Image not sharp with Canon lense 18-200mm

[mugenpower]

As mentioned, it could be due to the settings on your camera also. Some of the pictures you posted seemed a little underexposed and that might contribute to the dullness..the plants don't look green and bright enough to me.

Also the natural lighting available is a big factor too. On a dull or hazy day, it will also produce some grey cast (my own experience) on the colours.

Therefore my conclusion is that first go calibrate your lens and shoot more...getting an expensive lens is not the only solution to obtaining sharper pictures and better colours.

To me maybe it is easier to do simple 1 - 2 min of post processing using softwares.

Just wander, hw do we actually know the brightness of the camera to be set and after place it to pc with another different brightness. Not knowing which is which. Later when the photo being view at other pc, it will turn up to be another brightness. ( More confuse ) End up we keep on setting the brightness of the photo..

 

[mugenpower]

I often use my zoom as prime, often I would shift myself (unless I have space constraint) instead of the zoom ring. For event shooting that require me to shoot at F2.8 or larger, I would use a two body, three lens option.

To me the lens is just a tool, whether or not it's a zoom or prime... light, composition, angle, etc... it's more important than any single lens itself.





Please kindly read my comment in -> http://www.clubsnap.com/forums/showpost.php?p=6610031&postcount=19

Noted with thnxs. At times i would carry to camera with different distance lense. But it will :sweat: for couple of time travelling... ;p

 

[Anson]

Just wander, hw do we actually know the brightness of the camera to be set and after place it to pc with another different brightness. Not knowing which is which. Later when the photo being view at other pc, it will turn up to be another brightness. ( More confuse ) End up we keep on setting the brightness of the photo..

Check your metering and histogram... it should help you to determine the "brightness" for your photo.

For me, 90% of my shots are done in full manual (excluding focusing), to me I trust my own judgment than the camera. It's after all just a tool and nothing....

 

[Anson]

Noted with thnxs. At times i would carry to camera with different distance lense. But it will :sweat: for couple of time travelling... ;p

If I am traveling for leisure (not for commissioned shoot), I would normally bring my 18-200IS and 50F1.8 on a crop. To me, holiday means relax and not to be weight down by tons of camera equipment ( not my idea of fun). :bsmilie:

 

[Anthony Lee]

Just wander, hw do we actually know the brightness of the camera to be set and after place it to pc with another different brightness. Not knowing which is which. Later when the photo being view at other pc, it will turn up to be another brightness. ( More confuse ) End up we keep on setting the brightness of the photo..

As long as you are shooting for yourself, if you like what you see that'll be enough. Make a print and see how close it is to the image you view on your PC monitor. If you are very critical about such issues, get a proper monitor and have it calibrated. Secondly, a camera and lens system is only as good as the man behind. Learn more about your set-up, understand it better and you will surely take better photos. The 18-200 lens is not cheap so it should be much better.

 

[mugenpower]

Check your metering and histogram... it should help you to determine the "brightness" for your photo.

For me, 90% of my shots are done in full manual (excluding focusing), to me I trust my own judgment than the camera. It's after all just a tool and nothing....

I found difficult to get use to it on the histogram. A slightly left of right of the point which u want to capture, you will be able to see different histrogram. Own preference only.

Thnxs for your guide.

 

[mugenpower]

As long as you are shooting for yourself, if you like what you see that'll be enough. Make a print and see how close it is to the image you view on your PC monitor. If you are very critical about such issues, get a proper monitor and have it calibrated. Secondly, a camera and lens system is only as good as the man behind. Learn more about your set-up, understand it better and you will surely take better photos. The 18-200 lens is not cheap so it should be much better.

I did as wad u had said. Print our will give us a bette picture. :thumbsup:

I just wander, i have being capturing many thousands of shot. So far till nw i still couldn't find a picture which i prefered. It just look soft in the sense. Most of the time i have to do editing to sharpen abit.:dunno:

 

[mugenpower]

I would like to know photo taken with RAW, benefit for editing purpose. What abt RAW & Jepg?

Is that recommanded to set to Raw for photo taking?

I know that it will occupied the space of the memory card and slow in process to the next pic. :bigeyes:

 

[blurboiboi]

If I am traveling for leisure (not for commissioned shoot), I would normally bring my 18-200IS and 50F1.8 on a crop. To me, holiday means relax and not to be weight down by tons of camera equipment ( not my idea of fun). :bsmilie:

second that... just came back from overseas with a T18-270 and 50F1.8.... never even use the latter... keke

 

[blurboiboi]

bro have you sort out your issue?...

if not...
try shooting a STATIC object with a shutter that's at least 1/*focal length*... faster the better... boost iso if required.... you testing lens not sensor... noisy never mind.. then post your pics for others to comment on lor.. ... it might be the cat you shooting moves... and perform some front back focusing test too??... i had a 18-200 before... mine was okie leh...

 

[mugenpower]

Need help..

The above picture. Especially taken with a group ppls. What kind of setting to have a overall clear picture instead of some area look clearer than the rest.

<a href="http://s1034.photobucket.com/albums/a426/mugenpower56/?action=view&current=IMG_0537.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1034.photobucket.com/albums/a426/mugenpower56/IMG_0537.jpg" border="0" alt="Group Gathering"></a>

The above picture is one of my reason which i don't find the shapness.

