G2 sharpness

[Tom Reynolds]

Responding to the Original Post:

I appologize if I state something obvious, I was unclear as to various comparisons done.

1) The wide angle lens position is not going to have the same quality of resolution as the middle or possibly long end - in general (regardless of how far away the target is).

2) A single close object has a very concise focus plane to look at (as long as all of your target is in the allowed range of DOF)

3) Several distant objects will complicate things. Harder to know for sure what the camera actually focused on, and you have a range of distances of objects from the camera. Only one plane of perfect focus.

4) Yes, if there is less detail to see, the perception of resolution will be less. If your eye views an object from a greater distance, it will see less detail as well.

 

[mcveed]

Mick,

I would say that these two images are equally sharp - or nearly so. You didn't provide any aperature or shutter speed data so I can't say whether some of the OUT OF FOCUS areas of the foliage shot are the result of lack of depth of field, camera shake or wind. Not all of the face shot is in focus either - note the sweater and the ears.

The face shot probably looks sharper because it - at least the eye part - is a high contrast subject. High contrast images always look sharper than low contrast images - even though they aren't. Compare the eyebrows to the crevices in the rocks at the center of the foliage shot - they look equally sharp to me.

Many people complain about digital cameras (including the G2) having soft images - well they are designed that way, thankfully. That allows us to apply the amount of sharpening we want, not what some camera designer wants. I use a G2 and I keep the contrast, sharpness and saturation setting on low all the time. Then I apply the settings I want after the fact. I do this in my Picture Window, not in Breezebrowser. I shoot in RAW and I always use auto white balance, but I experiment with different settings in Breezebrowser as I am converting.

Of course if you want the easy way out you can set the camera to high sharpness and high contrast.
Happy Snapping
Don McVee
http://www.pbase.com/mcveed

 

[gkl]

I'm using Win 2000. I do have Canon's RAW I mage Converter and it
seems to work fine, but the description of the TWAIN RAW Acquire
Module made it seem to have more features for adjusting the image.

What am I (or my brain) missing?

I'd guess Win 98. The Twain do-dad only installs on specific (older) Wins. I don't recall the entire list, but definitely on Win 98, and definitely not on Win ME. cheers, gkl

 

[Richard J]

I've had a new G2 for about a week. In testing the operation of the
camera, I've found that the resolution in Macro mode, a bit of
zoom, about two feet away (holding the camera in front of me
pointing at my face) is stunning. This was at f 2.5.

Later I did some test shots on a tripod, manual focus, etc., and
found that the apparent sharpness at longer distances was not
nearly as good. It varies with the aperature (that's another
subject) but is never the razor-sharp result of the closeup. Is
that a normal, if disappointing, occurance? Or is my camera
defective?

There has been a lot said about this, but it all misses the point of what you are saying.

There is a problem. The G2 is short-sighted at the wide end of the zoom range. To check this, turn on the camera set it to wide range, choose AV mode and choose f2 (because we want to TEST the camera. Focus on a clear black on white object with good contrast at 1m distance, and then press the manual focus button. You will find that the focus says it is 5m or thereabouts - it will vary a bit each time, but that is the sort of focus you will get on average. Now focus on the same object at 3m - and you will get infinity.

Now use the manual focus and do some test shots at diiferent manual focus distances. Compare the results - you'll find that the camera is shortsighted.

There are two workarounds.

a) Use f8 for everything if you want half reasonable landscape shots

b) Buy a minus one diopter spectacle lens from a place that makes specactles and get them to fit it in a filter holder. Then you will see you really CAN get better focussed distance shots.

The problem isn't so bad at the long end of the zoom, but I haven't test that in detail.

I do architecture shots and real sharpness matters to me.

By the way always use the - setting for sharpness & use an unsharp mask, the standard sharperning over sharpens detail.

Richard Johnston

I got rather

 

[relate22]

Thank you Leonard for your unsharp settings for clarity in landscapes, it sure saved me a lot of experimentation and hair pulling. I am now off to check on other postings on clarity....so much to learn so little time.