I am not happy with my 18-55mm what should I get.

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Hi

Just went out yesterday and took some landscape shots and came back and all the shots always seem to be a little soft and also the colours seem a bit dull.

What lens would you reccomend as a replacement?

Budget about £250

thanks

Mark.
 
I presume Canon.

The problem is, unless your willing to spend greater than £300 the kit lens is about as good as it gets for anything under that. In terms of the colours being dull, have you played with the levels in Photoshop? In terms of the images being soft, hold your hand steadier ;)
 
its all the student hangovers gives him the shakes :P
 
I would recommend a Tamron 28-75. You'll get change from £250 and its a cracking lens.
 
Hi Mark,

I just had a quick look at your website and if they were taken with your 18-55 kit lens then i cant see anything to complain about. Some images do need a little tweeking for the exposure/colours but apart from that most seem sharp and clear.

As a Canon 18-55 user I dont have any problems with it. As a matter of fact I would never consider getting rid of it unless I could afford the same in an L lens. I have had some, what I would consider, great results with it and the press have published some too.

I would really consider investing in a tripod, Photoshop or LightRoom instead.

SB
 
The photos were on a tripod and using the self timer. They just seem a bit soft a times. I will and upload a shot and tell me what you think.

Is the sigma 18-50mm F2.8 an upgrade
 
visualisetheworld said:
Hi

Just went out yesterday and took some landscape shots and came back and all the shots always seem to be a little soft and also the colours seem a bit dull.

What lens would you reccomend as a replacement?

Budget about £250

thanks

Mark.
Click to expand...
I know just where you are coming from. I too have just moved over from a Bridge Camera into the dark world of DSLR, and as a complete amature I dont know the first thing. Went out yesterday and came of the auto settings for the first time really. Played around with the Tv Av etc and the results where awful, almost to the point where someone on here might have gotten a great deal on a very little used two week old 400D:(. I was in my comfort zone with my Bridge and now Im on a very uncomfortable learning curve with the DSLR. It wont matter how good your camera or lens is, unless you know what your doing with it, no comment:bonk:. I seem to suffer very soft images which I put down to slow shutter speed and as yet an unsteady hand but did suspect the 18-55 kit lens:naughty: however on some advise received from the good members of this site, I will keep plugging away until one day Im sure it will all fall into place:woot:
 
A 100% crop

2270778501_6a1759ee21_o.jpg
 
how does that look to you? is it soft
 
Hi thanks, I used F22 as iIneeded to get all the field in focus.
 
It looks blurred to me, was there any wind? where were you focused on? what does the big pic look like.

My old kit lens was great upto f/16 at f/8 or f/11 it was pretty sharp.

Try setting your camera on a tripod and taking the same photo at f/8 f/11 f/16 f/22 and have a look at the crops, They will probably get softer.
 
If you are going to be shooting landscapes often, why not invest in a circular polarising filter. Much cheaper than a new lens. And as others have said, f/22 won't give you the sharpest results.
 
It had a polarisor on that photo, thats anything. My polarisor never seems to make a difference.

So do you think it is soft or just me?
 
Mark...how was that shot focussed?...it's nowhere near the usual output quality from the 18-55

Bob
 
I found that new and still now new to DSLR - that I was getting some soft images.
Everyone photograph has some softness - and most take some sharpening in photoshop etc...
However - I questioned it too and found it more to be "user-error/learner" than anything wrong with whatenever lens.
 
This really just looks out of focus rather than a lens/exposure issue?

A quick question: Do you wear glasses/contacts or if not have you had your eyes tested at all? I'm not being funny but I know of a lot of people who have experienced similar problems due to sight issues - including myself. I have a stigmatism in my left eye (which I found out about via a medical for work - I had no idea) which is quite bad. Luckily I use my right in the viewfinder ;) Just a suggestion...
 
On a 10MP sensor anything above f11 will loose sharpness due to diffraction and airy rings - nope not those lovely circles of mushrooms found occasionally that's Fairy Rings an Airy Ring (or Airy Disk) is an optical effect caused by the wave nature of light when you push it through a small hole (such as f22).

See HEREfor a better explaination.

Using f8 at the 18mm end of the lens and focusing about 2m in to the frame you should find that everything from 1m to infinity is in focus anyway due to the depth of field being huge at small focal lengths, so there is really no need to use f22 if you were shooting with the 18mm end. Plus f8 tends to be the aperture that most lenses excel at - even the 18-55mm kit lens from Canon.

See HERE for more on DoF
 
You didnt need f22 with an 18mm on a crop sensor to get all that field in focus.

