Rebel XT Not Sharp

I just got the Rebel XT last month. It came with the standard 18-55 Cano Lens. I bought the fixed 50mm and a Quantaray 70-300.

I have shot tons of pictures with it with all different manual and automatic settings, ISOs, Tv, Av, M, P, etc. I cannot get a crystal clear picture. I bought a tripod and then I bought the remote so I wouldn't touch the camera. But still, not as sharp as the SONY.

I compare it to my 3 year old DSC F-717 Sony with the 10x zeiss lens. The sony is always clearer and MUCH brighter and sharper, no matter what the conditions.

Here are 2 pictures of a painting taken by the 2 cameras. When you zoom in on the writing, you see the SONY is much sharper.
I brought them to a camera store (Ritz), and we did a similar comparison using a isplay as the subject. Zooming in, the detail from the SONY is much sharper than the Rebel.

I just tried to attach them, but the files were to big. when I made them small they both looked like garbage. Trust me. Everyone agrees the sony is sharper and this shouldn't be. what can be wrong with the REBEL XT?

This is perplexing as the Rebel is supposed to be so much better.
When I shoot a group of people 3 or 4 deep, it is almost impossible to get everyone in focus, no matter what aperture and shutter speed I use. I bought the speedlight 550, but nothing seems to help.
Can there ne something out in the camera body> I know with video you have to set the back-focus.

This is really bugging me. Should I send the camera to Canon?
Please help!

Thanks Joe

Quote:

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Originally Posted by shonabby

I just got the Rebel XT last month. It came with the standard 18-55 Cano Lens. I bought the fixed 50mm and a Quantaray 70-300.

I have shot tons of pictures with it with all different manual and automatic settings, ISOs, Tv, Av, M, P, etc. I cannot get a crystal clear picture. I bought a tripod and then I bought the remote so I wouldn't touch the camera. But still, not as sharp as the SONY.

I compare it to my 3 year old DSC F-717 Sony with the 10x zeiss lens. The sony is always clearer and MUCH brighter and sharper, no matter what the conditions.

Here are 2 pictures of a painting taken by the 2 cameras. When you zoom in on the writing, you see the SONY is much sharper.
I brought them to a camera store (Ritz), and we did a similar comparison using a isplay as the subject. Zooming in, the detail from the SONY is much sharper than the Rebel.

I just tried to attach them, but the files were to big. when I made them small they both looked like garbage. Trust me. Everyone agrees the sony is sharper and this shouldn't be. what can be wrong with the REBEL XT?

This is perplexing as the Rebel is supposed to be so much better.
When I shoot a group of people 3 or 4 deep, it is almost impossible to get everyone in focus, no matter what aperture and shutter speed I use. I bought the speedlight 550, but nothing seems to help.
Can there ne something out in the camera body> I know with video you have to set the back-focus.

This is really bugging me. Should I send the camera to Canon?
Please help!

Thanks Joe

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It is unlikely that anything is wrong with the XT. Often, when people move from a P&S to a DSLR they expect the results to be the same. They won't be. A DSLR is designed to produce images that let you do the post-processing. The P&S makes all those sharpness, contrast, saturation, etc. in-camera out of your control.

Are you pictures "soft" or "out of focus"? These are two separate things. Do you understand that the DOF will be much different than the tiny focal length lens on your P&S? What settings have you chosen on the XT? Do you shoot in RAW (recommended) or in JPEG? If jpeg, what level of compression? What post-processing did you do?

A DSLR assumes much more photographic skill than a P&S. Rather than whole images, cut small pieces out of the images and post them for comparison. Include EXIF data from both. We will be able to help you if we can see what issues are involved.

What are your ISO settings, and in the DReb, what are your sharpness settings? Perhaps a lower ISO in the Reb is resulting in camera shake. Also, as I understand it, DSLR's tend to be softer than p&s straight out of the camera, as p&s cameras tend to do more in camera processing.