Help requested - 350d + Oldish Lens

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Hi guys, I am new to the forum and quite new to the world of DSLR's.

I bought a 2nd hand 350d, which came with the standard EFS 18-55mm lens. I also have 2 lens from an old EOS 50e that I had in 98. These lens are 'Canon Zoom Lens EF 75-300mm 1:4-5.6 II' and 'Canon Zoom lens EF 28-80mm 1:3.5-5.6'

I am finding that my photos aren't sharp (soft focus), and also the colours aren't being captured very accurately. I admit I have very bad camera shake, but even in good light with a fast shutter and ISO of 100 I am being left with soft shots. The colours improved a bit when I bought a grey card and started using custom WB.


I am wondering what needs to be changed.. a) my 11 year old lens or b) my camera? I really like the 350d and just about getting used to all the settings. Would it be worth me getting my kit calibrated?

Any help would be greatly appreciated as I am really keen to just get out there and shoot cool pictures.
 
Hi and welcome to the forum! :)

It'd be a lot easy to diagnose with some sample photos!
 
Here are some photos I had to hand quite easily. I will get examples where the blurriness spoils the shot completely.



ISO 400 80mm f5.6 1/60sec



ISO 400 28mm f4.5 1/60sec



ISO 400 42mm f6.3 1/100sec
 
No pics coming up in the links for me.

If you are having sharpness issues it is either camera shake from too long a shutter speed, or misfocusing. Both are likely to be technique issues, but it's possible your camera has taken a knock or something.

First thing I would do is push your ISO up to 400, which is fine on my 350D and will help with shutter speeds. If you are a bit shakey, then you must keep your shutter speed up to at least double your focal length, eg at 250mm zoom, you need 1/500sec or faster.

Post up some pics, and include camera settings info.
 
thanks for all the help so far. i have just updated the links, ill get the metadata tonight when I get home.

HoppyUK: I try and shoot at the fastest speed possible on shutter priority mode, I was barely getting upto 1/100 on sunday when I was covering a friends wedding for free. The light wasnt great, but even at 1600 ISO I couldnt get above 1/100 :(
 
I have a 350D with a 21 year old 70-210,a 5 year old 70-300 and a 10n year old 28-80 but I get some pretty good results,have a look at my Flickr page.I admit that in difficult light situations you do need to be more careful than with the latest kit but excellent results are still easily obtainable.
The shots you have posted are they straight out of the camera because the Raw or JPEG files as produced by Canon's are renowned for being a touch soft and need a bit of help from Photoshop or whatever you use
 
I have Lightroom, and i've only started shooting in RAW+JPEG. I have some shots in RAW from the wedding. I am very new to PP, although not a techno phobe, is there a standard setting or software you recommend to convert the RAW into JPEG and compensate for softness? BTW your pictures look superb, i loved the helicopters. Did you use custom WB?
 
1/100 on the 75-300 is going to be really struggling to hand hold sharp:thumbs:
 
The first two shot look like motion blur to me (shaky hands) the last one isn't half bad, and I think just a bit of a sharpen would be OK on that one. Fletch is right though 1/100 is not going to give you sharp shots on anything past about 80mm with a 75-300mm lens. Not while hand holding anyway, especially since you have already said you suffer with shake.
 
this is such a great learning curve for me, it will help me think about the camera speeds more now. I do have a tripod, which should help eliminate the motion blur, but its really hard to shoot movement with the tripod?

What about the colour reproduction in the shots, any advice on that front?
 
The first two photos seem unacceptably soft IMO. Since the last photo looks OKish and acceptable, I would go with user error for your softness issues and stick with the gear. The 350D is a perfectly capable camera, I wouldn't change it.
 
stylgeo said:
The first two photos seem unacceptably soft IMO. Since the last photo looks OKish and acceptable, I would go with user error for your softness issues and stick with the gear. The 350D is a perfectly capable camera, I wouldn't change it.
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i've been kicking myself over that :(, i swear i have parkinsons and im only 25!
 
I agree with Jo. First one is camera shake, second one is camera shake plus front focus, and third one is just about okay and should be fine with a bit of sharpening.

You really don't stand much of a chance with the shutter speeds you've been using, and if you have to shoot weddings in a cave, then use flash!

You should be able to get perfectly sharp pictures straight out of the camera no problem. Maybe the Picture Styles have got mis-set along the way, but refer to the handbook and sort them out. Post processing is frankly only luxury treatment, you really don't need it just to get sharp, colourful photos. Your pics also look a bit dark, ie underexposed, for no apparent reason. That maybe accounts for the dull colours - get your exposures correct and learn to read the histogram (see handbook again) they're not difficult. You're not set on Manual are you? That's a dangerous place for newcomers ;) Or got exposure compensation dialled in accidentally?

A tripod will obviously help (although nothing but a high shutter speed will stop subject movement, only camera movement) or a monopod is often easier, but if you continually have problems with shake, even after upping the ISO to 400 and using careful holding technique (cradle the lens with your left hand, and keep both elbows close to your body), then you should look at getting some IS lenses. This is brilliant technology - you can get an IS version of the 18-55mm kit lens for not much more than £100 (see For Sale section).

Stick with your kit for now, and hone your technique :)
 
Heres another couple of shots. I dont know how on earth I managed to get the focus on the sea gull, i guess i got lucky.



