Image not sharp with Canon lense 18-200mm

[theveed]

It may not be the sharpest lens out there but to say it is blur,soft might not be a common comment that users of this lens might give.

Focusing issues? Send to CSC to check?

If not with proper technique this lens can produce above average quality. At night with flash the IQ is alright but without IQ degrades....I guess that is more of slow shutter and handshake blur.

There are sample pictures and discussion on this lens, just do a search...my guesss is most probably it is due to the lack of techniques in handling the camera and lens. Having superb lens without technique doesn't give sharp images either.

Nailed it... and by the photos posted, the blurring are clearly caused by camera shake, not lens error.

The group photo, your issue is depth-of-field... Research about that topic.
The other blurry/soft photos posted are results of camera shake.

 

[Anthony Lee]

First of all Anthony, i agree totally that using a flash will improve sharpness tremendously. If you did follow Anson's 18-200mm review, it was beautifully done with many sharp pictures. However CSers usually post with PP done on photos, especially USM. It will definitely look nicer on the output but there are people who do little or no pp, and like the natural output of the jepgs unprocessed by photoshop/gimp /etc. What im driving at is that while flash will improve the pic a whole lot, it just says that the 18-200 under performs with natural lighting, which im sure can be attributed to the image degradation with complicated glass elements of the lens at such long focal length lenses.

I had exactly the same results with this lens. It was sometime ago and i cannot recall if it was due to slow shutter speeds that exceed the 1/focal length limit, but what i do know is that this lens has plenty of chroma noise (purple fringing) and soft pics without flash. But with flash its as sharp as a needle.

Thus i feel pictures for review should be posted unprocessed, for the sake of testing lens in real conditions, and perhaps only cropping should be done to showcase what the lens can really do.

Btw Anthony sharp pic of the cat =D

Note to bro Anson and Anthony, good advice given to TS and i learnt tremendously from them too :thumbsup:

Hard not to do any PP with digital photography. There is already a certain degree of in-camera processing if you shoot jpec. I normally shoot raw and thus I will have no choice but to some PP, mostly with Canon's DPP. I do use flash alot when I shoot indoors as my old 5D is not very good at high ISO. Flash also helps to freeze motion, that's why most people who are into nature shooting will use it.

I understand what you said about the 18-200 as I tested it before. TS worry is only about sharpness, so it's simple to teach him how to improve in this area. But if he had said that he wanted better color rendition, contrast, saturation, less of CAs and whatnot, then I would have stayed away. Every lens can be sharp provided you use it correctly.