Canon 40D - Soft focus

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Andybilly

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I have had my 40D Since Focus on Imaging and have taken about 11000 pictures (yes really), I use mostly Sigma EX lenses (apart from a Canon Nifty Fifty). What I have noticed is that the sharpness is not as good as I would like it.

I have been trawling around many web sites and come up with 2 different reasons for this:

1 - There have been some issues with the Electronics in which following sending back to Canon for investigation and fixing have made little if no difference.

2 - The 40D automatically puts an anti alias setting on all images irrespective of whether shot in Raw or Jpeg.

Scenario 2 has been confirmed by Canon (according to the web site i looked at) and they advise using unsharp mask with the following settings:

Amount 300%
Radius .3
Threshold 0

But stipulate images may differ. I have used the above settings and can say that doing this makes a huge difference.

I have to say I would prefer that if this anti aliasing situation was true that it could be changed.

Does anyone else suffer from soft focus on the 40D and what are your thoughts on scenario 2 (assuming it is true)

Andy
 
Can you show us some samples of what you consider to be soft?

100% crops would help...
 
But surely youd be doing sharpening of that type anyway once your images were in photoshop or whatever..........i do and have always done.............with every dslr ive had.
 
Janice said:
But surely youd be doing sharpening of that type anyway once your images were in photoshop or whatever..........i do and have always done.
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Not to 10K plus pictures I havn't
 
once your raw image comes into post processing..........you cant just print it there and then... you have to sharpen it sureley?
 
Some people do that Janice... which I never understand really. I've always worked on the "take lots, polish the best" approach....
 
Janice said:
once your raw image comes into post processing..........you cant just print it there and then... you have to sharpen it sureley?
Click to expand...

Am i the only one that thinks that sharpening should not be a requirement of digital photography? I previously had a 300D and never used sharpening once as a way of compensation for camera focusing.

If I am in the minority then I hold my hands up and will build more time into PP'ing.

Andy
 
i would guess that the original 300d photos were sharpened in camera then. :shrug:

saying that most the pics off my 40d seem quite good to me, post some samples of your soft images at 100%crop so we can compare
 
andrewc said:
Do you shoot in RAW or JPG?

Camera applies some sharpening in JPG but none in RAW. RAW always requires some sharpening applied.
Click to expand...


Always RAW, I guess I am asking a little much of digital (I think I might get my Richoh KR5 back out the cupboard)

I guess that as sharpening is always done as a matter of cause, that is why some of the images shown on this site (particulary the bird ones) always look so pin sharp, but when the tog describes what PPing has been done, it never (usually) says sharpening.


Thanks for all the replies , this will save me some time complaining to Canon.

Andy
 
Sharpening isnt a compensation for camera focusing.

im sure some techno person will come along now... as I dont know the full ins and outs.. .but I'munder the impression that if you print your sharpest focused raw file straight from camera ... or into photoshop then print.....it will not be sharp.
 
Janice is right. A raw file is basically a digital negative, ie it's the image directly seen by your sensor with no processing at all. If you shoot JPG then your in-camera software will apply a degree of processing to the image, including sharpening. It's absolutley to be expected that you have to sharpen a photo shot in raw in post processing (along with other tweaks too). HTH :)
 
Thanks guys, much appreciated :clap:

Andy
 
Its not about totally photoshopping your image from nothing into a computer generated monstrosity, its all about acutance...

The same is true with film cameras, its just that for anyone but a pro all we ever used to do with those was to take the little can of film to Boots and ask them to print it. Top quality images were never made like that!
 
Generally a good raw workflow will sharpen twice - capture and output. The capture sharpening is done to compensate for the AA filter in front of the sensor which softens the captured image and prevents a jaggy effect on high contrast edges (I'm avoiding the tech talk here). How much you need will vary on the lens, sensor, and ISO setting.

Output sharpening is done as the last stage in editing and varies depending on the output device. If you've resized for web then you'll need to recover lost sharpness from the scaling which will soften the image. If you're printing it can depend on the type of printer, print size, etc. Of course personal preference also plays a factor so you need to runs some tests and see what works best for you. There's no right or wrong answer, just results you are or are not happy with.
 
