
Samsung NX500
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White Widow Forum Member • Posts: 66
Re: 16-50mm Image quality: Broken or normal?
1

To me this looks like there is clearly something wrong with your PZ lens. I once had a similar experience with the 16-50mm lens (it was the S-version) where I noticed many out of focus shots until I investigated further with a few test shots, just like you did. It turned out that my lens was de-centered and needed repair.

You could try to see whether there is a firmware update available for your lens that might somehow magically fix this.

Somewhere in the back of my mind I remember there was a development setting in the camera (you need a hack to access this) where you can recalibrate a lens, not sure where I have read this and whether this would work on your NX500 - I might be completely wrong about this. Perhaps some other members of this forum could chime in.

 White Widow's gear list:White Widow's gear list
Samsung NX1 Samsung NX500 Samsung NX 30mm F2 Pancake Samsung NX 85mm F1.4 ED SSA Samsung NX 12-24mm F4-5.6 ED +4 more
White Widow Forum Member • Posts: 66
Re: 16-50mm Image quality: Broken or normal?

White Widow wrote:

Perhaps some other members of this forum could chime in.

I just looked it up myself and found this link over at EOSHD:

https://www.eoshd.com/comments/topic/19465-dev-menu-ois-calibration-safe-to-perform/

This calibrates only the OIS in the lens though  - not sure wether this helps, but worth a shot. To test whether the OIS is the culprit you could try switchingit off when you take a shot with a tripod...

 White Widow's gear list:White Widow's gear list
Samsung NX1 Samsung NX500 Samsung NX 30mm F2 Pancake Samsung NX 85mm F1.4 ED SSA Samsung NX 12-24mm F4-5.6 ED +4 more
OP maikl80 Junior Member • Posts: 41
Re: 16-50mm Image quality: Broken or normal?

White Widow wrote:

White Widow wrote:

Perhaps some other members of this forum could chime in.

I just looked it up myself and found this link over at EOSHD:

https://www.eoshd.com/comments/topic/19465-dev-menu-ois-calibration-safe-to-perform/

This calibrates only the OIS in the lens though - not sure wether this helps, but worth a shot. To test whether the OIS is the culprit you could try switchingit off when you take a shot with a tripod...

Thanks for your opinion about the lens - it's good to know that something seems to be wrong. Unfortunately I am on firmware 1.12 and I tried to enter DEV mode earlier but it did not work so I'm not sure I can try to recalibrate OIS. But I can switch it off and try again - that's a good idea.

Otherwise I will probably look for a replacement lens since they are quite cheap at the moment.

Siralgovia Regular Member • Posts: 157
Re: 16-50mm Image quality: Broken or normal?

I experience a similar thing on the NX500. My 20mm definitely delivers a more pleasing result. The 20mm is actually my favorite Samsung lens I've used. Sold my 30mm and even though it technically may be one of the sharpest of the line-up, for me the 20mm has a certain special magic to it. The difference does not appear that pronounced on my NX3300, but my copy of the 20mm definitely beats my 16-50mm in perceived sharpness and clarity. However, I would not consider it as dramatically different as you describe with your lenses.

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