995 Sharpness

[Sherman Stebbins]

I noticed on several of the reviews, Phil put a foot note in saying he used a Canon D-30 for photos of the camera he was reviewing. I know I would get a D-30 if I could afford one.

Sherm

I have no idea what digicam Askew has
chosen for his own use -

Gordon

 

[JerryO]

Well since I have never had a really good digital camera this one will probably spoil me. I guess if I had used the higher end cameras for
years I would be more picky but the sharpness on the 995 will seem
unbelievable to me..Thanks to everyone on this forum for their help ..Jerry

 

[Paul Beaulieu]

Here they are
http://members.home.net/paulbeaulieu/CP995_test

I should mention, once again, that the 995 is wonderful at doing people shots outside. Just point, click, and you'll be the one smiling! But getting the last little bits of fine details is not the camera's strong point.

Paul

Paul have you got any samples you can post?

Sherm

 

[Sherman Stebbins]

Thanks Paul for takeing the time and posting those. But I do to my low bandwidth at home I'll have to wait to see the big photos, but I was interested in the bridge photos you cropped. It looked like the max sharp helped quit a bit. Was that just on this photo or others as well? Do you prefer to keep it set on max sharp?

Thanks Sherm

I should mention, once again, that the 995 is wonderful at doing
people shots outside. Just point, click, and you'll be the one
smiling! But getting the last little bits of fine details is not
the camera's strong point.

Paul

Paul have you got any samples you can post?

Sherm

 

[arturo43892]

I could download only a part of each photo. I wonder what I'm doing wrong?...

--Arturo

I should mention, once again, that the 995 is wonderful at doing
people shots outside. Just point, click, and you'll be the one
smiling! But getting the last little bits of fine details is not
the camera's strong point.

Paul

Paul have you got any samples you can post?

Sherm

 

[Jonathan Statt]

Hi,

I posted a msg a couple of days ago regarding a white balance problem with the 995 but nobody responded. Yet looking at the pictures you posted at that URL you have exactly the same problem as me. The camera seems to have enormous difficulty determining incandescent lighting, and puts a thick orange-red cast over the picture! If you manually set the white balance all is fine, but for a camera of this level I would expect the auto mode (which other digital cameras such as S75 cope with) to do a better job.

I have a small theory about this though. If you manually set the white balance to speedlight but don't use the speedlight you get this same cast. I wonder if the camera wrongly thinks the flash is always available, and if light is not bright enough automatically activates the speedlight white balance setting. I know you said you had a lot of lighting in the room, but you can tell if the camera still wanted to use flash by holding the shutter half way down with speedlight closed, and see if the red flash light next to the viewfinder flashes rapidly.

Either way, its either a bug or a very poor auto white balance. I expect a firmware update for it.

Jonathan Statt

 

[Ron Shaffer]

Arturo,

I do not think you were doing anything wrong, same thing happened when I tried to down load to new iBook--1024X768 should show differences talked about, but I cannot see blurring in smaller images, nor in the incomplete download. Would like some hear more on this issue as I am currently have a 995 on back order.

Ron

--Arturo

I should mention, once again, that the 995 is wonderful at doing
people shots outside. Just point, click, and you'll be the one
smiling! But getting the last little bits of fine details is not
the camera's strong point.

Paul

Paul have you got any samples you can post?

Sherm

 

[Paul Beaulieu]

On a cable-modem at home, and ADSL modem at the office, I could load the full images. But what I will do is to move the page to a different (and probably more reliable) web server tonight, now that they've just given me the extra 15MB I'm entitled to!

Paul

I do not think you were doing anything wrong, same thing happened
when I tried to down load to new iBook--1024X768 should show
differences talked about, but I cannot see blurring in smaller
images, nor in the incomplete download. Would like some hear more
on this issue as I am currently have a 995 on back order.

Ron

I could download only a part of each photo. I wonder what I'm
doing wrong?...