Use either f8-f11

I shoot in AV and it stays at f8

edit... focussing at 2 metres (ie hyperfocal distance) will only give you 'Acceptable' focus, not sharp focus front to back, you will get a soft infinity
 
SimonTALM said:
On a 10MP sensor anything above f11 will loose sharpness due to diffraction and airy rings - nope not those lovely circles of mushrooms found occasionally that's Fairy Rings an Airy Ring (or Airy Disk) is an optical effect caused by the wave nature of light when you push it through a small hole (such as f22).

See HEREfor a better explaination.

Using f8 at the 18mm end of the lens and focusing about 2m in to the frame you should find that everything from 1m to infinity is in focus anyway due to the depth of field being huge at small focal lengths, so there is really no need to use f22 if you were shooting with the 18mm end. Plus f8 tends to be the aperture that most lenses excel at - even the 18-55mm kit lens from Canon.

See HERE for more on DoF
Click to expand...


^^ What he said, I was just about to comment on that.

Sadly its not as simple wanting more infocus so you use a smaller aperture, after f8~f11 you suffer from diffraction which reduces the overall resolution making shots appear soft. Yours looks like it could be a combination of that, i've taken some sharp shots with the kit lens before. Its not L quality but no matter what lens you use at f22 its going to be pretty soft due to diffraction.
 
I did some tests with my lensesa few months ago, plonked the camera on a tripod, aimed at a big set of barcodes on a box about 10 foot away and tried all sorts of different apertures and zoom lengths. They really do make a difference.

some other factors:

What does the full picture look like?
is the 100% crop from centre or edge of the full photo?
all lenses have a fall off in quality towards the edge
100% crops are a cruel test of any lens, the 18-55 kit jobby is a budget lens, just because you can zoom in to 100% on your monitor does not mean that you should expect 100% crisp resolution when viewed like that.

you said you were using a tripod with timer . . . how steady is your tripod?, were you using it fully extended?
the smack from the mirror flipping up can shake a tripod that's not rigid enough.
Use mirror lockup (its one of the functions).
The tripod can be made significantly more rigid, dont fully extend the leg sections (just drop back an inch or two), try not to use the thinnest end sections on the legs or any extending head.
 
That shot looks like it was taken on manual focus and just not focussed.

My kit lens is getting cracking results

And if you want a cheap option for landscapes, why not opt for a nifty fifty?
 
clerahi said:
With that budget I'd recommend the Sigma 17 to 70mm f2.8-4.5 DC lens. I replaced my 18-55 kit lens with this. It gives great results across the range.
Click to expand...

I was about to psot exactly the same thing, the Sigma 17-70mm is a great lens and Kerso will provide you with one for around £215 I think.
 
If i used a 50mm lens for landscapes i wouldnt have one picture.

For me thats getting close to a portrait size
 
I was having a similar problem with a Nikon 70-300 VR. I was so disillusioned with the soft pictures it was delivering it spent the best part of last year on my desk. After upgrading to a D300 I thought I’d use the lens calibration function to try and sort out the lens, so I setup the camera on a tripod and took some test shots indoors at about 25 feet away at 70 – 100 – 200 and 300mm using different apertures then compared the photos – they were ALL soft, next I reset the camera to default, switched off the VR and removed the Skylight filter – BINGO it was like I’d got a new lens the pictures were a lot sharper – it turns out it’s the skylight filter I was using, put this on the lens and the quality is rubbish take it off and its a 100% better.
 
Dogfish_magnet said:
I was having a similar problem with a Nikon 70-300 VR. I was so disillusioned with the soft pictures it was delivering it spent the best part of last year on my desk. After upgrading to a D300 I thought I’d use the lens calibration function to try and sort out the lens, so I setup the camera on a tripod and took some test shots indoors at about 25 feet away at 70 – 100 – 200 and 300mm using different apertures then compared the photos – they were ALL soft, next I reset the camera to default, switched off the VR and removed the Skylight filter – BINGO it was like I’d got a new lens the pictures were a lot sharper – it turns out it’s the skylight filter I was using, put this on the lens and the quality is rubbish take it off and its a 100% better.
Click to expand...

My 300mm prime is the same, its unusable with any filters screwed on the front, no matter what the quality of the filters they just blur the images.
 
thanks for all your advice everyone. so the advice is that,

1. don't use f22
2. the 18-55mm can produce some great shots
3.the only REAL upgrade is L glass
 
very nice shots, taken at F16 and still very sharp
 
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