Thnxs

 

[Anthony Lee]

I did as wad u had said. Print our will give us a bette picture. :thumbsup:

I just wander, i have being capturing many thousands of shot. So far till nw i still couldn't find a picture which i prefered. It just look soft in the sense. Most of the time i have to do editing to sharpen abit.:dunno:

You must tell us how you normally take those photos and what setting you used, otherwise we cannot advise you. For example, the photo of the cat, tell us more about the following:

1. What time of the day and under what condition was the shot made?
2. What setting like mode, aperture, shutter, ISO, metering, focusing points, focal length?

When you said not sharp, it can be many things, like picture clarity, contrast, saturation, color and resolution. So let us know what you are looking for. From the photos you posted, they are not in proper focus, under exposed, poor contrast and saturation.

Suggestion:

1. Make sure your camera LCD is properly set in terms of brightness, try to move it to nuetral and look at it indoor and see how close that is to your PC monitor.
2. Learn how to shoot with the different metering modes, like evaluative, partial, spot and centre weighted.
3. If you are still very new, set your focusing point to the centre point and shoot. When you are more capable, then learn how to shoot with all the points and some of them individually.
4. Try and shoot in raw so that you have more leeway to do post processing with Canon's DPP.

Hope this helps. Go and practice more but be very conscious of what you do so that you can correct and improve on your mistakes.

 

[mugenpower]

Resend

 

[mugenpower]

You must tell us how you normally take those photos and what setting you used, otherwise we cannot advise you. For example, the photo of the cat, tell us more about the following:

1. What time of the day and under what condition was the shot made?
2. What setting like mode, aperture, shutter, ISO, metering, focusing points, focal length?

When you said not sharp, it can be many things, like picture clarity, contrast, saturation, color and resolution. So let us know what you are looking for. From the photos you posted, they are not in proper focus, under exposed, poor contrast and saturation.

Suggestion:

1. Make sure your camera LCD is properly set in terms of brightness, try to move it to nuetral and look at it indoor and see how close that is to your PC monitor.
2. Learn how to shoot with the different metering modes, like evaluative, partial, spot and centre weighted.
3. If you are still very new, set your focusing point to the centre point and shoot. When you are more capable, then learn how to shoot with all the points and some of them individually.
4. Try and shoot in raw so that you have more leeway to do post processing with Canon's DPP.

Hope this helps. Go and practice more but be very conscious of what you do so that you can correct and improve on your mistakes.

Noted with many thanks. I should do my home work instead. :thumbsup:

 

[Anthony Lee]

Resend

Not bad, all you need is to sharpen them during post processing. All photos need sharpening out of the camera because of the AA filters. For the group photo of this depth, read up on hyperfocal focusing, select the right aperture, at least F8, use flash or up your ISO to at least 3200, make sure your foreground people are within your DOF by not standing too close to them and shoot. Since you are using 50D, use an external flash and you should get better results.

 

[mugenpower]

Not bad, all you need is to sharpen them during post processing. All photos need sharpening out of the camera because of the AA filters. For the group photo of this depth, read up on hyperfocal focusing, select the right aperture, at least F8, use flash or up your ISO to at least 3200, make sure your foreground people are within your DOF by not standing too close to them and shoot. Since you are using 50D, use an external flash and you should get better results.

Noted with thanxs.

By the way wad is " AA filter " ? Some photos when i did sharpening, it look not natural. So isn't that to be say L lense or prime lense will provide better without sharpening? :dunno:

 

[Anthony Lee]

Noted with thanxs.

By the way wad is " AA filter " ? Some photos when i did sharpening, it look not natural. So isn't that to be say L lense or prime lense will provide better without sharpening? :dunno:

Is this photo sharp? It's shot with a very cheap manual focus lens. You can have L lens but if you do not know how to use it, you will still get poor photos. I don't use the word sharp because in AF digital photography, sharpness depend not only on accurrate focusing but many other criterias.

 

[mugenpower]

Is this photo sharp? It's shot with a very cheap manual focus lens. You can have L lens but if you do not know how to use it, you will still get poor photos. I don't use the word sharp because in AF digital photography, sharpness depend not only on accurrate focusing but many other criterias.

WOW! That amazing :bigeyes: that is wad forwarding to.. I do know that my skill need alot of brush up. Maybe i do not have one who can taugh me ( Like one to one basis ). :lovegrin:

 

[Anthony Lee]

WOW! That amazing :bigeyes: that is wad forwarding to.. I do know that my skill need alot of brush up. Maybe i do not have one who can taugh me ( Like one to one basis ). :lovegrin:

Send me a PM if you need help. Cheers.

 

[hotchoco1ate]

Not bad, all you need is to sharpen them during post processing. All photos need sharpening out of the camera because of the AA filters. For the group photo of this depth, read up on hyperfocal focusing, select the right aperture, at least F8, use flash or up your ISO to at least 3200, make sure your foreground people are within your DOF by not standing too close to them and shoot. Since you are using 50D, use an external flash and you should get better results.

Is this photo sharp? It's shot with a very cheap manual focus lens. You can have L lens but if you do not know how to use it, you will still get poor photos. I don't use the word sharp because in AF digital photography, sharpness depend not only on accurrate focusing but many other criterias.

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: