Using Tri-pods

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Tricky69

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Up till now, I have mainly used IS and hand held.

Just got me a 5D Mk2 and I'm looking for those 'pin/tack sharp' images, and I'm pretty disappointed so far. Not that I've had a proper play yet. I dont have any 'IS' glass that fits this one either.

My 50mm F1.8 II is 'supposed' to be sharp .. but I'm wondering if I should be getting a half decent tripod and using it more :shrug:

Once you get to a certain standard, is hand held just not good enough ?

Would a monopod be something to think about ? I've never tried one of these ???

TAI

Rich
 
Although I mainly do long lens stuff, over 90% of my pictures are using a tripod or some other form of support. If you can get a high enough shutter speed then you shouldn't need a tripod but I also use one for landscapes as I like the slowing down of the workflow and the fact it makes me think more.
 
maybe post a few pics up with exif data and then we can see where you're going wrong?
 
AnnaV said:
WHat are you taking photos of?
Click to expand...


anything and everything :D I'm still learning !

I just wondered if I could shoot some test shots (of anything) and see which of my current lens collection are worth keeping, now I have the new body. It's left me a bit dissapointed and thinking more about my technique

I only have a cheap (£9.99 asda one) tripod and it's not that solid :thumbsdown:

I'm wanting to pixel peep and be happy :)

going to have to set up a test shoot and ajust the focus too....


or ... will I never be happy without that elusive 'L' printed on the lenses :shrug:
 
bomberman said:
maybe post a few pics up with exif data and then we can see where you're going wrong?
Click to expand...

I will ... but I want to set up something to shoot 1st :D

Cant be showing everyone what a mess my front room is in :lol:
 
Tricky69 said:
Up till now, I have mainly used IS and hand held.

Just got me a 5D Mk2 and I'm looking for those 'pin/tack sharp' images, and I'm pretty disappointed so far. Not that I've had a proper play yet. I dont have any 'IS' glass that fits this one either.

My 50mm F1.8 II is 'supposed' to be sharp .. but I'm wondering if I should be getting a half decent tripod and using it more :shrug:
Click to expand...

I find that my 50mm F1.8 II is not so sharp on my MK2.

You will find that you have to spend some money on more expensive lenses to get the most of the image quality. I changed all my lenses to Canon L lenses.
 
See I've got some pretty sharp images with my 18-55 kit lens! Just takes a bit of practice - obv high shutter speed, and careful focusing if using a wider aperture...
 
I was happy with the quality of my 18-55 and 55-250 kit lenses that came with the 450D lots of great pics ... but I am wanting to see the performance increase that the 5DII can give me :thumbs:
 
Firstly if your moving from film, digital will always appear less sharp, until you do a little tweak in PS. If your moving from a cheaper Canon, you may find your 5D has it's internal settings different (IMHO quite rightly so) set not to sharpen in camera, infact mine is set to do nothing in camera, no sharpen, no contrast etc I much prefer to have total control in PS.

Generally speaking Canon are a little soft compared to other camera manufacturers (eg Nikon), but again not a problem as the tweak in PS is very small.

Generally speaking I shoot landscapes & would use a tripod 90% of the time to help me compose the image, & have mirror up to get that extra bit of sharpness.

Suggest you find someone with a tripod & try it out and review your images to see if it cures the problem
 
ok ... some test shots from the other day. I used a Cheap tripod and IR remote trigger

Image Type: jpeg (The JPEG image format)
Width: 5616 pixels
Height: 3744 pixels
Camera Brand: Canon
Camera Model: Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Date Taken: 2009:11:30 12:49:24
Exposure Time: 1/100 sec.
Aperture Value: 5.00 EV (f/5.7)
ISO Speed Rating: 200
Flash Fired: Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode.
Metering Mode: Spot
Exposure Programme: Aperture priority
Focal Length: 50.0 mm
Creator:
Copyright:

Full image ... then a 360x352 pixel crop of the clock face

4153554478_9c347d91bc.jpg


4153551276_98c4191cc3_o.jpg


tell me what you think
 
thanks for the tip on raw and sharpening.

yes , I know how to do it, but not why I need to .. in a sense. Why does the sensor not capture a sharp image, that doesn't have to be 'sharpened' in raw ?

also ... I just shot these in JPEG large.... I useually have the camera set to Raw and Large, but as I dont use windows or mac - I havent used RAW processing , because the Linux version of RAW is pretty naff !

I loaded a partition up with windows and PS the other day - as I thought I may be needing it !

looks like I will

I was expecting to see sharp 'off the camera' *** !
 
hmmm ... looking again and pixel counting ... I think I am mistaking lack of sharpness for lack of resolution.

I wanted to be able to read the text under the 12 ... but looking again, its only 25x7 pixel in size :lol: not way you could read it at that resolution :lol: :bonk:

I will up the game and start post processing from now on , I hate windows !!!! :bang::bang::bang::bang:
 
The sensor has something called an anti aliasing filter in front of it and that's what affects the sharpness and means that extra step in PP.