--Arturo

 

[Paul Beaulieu]

Good question. Yes the "max" sharpness helped a lot, in this photo plus a couple of others where I dared use "max". But you do get the strong edge artifacts, so I don't think that "max" on the 995 is the same as "normal" on the 990. A more scientific test would need to be done to check that out.

For people shots, "normal" works fine and the results look great on the computer screen. One may even try "low" in that case, for printed shots. I don't print my shots, so I'm really just doing one half of the experiment! I ususally make web friendly image sizes, so the sharpness issue isn't really an issue.

I may add a couple more sample shots to the page in the next couple of days. Plus I may do some test (brick wall) photos to compare with the 990 before I ship the 995 to its rightful owner...

Paul

Thanks Paul for takeing the time and posting those. But I do to my
low bandwidth at home I'll have to wait to see the big photos, but
I was interested in the bridge photos you cropped. It looked like
the max sharp helped quit a bit. Was that just on this photo or
others as well? Do you prefer to keep it set on max sharp?

Thanks Sherm

 

[Paul Beaulieu]

I've moved the page to
http://www.holo-graphic.com/CP995_test/

This should be a more reliable web server. Plus I've added a couple of things including one shot with lots of trees, and mentioned the focal lengths.

Paul

I do not think you were doing anything wrong, same thing happened
when I tried to down load to new iBook--1024X768 should show
differences talked about, but I cannot see blurring in smaller
images, nor in the incomplete download. Would like some hear more
on this issue as I am currently have a 995 on back order.

Ron

I could download only a part of each photo. I wonder what I'm
doing wrong?...

--Arturo

 

[JerryO]

Thanks for the test Paul. Just curious why that one picture with the 995 of the box and instructions turned out so redish?? Was the balance off? Jerry

Paul

I do not think you were doing anything wrong, same thing happened
when I tried to down load to new iBook--1024X768 should show
differences talked about, but I cannot see blurring in smaller
images, nor in the incomplete download. Would like some hear more
on this issue as I am currently have a 995 on back order.

Ron

I could download only a part of each photo. I wonder what I'm
doing wrong?...

--Arturo

 

[Paul Beaulieu]

I'm not sure the real reason. As Jonathan mentioned in a message below, this may be a bug in the firmware thinking that the flash is available. The camera couldn't autofocus properly either. When I set the white balance to "incandescent" and used manual focus, the shot turned out OK. One of my theories is that since the 995 is a lower power consumption camera than the 990, its electronics may be less sensitive. This is unfortunate, since with the 990, all I had to do was point and shoot. Also, the 995 lens may be a little slower than the 990 lens, so this could be part of the problem.

Paul

Thanks for the test Paul. Just curious why that one picture with
the 995 of the box and instructions turned out so redish?? Was the
balance off? Jerry

 

[Jan Struyf]

After reading your focus problem, I tried my 995 in extreme low light last night and could focus all the time without any problem. The only time I couldn't get a focus lock was when I pointed my camera to a white wall with very low light and no shadow, any other condition it worked OK.
Of course if the subject is not visible on your LCD, camera can't focus also.

I used my camera in manual mode and used the "AF manual area mode", if you point your camera to the low light subject and select an area with some contrast, it locks in all the time.

With low light I mean, I barrely could read my newspaper.

Jan

Paul

Thanks for the test Paul. Just curious why that one picture with
the 995 of the box and instructions turned out so redish?? Was the
balance off? Jerry

 

[Jonathan Statt]

Hi Jan,

I don't have the focus problem either....but I do have real auto white balance problems. Can you confirm if your 995 makes everything orange-red in medium or low level incandescent light (flourescent is fine), with speedlight switched off.

Many thanks,
Jonathan

With low light I mean, I barrely could read my newspaper.

Jan

Paul

Thanks for the test Paul. Just curious why that one picture with
the 995 of the box and instructions turned out so redish?? Was the
balance off? Jerry

 

[Dave Chamberlain]

Hi Jan,

I don't have the focus problem either....but I do have real auto
white balance problems. Can you confirm if your 995 makes
everything orange-red in medium or low level incandescent light
(flourescent is fine), with speedlight switched off.