ISO 250 75mm f11 1/500sec

This was done with a tripod, so hopefully no camera shake other than the mirror vibration. Its still a bit soft isnt it?



ISO 400 55mm f5.6 3.2sec
 
hi guys, i have updated the images with the metadata. I shot almost all of them faster than the focal length, and they still came out how they did. Can my camera shake be that bad? I am really upset over so many photos and once in a lifetime opportunities going to waste like that. :(
 
hsuffyan said:
hi guys, i have updated the images with the metadata. I shot almost all of them faster than the focal length, and they still came out how they did. Can my camera shake be that bad? I am really upset over so many photos and once in a lifetime opportunities going to waste like that. :(
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Nothing much wrong with your last two shots, certainly nothing that a bit of tweaking in post processing won't fix. They'll be fine :thumbs:

Camera shake takes the edge of more photos than anything else, and ruins many. It's less of a problem with digital as you can get the ISO up quite high without any quality problems, and image stabilisation systems of one kind or another are fitted to more cameras than not these days.

About the shutter speed/focal length thing:
a) it is only a guide, assuming somebody with steady hands and a stable stance.
b) it is a minimum standard.
c) camera shake never goes away, it is only reduced to acceptable levels.
d) with a crop camera like the 350D, you must multiply the shutter speed by the crop factor 1.6x to get equivalence, ie 300mm lens = 1/500sec minimum.

My conclusion is, get the ISO up, get your shutter speeds up, sort out your hand-holding technique. If you still get problems, avoid longer lenses, and think about getting IS to help you out.

And focus carefully (use centre point?).
 
I have the camera set to spot metering, the icon looks like this (.) lol! is that what you mean? I also have the af point set to the center one. I can tell because it is that one that lights up red when I am taking a shot. I set it using the mono LCD display and not the actual menus.
 
hsuffyan said:
I have the camera set to spot metering, the icon looks like this (.) lol! is that what you mean? I also have the af point set to the center one. I can tell because it is that one that lights up red when I am taking a shot. I set it using the mono LCD display and not the actual menus.
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Spot metering! That's your exposure problem. Get it off that and set Evaluative. Spot metering is quite hard to use and that is what is leading things astray.

While you're at it, maybe you should just switch the camera back to its factory default settings and start again. They are usually quite well thought out and you need quite a definite reason to change from them.

I generally use centre-point AF and half-press-lock-focus-and-exposure technique, and a lot of people do. Again that takes a bit of thought but if it's wrong you know who to blame.

I think a full set of factory defaults is probably a good starting place. It only takes a second - see handbook.
 
a factory reset is scheduled for tonight. Thank you ever so much for your help and assistance. I was so frustrated and disappointed from the pictures before and atleast now I know where I am going wrong.
 
i was being a bit thick, the metering was set to evaluative, but I still did a factory reset. I had a few questions about some of the other settings.

1) In the AF settings, I have one shot, AI Servo and AI Focus. Which one would be most appropriate for me?

2) Someone earlier in the thread suggesting i shoot with a flash when there is low light, the fastest the flash would shoot would be at 1/200, which still wouldnt be fast enough for the 70-300?

3) This is one for the people who have/had the 350d, which parameter setting should I go with? Set 1/Set 2/or a manual combination?

Thanks!
 
hsuffyan said:
i was being a bit thick, the metering was set to evaluative, but I still did a factory reset. I had a few questions about some of the other settings.
Click to expand...

If in doubt, use the factory default presets. If you have not got a good reason to change them, don't!

1) In the AF settings, I have one shot, AI Servo and AI Focus. Which one would be most appropriate for me?
Click to expand...

One shot.

2) Someone earlier in the thread suggesting i shoot with a flash when there is low light, the fastest the flash would shoot would be at 1/200, which still wouldnt be fast enough for the 70-300?
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Effective 'shutter speed' is the duration of the flash, which will be a maximum of 1/1000sec, and more likely 1/10,000sec, so no shake there.

3) This is one for the people who have/had the 350d, which parameter setting should I go with? Set 1/Set 2/or a manual combination?
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Processing Parameters (now called Picture Styles in later models) use Parameter 1. Leave the Set 1/2/3 alone for now

Thanks!
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:)
 
Hi hsuffyan.
A lot of issues have already been expertly covered here and you seem to know what you're doing.
Just on minor observation.
If you've just switched from film, you may find the default output from your camera disappointing (in terms of sharpness.) I know I did at first. The images just didn't seem to have the pin sharp crispness of a fine grain emulsion.....
Until I got to grips with the fact that some post capture sharpening is almost de-rigeur.
 
someone told me that the 350d and some other canons produce softer images due to the in camera processing and it has to be corrected using the canon software. does anyone know what option that is in the software?
 
hsuffyan said:
someone told me that the 350d and some other canons produce softer images due to the in camera processing and it has to be corrected using the canon software. does anyone know what option that is in the software?
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Canons don't produce soft images. I'm not sure where that idea comes from. However, there is a facility within Canon's Raw software called DPP to make images even better, by correcting distortion and vignetting, and also cleaning up residual CA (colour fringing at the edges). This last feature could be said to improving sharpness, making it even better, but it's more cosmetic than actual sharpening.

It is a very effective treatment though, unique to Canon I think, and it's free.
 
I would try a bit better lens like an 28-105 or (if you can find a good deal) the 28-135 IS.
My pictures were quite sharper with that rather than the 18-55 or the 28-90.
 
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