This happend to anyone else?

[JDP]

Anyone else feel this, when they come from a group trip people are shooting in Auto mode with the same camera and lens get a better and sharper picture than you?

I have just spent the last 10 days in South Africa for a University module - loads of people came out with the 500D same as mine and the 1100D and Tamron 70-300 SP, same telephoto as mine. They all shot in auto mode I shot in AV mode, yet their pictures are sharper and clearer than mine. I've had my camera for about 4 years, they've had theirs since Christmas.

This normal? Either my technique sucks or something is slowly dying within my camera. It's super noisy at 200 (I have high-priority turned off), and the tamron lens gave me a horrible metal on metal grinding noise when I was at Pilensburg (sand/grit free)

Despite this, it was the best 10 days of my life, I have the Africa bug and going out again next year!

 

[chromatin64]

Anyone else feel this, when they come from a group trip people are shooting in Auto mode with the same camera and lens get a better and sharper picture than you?

My wife does that to me all the time.

Me: That's a great shot; you should enter that in a comp or post on Flickr!

Her: Meh...

Sounds like you had a great trip though.

 

[MJWC1]

Yep, I put myself on a steep learning curve when my wife's shots from her phone were better than my SLR shots.

Can't help with technical advice, sorry.

 

[Russ77]

How are you comparing the pictures? Are they all online somewhere?

 

[JDP]

My wife does that to me all the time.

Me: That's a great shot; you should enter that in a comp or post on Flickr!

Her: Meh...

Sounds like you had a great trip though.

It's so annoying when that happens.

Yep, I put myself on a steep learning curve when my wife's shots from her phone were better than my SLR shots.

Can't help with technical advice, sorry.

Yup - I'm back to school with my photography again, trying to find where I went wrong!

How are you comparing the pictures? Are they all online somewhere?

And they're just on peoples facebook. lol - Their image quality is better, their subjects are better, everything seems better. As I say, going back to school with my photography. After uni, probably put the camera down for a while (student photographer now! )

 

[dinners]

Different aperture / shutter Speed / ISO settings will obviously result in different pictures. The method of selecting those settings be it Auto, Manual, AV, TV - shouldn't matter.

Could be any number of reasons I guess.

You may have decided on a larger aperture than the camera gave the 'auto people' which has resulted in less depth of focus than them.

Your choice of ISO 200 may have resulted in slower shutter speeds than the camera gave the auto people resulting in some subject motion blur or camera shake.

There's really no way of knowing unless you could find some similar shots and check the exif for clues.

 

[HughTFall]

Do you try changing the set-up into auto mode aside from AV? If you do so and then the outcome is still the same, then the real problem here is in your camera.

 

[MartynK]

Can you post some of your images here? That might give us an indication of what's wrong.

 

[JDP]

Do you try changing the set-up into auto mode aside from AV? If you do so and then the outcome is still the same, then the real problem here is in your camera.

Yup, tried both auto and AV the pictures came out the same....

Can you post some of your images here? That might give us an indication of what's wrong.

Yup will do - edited or non edited?

Though, looking back at them It could be technique? haha, oh dear

 

[Suvv]

Auto mode can also change sharpening, saturation, contrast etc. I know that on my Nikon if I was to put it in Landscape, or the Auto was to decide that it was a landscape, then it would use sRGB but increase the number of Blue & Greens available at the expense of the Reds.

 

[MartynK]

Yup, tried both auto and AV the pictures came out the same....



Yup will do - edited or non edited?

Though, looking back at them It could be technique? haha, oh dear

Unedited. Let's see if we can help.

 

[Cagey75]

Are you shooting in Jpeg? and they may be shooting RAW? better post processing perhaps? If you're getting noise at ISO 200 though, I'd say there's something up with your camera.

 

[swanseamale47]

Anyone else feel this, when they come from a group trip people are shooting in Auto mode with the same camera and lens get a better and sharper picture than you?

I have just spent the last 10 days in South Africa for a University module - loads of people came out with the 500D same as mine and the 1100D and Tamron 70-300 SP, same telephoto as mine. They all shot in auto mode I shot in AV mode, yet their pictures are sharper and clearer than mine. I've had my camera for about 4 years, they've had theirs since Christmas.