Many thanks,
Jonathan

Hi Jonathan,

I got my 995 last Saturday (UK model) Firmware Ver 1.5.

And yep it shows the same auto white balance problems with low level artificial light, I think your idea about the flash could be right. I've been in touch with Nikon UK who are getting back to me !!!

Other than that the thing focuses in low light without a problem and the images seem sharp enough to me.

cheers

Dave..

 

[Jan Struyf]

Jonathan,

That's correct in auto balance I have a very orange looking pictures too. I didn't noticed it since I used preset White balance which gives overall the best results. AutoBalance indoors is a problems in most digicams so I didn't expect it to work. I aggree it is extremely bad.

Jan

Hi Jan,

I don't have the focus problem either....but I do have real auto
white balance problems. Can you confirm if your 995 makes
everything orange-red in medium or low level incandescent light
(flourescent is fine), with speedlight switched off.

Many thanks,
Jonathan

Hi Jonathan,

I got my 995 last Saturday (UK model) Firmware Ver 1.5.

And yep it shows the same auto white balance problems with low
level artificial light, I think your idea about the flash could be
right. I've been in touch with Nikon UK who are getting back to me
!!!

Other than that the thing focuses in low light without a problem
and the images seem sharp enough to me.

cheers

Dave..

 

[JerryO]

I have noticed the orange in the pictures too.Hopefully Nikon will have a firmware update soon after release to tweak this out..

That's correct in auto balance I have a very orange looking
pictures too. I didn't noticed it since I used preset White
balance which gives overall the best results. AutoBalance indoors
is a problems in most digicams so I didn't expect it to work. I
aggree it is extremely bad.

Jan

Hi Jan,

I don't have the focus problem either....but I do have real auto
white balance problems. Can you confirm if your 995 makes
everything orange-red in medium or low level incandescent light
(flourescent is fine), with speedlight switched off.

Many thanks,
Jonathan

Hi Jonathan,

I got my 995 last Saturday (UK model) Firmware Ver 1.5.

And yep it shows the same auto white balance problems with low
level artificial light, I think your idea about the flash could be
right. I've been in touch with Nikon UK who are getting back to me
!!!

Other than that the thing focuses in low light without a problem
and the images seem sharp enough to me.

cheers

Dave..

 

[Paul Beaulieu]

I was using automatic AF area on both cameras. Does manually setting the AF area on the 995 help it's low light focusing?

Unfortunately, I had to send my second 995 to its owner this morning, so can no longer try things out.

I took some brick wall test photos yesterday late afternoon (to compare with the 990) which I may add to the web page this weekend.

Cheers,
Paul

After reading your focus problem, I tried my 995 in extreme low
light last night and could focus all the time without any problem.
The only time I couldn't get a focus lock was when I pointed my
camera to a white wall with very low light and no shadow, any other
condition it worked OK.
Of course if the subject is not visible on your LCD, camera can't
focus also.
I used my camera in manual mode and used the "AF manual area
mode", if you point your camera to the low light subject and select
an area with some contrast, it locks in all the time.

With low light I mean, I barrely could read my newspaper.

Jan

 

[seb26081]

I agree.

Is saying that the 995 produces softer images jusy another way of
saying "OUT OF FOCUS"? That is my reading. When I pay $800 to
$900 for a camera I want it to produce as sharp an image as is
possible. If a simple adjustment will correct this, NIKON should
do so without any delay. I do not want it to be out of focus be
design. In my book it has always been left up to the discretion of
the person behind the lens to determine when a softer focus was
desirable. The majority of the time I want sharp images not fuzzy
ones.
Charlie

 

[JerryO]

Funny,alot of people that have recieved the 995 are not experiencing the sharp image problem. Seems to be just a few. Maybe some people don't know how to use the camera or maybe this is a random problem which would be strange