Soft focus

[D70IAN]

Upgraded from Olympus 5050 to D70 18-70 kit. Happy so far with everything except the focus. Seemed a bit soft, unsharp in Capture. Started to do a side by side comparison (C5050/D70). Both cameras with no sharpening, I noticed that the olympus was far sharper. Landscapes with the D70 were at best soft. Recently bought 12-24mm DX lens. Even worse results. Reviews of this lens have quotes like"stunningly sharp" and "breathtaking images". Over 5000 shots taken with the 5050 and a C350 before that and countless film shots from a Canon SLR. Many test shots and expletives later, trying to decide if there a fault in the cameras hardware. Never heard of two (nikkor) lenses giving such poor quality results. Any thoughts regarding this matter greatfully accepted

[-=Monty=-]

That is quite strange. I was, on the other hand, extremely impressed with the sharpness of the d70.

Here is a shot i took with my 70-300mm, and all the pictures i took with my 18-70mm were just as sharp.

http://members.optusnet.com.au/armand2/ ... %20076.jpg

[sirhc55]

Upgraded from Olympus 5050 to D70 18-70 kit. Happy so far with everything except the focus. Seemed a bit soft, unsharp in Capture. Started to do a side by side comparison (C5050/D70). Both cameras with no sharpening, I noticed that the olympus was far sharper. Landscapes with the D70 were at best soft. Recently bought 12-24mm DX lens. Even worse results. Reviews of this lens have quotes like"stunningly sharp" and "breathtaking images". Over 5000 shots taken with the 5050 and a C350 before that and countless film shots from a Canon SLR. Many test shots and expletives later, trying to decide if there a fault in the cameras hardware. Never heard of two (nikkor) lenses giving such poor quality results. Any thoughts regarding this matter greatfully accepted

Welcome D70IAN to the forum - OK, where do I start. When I first got the D70 I was very disappointed with the results (soft like you) but after I got used to the way the camera works I was very happy. Make sure that you use the centre focus area as this has the cross focus as opposed to the single line focus of the other points.

In the menu set your autofocus option to AF-S Dynamic area. I tend to focus on my subject (centre focus area) by half depressing the shutter release then recomposing before pushing the shutter button all the way.

Keep on trying and you will find that this is a great camera.

Edit: Check pages 68/69 in the manual

[Greg B]

D70Ian - Welcome to the forum.

I have moved this topic to here from Image Reviews and deleted the duplicate thread that was in this section (only had your initial post).

cheers

[kipper]

It's hard to tell what could be causing soft focus. You say that the Olympus produces sharp results, could you post the images from the Olympus and comparitive shots on the D70, along with exif data. So far I've found the D70 extremely sharp, and there are times I don't get sharpness either through the whole picture (camera shake at low shutter speed) or partial softness foreground and background (caused by wide aperture / lack of dof). So if you could post the photos and the exif data then perhaps we could narrow it down to either camera, lense or user fault.

Chris, so you use Dynamic Area and not Single Area? I've been using Single Area ever since I've bought the camera. Out of interest, who else uses Dynamic Area over Single?

[D70IAN]

Not the first SLR. Just first DSLR. Focusing options and technique well practised and used with great results in past. Problem only new

[kipper]

Well post the shots, and lets see if we think they're normal or abnormal.

[D70IAN]

Most of the images have had a visit to Capture unsharp mask. Band aid fix!! So not much to post pre capture. Doing some more test shots on SINE PATTERNS res chart. side by side, 5050/D70. then same lenses on another D70 body to eliminate either

[theK]

Generally, pictures that come from P&S such as coolpix, canon g-series, etc., have some processing done to them including some sharpening.
Your eyes might have been used to the slightly (in-camera) sharpened pics out of the olympus.

USM in PS/NC will help sharpen your D70 RAW pics. If you prefer shooting JPGs, you can try turning up the in-camera sharpening.