995 Sharpness

[JerryO]

yes Paul,Thanks again for the comp photos. They were great!! Jerry

Sherm

Thanks for the feedback. I also prefer the colours in the 995.
Red bricks are red, blue sky is blue... And skin tones are very
nice. I just find the colours a little over-saturated, so ended up
sticking with saturation -1.

With the wide angle brick shots (with low f-stop) , the
depth-of-field comes into play, so it's difficult for me to make
conclusions about the lens using thoses shots. And as you say, the
camera wasn't perpendicular (in either plane). But with other 8mm
focal length shots I've taken, I don't see any problems with the
corners of the image.

The top left crane shot is still a mystery to me. The left side of
the image (including the Suburban truck in the bottom left corner)
is sharp, but most of the right side of the image looks like it was
left unsharpened! The second 995 I got never did anything like
that.

http://holo-graphic.com/CP995_test/

Cheers,
Paul

Paul, Thanks for the comparison. After examining them for some time
now, I finde I like the colours of the 995 much better than the 990
(except for the firmware bug on the white balance which nikon said
was being fixed, in your mostly red shot of the box). I also liked
the shot you did in your first comparison of the crane, with the
suburban down in the lower left. I could see more resolution of the
suburban with the 995 then the 990, yes the 995 did look softer,
but seemed to show a little better on resolution. Also on your
brick shot I noticed that in the first example the 995 had a lower
fstop then the 990 and that the out of focus portion was on the
left, not the right. This doesn't sound like any lens problem I
have seen before. With the lower fstop, if the camera is no
perfectly perpendicular to the wall one side will be more out of
focus then the other. If it were a lens problem then you should see
it out of focus on all four corners of lower fstop wide angle
shots. Any thoughts Paul, besides your the one with the camera.

Sherm

 

[FJBrad]

DH,
Upon reflection, some of my comments were rather lame.

I'm sure that you are unaware that recently the forum has been subjected to deceptively crafted posts designed to create controversy where none should exist, or merely to irritate. Posting under an alias (sometimes several) and alternately feigning sincerity and then switching to attack mode was the usual MO. This resulted in my antennae going up, or if you prefer, I became suspicious of those new to the forum, or from other forums, showing up with a ding post. I know that your original post was sincere in nature. My reaction was the result of being "primed ", and I responded mistakenly innapropriately. Sarcasm is never appropriate when the intension is to demean. Please accept my apologies. I hope my response haven't tainted Nikon Talk or discouraged your participation.

As far as Nikon vs G1Vs other DCs, they are all capable tools, able to deliver stunning results. I wish I could get one camera combining all the positive attributes of each camera. Absent that it, a decision on which camera to invest in comes down to personal, subjective criteria.

To me, the performance of the 995 is still unknown (at least I can't say with any confidence). Lens sharpness ( or focus ) reports often are at odds with the more stringent testing and reviews found on websites. Does it take IBM microdrive? Although the 995 has a CF2 slot so it will physically accept the IBM microdrive, Nikon won't endorse the use of it. Nikon also updated the firmware from V1.1 to V.1.5 . This may indicate that some of these problems will be solved when the final product is delivered, or it may be that softer images are going to be a trade-off for getting a 4x lens, just as losing the use of the optical viewfinderand internal flash/sensor, when lens converters are used, was a tradeoff for having a swivel lens in the 990. If innacurate, buggy focus (bogus focus?) or significantly unsharp optics are present in regular production cameras, then the criticisms may indeed be well-founded. I'm willing to wait for a consensus, one way or the other, and to see if Nikon can resolve those problems that actually exist.
FJBrad

 

[aa]

I apollogize also. I see now what you were trying to do and i have to agree it is an moment of irritation when people delibrately try to create controversy just for the sake of it.....and without trying to raise a point.

I'm fine with people raising valid points or delivering criticism if they back it up with real arguments based on a review or a sample photo or some other thing. This is what often forms a base for fruitful and worthwhile discussion of digital camera issues.

Sorry we got off on the wrong foot.

Best of regards
Dh

 

[FJBrad]

DH,
Thanks for your understanding. I do appreciate second chances.

FYI, I just returned from LA where I had the opportunity to talk with some Nikon reps at the Photo Expo. I learned absolutely nothing! Either they didn't know of firmware, and/or hardware problems, or simply didn't want to discuss them. If there are problems that they are still trying to sort out I could understand their reluctance to make a statement to a person unknown to them(me) that might later be misconstrued or innacurately conveyed to the public, say, in a web forum. The lens sharpness/focus issue is still clear as mud, in my mind anyway. Personally, if I had to give away a little edge sharpness for the 4x, I could probably live with that (although some portion of potential buyers would probably balk). Overall sharpness is another issue. The anecdotal evidence and more formal testing will probably make it easier to draw conclusions shortly.
Best Regards,
FJBrad

 

[Frances47317]

Check this out....:O)

http://www.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1022&page=1&message=1183360

Frances.

Dessethawk!
I see flamming from you more than I see from FJBrad...let's be
honest you got not business here, since you are a G1 user.

I admit to returning FJ's fire in this case. And i reserve the
right to respond to unfair comments like his.

As for my not having any business here....please don't be so
defensive...let me just asssure you was not trying to dump on nikon.

His replay is a valid one

I don't see the validity in it. The point i raised about the
sharpness was a valid one. I think this has been clearly proved by
the active discussion in the thread.

, what about I go to the canon forum and

post a similar post like yours?
see what happen........

I'm sure you'd get some negative and lame comments like the one
from FJBRAD. But if your point was legitimate i also think you'd
start a discussion about it as indeed happened in this thread.

Let me just say again i don't have any gripe with nikon. Indeed i
think nikon is an excellent manufacturer. I almost got the 990 but
in the end decided to get the G1 because of price (it was 150 $
less). Had the price been the same i think i'd still be trying to
decide. S

Dh