I need help :)

No you ain't, everybody has too learn......:)
 
OK well without getting into photoshopping that it looks sort of how I'd expect sharpness wise, I still think it's a DOF issue making parts of the leaf look soft but I'll bow to others superior knowledge on that. Where it's sharp it's actually ok, ie on the left hand lower darker leaf..... As well as shooting the kit lens almost wide open.... in fact it might be wide open at 41mm and F5?
 
Spark- Kit lens goes to f4.5 I think. This was indeed f5@41mm.

Fracster- I just took it as a random shot, I tried it with a smaller aperture but I dont have that shot for some reason sadly. I just set the aperture, the aperture priority program chose the shutter. With regards to the exif, I didnt "strip" it? maybe it gets lost when uploaded to speedyshare? What info where you looking for and I will add it here.
 
Yeah the kit lens is 18-55 f4.5-5.6..... it may well be a minimum of F5 at 41mm, this is wide open at this point which isn't the sharpest point to shoot with a kit lens. They are generally thought to be good at f8. You could also take a look at an online DOF calculator like http://www.dofmaster.com/dofjs.html if you input your details it'll give you some idea of how much or little of your shot will be in focus. When you get up pclose to stuff you really do get a thin DOF. Have a play and see if you can get your head round it.
 
When I first started out I was also confused and was recommended this book: - Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson (ISBN 0-8174-6300-3) I thought it helped a lot and it was not too expensive Worth a try definately
 
Firstly don't panic!


Secondly, I'm willing to bet that a fair few of the images that you are looking at come from Nikons (NO THIS IS NOT A DIG!!). Nikon and Canon take a different approach to their Jpeg conversion, and a similar image taken with a Canon will need more work in PP to achieve the same saturation and sharpness as that which you would see from a Nikon.

Just a quick point on this, in my 1st post I mentioned I was looking at flickr pages and reviews etc of the 550d, the pics Im on about are their test shots from this camera specifically and are unedited
eg-
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fransmayra/4683271734/
 
Just out of interest, could you post the two photos for a comparison?
 
I'd like to know about the answer to this one too as I'm sure future readers of this thread will Chris :)
 
I will try and put up a few comparision shots, the outcome is detailed in the link above but in short the dealer took some test shots with 2x 550ds' and also thought there was a subtle difference so he swapped my camera.
 
Not all the pics show a massive diffeence, some are very subtle depending on lighting, focal distance etc. Here are a couple where you should be able to spot some difference in detail.

http://www.speedyshare.com/files/24952529/IMG_1437.JPG

5131417814_16b2d27224_z.jpg


http://www.speedyshare.com/files/24952602/IMG_2537.JPG

5130821665_e5de7ab45c_z.jpg


The 1437 shot is mine and the 2537 shot is mates camera. On these sizes from flickr, the grass in 2537 shot looks a bit less green but if you look at the ful size shot this is because the grass is more defined and shows the light better. Have a look at the texture in the black plastic top of the solar light.
On the Exif all the data is the same and Canon DP shows the spot focus being in the same point ie the top of the solar light.
pretty much all the images about 25 showed the same thing. I took that many to allow for me focusing on not quite the same point etc, or a slight change in light although the sky was clear and all shots were taken within a few seconds of each other to minimize variances.
 
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