This normal? Either my technique sucks or something is slowly dying within my camera. It's super noisy at 200 (I have high-priority turned off), and the tamron lens gave me a horrible metal on metal grinding noise when I was at Pilensburg (sand/grit free)

Despite this, it was the best 10 days of my life, I have the Africa bug and going out again next year!

That doesn't sound right, maybe it's not focusing properly.

Trouble is theres so many variables, could be a lot of things not only shooting mode, you say your on AV, what shutter speed are you shooting at? the grainy pics suggests your your under exposing if your on a low iso, could be your camera back or front focuses.
I'd suggest a static test on a sturdy tripod at something like a brick wall, see if it looks sharp then.

 

[Nod]

Brutal (but hopefully tactful) honesty...

And they're just on peoples facebook. lol. As you say, lol, a realtively low resolution computerised image-
Their image quality is better, I'll bet that yours would be more pleasing prints (unless it is a camera problem)
their subjects are better, Little you can do about the subject but make sure you achieve the best composition you can of the chosen subject.
everything seems better. Don't forget that you're on a slight downer having recently returned from your holiday.

Enjoy next year's.

 

[Lbm]

Are you shooting in Jpeg? and they may be shooting RAW? better post processing perhaps? If you're getting noise at ISO 200 though, I'd say there's something up with your camera.

Perhaps they are shooting in Jpeg and the OP is shooting in RAW?

 

[JDP]

Auto mode can also change sharpening, saturation, contrast etc. I know that on my Nikon if I was to put it in Landscape, or the Auto was to decide that it was a landscape, then it would use sRGB but increase the number of Blue & Greens available at the expense of the Reds.

Yeah that's very true!

Unedited. Let's see if we can help.

Unedited are at the bottom, there are two AV and one auto. I couldn't shoot with a tripod, but used beanbag.

Are you shooting in Jpeg? and they may be shooting RAW? better post processing perhaps? If you're getting noise at ISO 200 though, I'd say there's something up with your camera.

I was shooting in RAW, I only shoot in that now! lol. That's what i thought.

That doesn't sound right, maybe it's not focusing properly.

Trouble is theres so many variables, could be a lot of things not only shooting mode, you say your on AV, what shutter speed are you shooting at? the grainy pics suggests your your under exposing if your on a low iso, could be your camera back or front focuses.
I'd suggest a static test on a sturdy tripod at something like a brick wall, see if it looks sharp then.

Yeah, that's another thing. It always has trouble focusing in general. I thought it was my eyes but then i tried to shot the same thing with my 18-55 and it was in focus! lol. Most of the time is was between 1/500 > 1/1600 so quite quick, as we were shooting between 0900 and 1800. I am pretty sure it dose backfocus/front focuses.

Will try that static test a little later on!, It's so frustrating - or I'm to critical with my own work? haha....

Brutal (but hopefully tactful) honesty...

And they're just on peoples facebook. lol. As you say, lol, a realtively low resolution computerised image-
Their image quality is better, I'll bet that yours would be more pleasing prints (unless it is a camera problem)
their subjects are better, Little you can do about the subject but make sure you achieve the best composition you can of the chosen subject.
everything seems better. Don't forget that you're on a slight downer having recently returned from your holiday.

Enjoy next year's.

That is so true, completely understand where your coming from.... On a huge downer atm, oh well.
Thanks mate, will do - learned from my mistakes and achieve better results next time.
------------------
(EXIF says I had them in Lightroom, but it was just to export them from RAW to JPEG)

Auto

AV

Can't really tell as i am unable to upload them to a dedicated server. So photobucket compressed. But at 100% it's really quite noisy!

 

[JDP]

I do on occasions get some really decent shots!

 

[chromatin64]

It looks to me like you're shooting wide open (f/4.5 on the first shot and f/5.6 on the second); this may be making your images slightly soft.

ISO is fine on both of them; shutter speed maybe a little slow on the first shot unless it's the VC Tammy or you were using a tripod although guessing from the aperture value, you were at the short end of the tele so 1/160s might have been OK.

Try stopping down down the aperture - image quality (i.e. softness) should improve. If that makes your shutter speed too slow, bump up the ISO as you're better off with a noisy but sharp image than a clean but blurred one.