When I open the RAW files from my Canon 5D in the RAW plug-in in Photoshop CS3, I see that the Sharpness slider is already set to 25. Is this the default sharpness set by the camera and applied to JPEGs?

Being able to zoom in on RAW files shows up any tiny errors in focusing and camera shake. I've learned to be very careful when shooting landscapes etc. where I want everything sharp. Even on a wide-angle, you can't take it for granted that everything in the foreground is far enough away to be sharp!

A.
 
Anorakus said:
When I open the RAW files from my Canon 5D in the RAW plug-in in Photoshop CS3, I see that the Sharpness slider is already set to 25.
Click to expand...

I drag that right down to nothing.

I then sharpen in Photoshop using the unsharp mask method or more often the high pass sharpen filter method.

I save it big for printing.

If i need a small web version, i make it 800x600 @ 72dpi and then use a lesser sharpening effect of the high pass filter sharpening that i have made into an action in photoshop. Once click and they are done.

i have made 2 actions.......one for large tiffs for printing.....and another for just before saving for web. All alterable.
 
Just about all dslrs have an anti aliasing filter to stop or significantly reduce moire effects with fine detail or patterns. But it is needed. So to compensate for that you need to add sharpening.

Something else you haven't mentioned is lens quality. I know its annoying but expensive lenses are sharper in the massive majority of cases.
There are some exceptions with cheaper lenses obviously but it is a general rule.

Another thing to think about is focus accuracy with the camera body + lens combination you are using and also your technique with the camera.

You could do some tests in a controlled environment to see if your camera & lens is front or back focussing.

Andybilly said:
I have had my 40D Since Focus on Imaging and have taken about 11000 pictures (yes really), I use mostly Sigma EX lenses (apart from a Canon Nifty Fifty). What I have noticed is that the sharpness is not as good as I would like it.

I have been trawling around many web sites and come up with 2 different reasons for this:

1 - There have been some issues with the Electronics in which following sending back to Canon for investigation and fixing have made little if no difference.

2 - The 40D automatically puts an anti alias setting on all images irrespective of whether shot in Raw or Jpeg.

Scenario 2 has been confirmed by Canon (according to the web site i looked at) and they advise using unsharp mask with the following settings:

Amount 300%
Radius .3
Threshold 0

But stipulate images may differ. I have used the above settings and can say that doing this makes a huge difference.

I have to say I would prefer that if this anti aliasing situation was true that it could be changed.

Does anyone else suffer from soft focus on the 40D and what are your thoughts on scenario 2 (assuming it is true)

Andy
Click to expand...
 
Eh, I have heard this across the board, but I don't think it applies to all cameras as I have heard that D300 shots are printable right out of camera, with only cropping required. It certainly has made me wonder how happy I will be with my 40D.
 
They are all "printable" - don't worry about that, its just the difference a nice clean pair of shoes and ones bulled to a parade gloss finish :D
 
The 40D is no softer than any other camera from what i've seen.

With any dslr it's the lens that makes the difference
 
Graelwyn said:
Eh, I have heard this across the board, but I don't think it applies to all cameras as I have heard that D300 shots are printable right out of camera, with only cropping required. It certainly has made me wonder how happy I will be with my 40D.
Click to expand...

Canon cameras generally have slightly stronger anti-aliasing filters to help stop moire effects on fine patterns.

Sharpening is just a part of digital photography, I normally sharpen twice once on import and once when im preparing it for output. Occasionally I wont do the output sharpening if im just saving it until I print it out at a later date.

In focus images will still look sharp no matter what camera they are shot on, the processing will just improve it.
 
mav said:
i have had a 300 350 30d
but seem to be getting more keepers with the 40d
Click to expand...

Logic would say that the 40D would require more sharpening to achieve the same result as it has a higher pixel density. I'm pretty certain that the incamera JPG will be set to do this but the RAW's will need bigger kick.

Bob
 
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