You can read the technical blurb about them here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-aliasing

All digi cameras have them and all need sharpening and by different amounts too. I have actions set in photoshop for my 5D and 1DsII because they are different. That way i can batch sharpen :)
 
Tricky69 said:
I will up the game and start post processing from now on , I hate windows !!!!
Click to expand...

all part of the ever increasing learning curve i'm sure.

i enjoy tinkering with ps, always something new to learn.
 
AliB said:
The sensor has something called an anti aliasing filter in front of it and that's what affects the sharpness and means that extra step in PP.

You can read the technical blurb about them here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-aliasing

All digi cameras have them and all need sharpening and by different amounts too. I have actions set in photoshop for my 5D and 1DsII because they are different. That way i can batch sharpen :)
Click to expand...


Thanks everyone for your time :-)

Thanks for this link AliB :thumbs: , I shall go and read it now !
 
Read it ... digested it ... more input please !!!!

I like learning stuff :D

part of my learning curve when I got my 1st DSLR this year, was , I was told to try and get the image correct stright out of the camera, so it wouldn't need correcting in PS or similar. This is was I have striven for ever since !

Reading that has helped alot ... never believe everything you are told as set in stone !!!!

It all helps to improve us though :thumbs:

Thanks again everyone :wave:
 
Thanks Duncan

I am planning to build a test shot studio type set up... just a heath robinson affair .. nothing fancy.. then I shall lock myself in , and not come out till I'm happy !


I think, as others have said, its just that the 5DII exposes everything thing that was hidden on the 450D. The 450D couldn't capture it, but the 5DII just shouts it out at you ! :lol:
 
Tricky69 said:
Read it ... digested it ... more input please !!!!

I like learning stuff :D
Click to expand...

Anti-aliasing is not a Raw vs JPEG thing. It only affects very high resolution around the maximum possible with the sensor, the Nyquist level.

'Sharpness' is a combination of resolution and contrast. Sharpening an image does not increase resolution, it just makes the fine detail more visible by increasing the contrast and by applying sophisticated processing of edge detail.

Tricky69 said:
Thanks Duncan

I am planning to build a test shot studio type set up... just a heath robinson affair .. nothing fancy.. then I shall lock myself in , and not come out till I'm happy !
Click to expand...

Then you will be in there a very long time! Pixel peeping, and we all do it from time to time, is an addictive and dangerous disease. You will never be satisfied, nothing is ever perfect and if you know where to look and how to test for weak spots you will find that even the very best can be made to appear seriously bad.

You could start by checking lens sharpness in the frame corners at lowest f/number - that always looks pretty dire. But how often do you need important subject detail in the corners, and if you do, must you shoot at lowest f/number? That is the kind of trade-off you have to compromise on.

Excessive pixel peeping will not only make you unhappy, it will also empty your bank account rapidly. And then ultimately, you will come to realise that what really matters is getting a good subject in front of your lens, composing it right, capturing it at precisely the right moment, with exposure, focus and depth of field all optimised. When you get all that right, and it doesn't happen for me very often, then a few million extra pixels or lines-per-mm will not make a jot of difference.

And if that's not enough to stop you pixel peeping, well, it's not enough to stop me doing it either ;)
 
Hi Tricky,
If you don't use Windows or Mac, am I close in assuming that you are using linux?
Have you tried an up-to-date version of dcraw? I am using version 8.98, and it is a good improvement over previous versions (in that it at least supports the 7d!).
Most distributions I have seen don't have this version yet, it might be worthwhile downloading and compiling it.

If you really really want to read the text on objects far far away, you need to get a better lens I suspect.

This was a 400d, hand-held, around 8m away, the text on the right (vertical) is around 1cm long.


(I too am unhappy that DPP doesn't work on linux, it seems like they tried to put in code to stop it running under wine). Rawstudio and F-spot have a half-chance of working with the 5D in RAW I would have thought, as they partially work with the 7d.
 
Thanks Pengy :thumbs:

I've only tried UfRaw , that is the front end to GIMP

I'll have a look for DCRaw :D

I'd REALLY not choose to use M$ WinDoze :bang:
 
coldpenguin said:
Hi Tricky,


If you really really want to read the text on objects far far away, you need to get a better lens I suspect.
Click to expand...

there is the indifference ...

you are using a 400mm on a crop, so 640mm lens at the same distance I am using 50mm FF ! I realized after counting pixels that it was a resolution problem and my enthusiastic optimism ! rather than a lens problem ! I'm sure if I took the same shot with a 640mm lens I would be able to read the text no problem !
 
Pixel peeping usually leaves the peeper dissatisfied with his/her body, lenses, technique and all the reat. What matters is the final result rather than a massive enlargement on a monitor. I find that sharpening while zoomed in to around 50% gives me A3 prints that I'm more than happy with (providing the image is up to it!) and that most prints need slightly different amounts of radius, threshold and amount of sharpening. 600x400 pixel images for screen and e-mail use are so small that batch processing works fine on them, as are 6x4 prints.
 
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