Touble with my Rebel XTi

I'm hoping someone out there can help. I am having problems getting a sharp image out of my new Rebel XTi. I have messed around with the quality settings, even shot several in RAW. The last thing I did was take several, transfer them directly to my hard drive with no software involved, then uploaded them to print at our local printer. I had a couple blown up to 8x10 to see the quality better. It's not just part of the picture that is out of focus, it's like the entire picture is somewhat out of focus or just not sharp. I have tried both lenses, so I'm thinking it's camera related rather than the lens.
Anyone ever had this problem and know of anything I may be able to try?
Thanks,
B

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Originally Posted by bpeyton

I'm hoping someone out there can help. I am having problems getting a sharp image out of my new Rebel XTi. I have messed around with the quality settings, even shot several in RAW. The last thing I did was take several, transfer them directly to my hard drive with no software involved, then uploaded them to print at our local printer. I had a couple blown up to 8x10 to see the quality better. It's not just part of the picture that is out of focus, it's like the entire picture is somewhat out of focus or just not sharp. I have tried both lenses, so I'm thinking it's camera related rather than the lens.
Anyone ever had this problem and know of anything I may be able to try?
Thanks,
B

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DSLRs are diferent than P&S cameras. From your desription, its sounds as if you are used to having the camera do all the sharpening for you. Canon (and many other DSLR manufacturers) assumes that you will decide what amount to sharpen in software. You can add sharpening, you can't get rid of it. Canon leaves the images soft so you can add exactly what you want.

If you don't want to do the sharpening yourself, read the manual where it explains how to increase in-camera sharpening. Also read the section about color saturation and contrast, two more things it is assumed you want to do separately. Avoid RAW, that assumes maximum user manipulation.

What are the shooting conditions, subjects, focal lengths, shutter speeds, apertures? Are you using a tripod? Do you have IS lenses? How are you focusing (manual, AF, if AF what focus points)?

Have you tried switching it on to Autofocus

I had the same problems. I was using a Kodak point and shoot, 6.7 mega pixels. I bought my XTI and noticed the pics were not as clear and sharp. On a suggestion, I set the F-stop up to 8 and what a huge difference. So far that is all the changing I have done and notice 100% improvemnt on all the photos I've taken.

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Originally Posted by mwfanelli

DSLRs are diferent than P&S cameras. From your desription, its sounds as if you are used to having the camera do all the sharpening for you. Canon (and many other DSLR manufacturers) assumes that you will decide what amount to sharpen in software. You can add sharpening, you can't get rid of it. Canon leaves the images soft so you can add exactly what you want.

If you don't want to do the sharpening yourself, read the manual where it explains how to increase in-camera sharpening. Also read the section about color saturation and contrast, two more things it is assumed you want to do separately. Avoid RAW, that assumes maximum user manipulation.

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Agreed. Comming from the point of view of someone who does his sharpening in post-processing, having it done in-camera becomes problematic. I generally strive to shut-down all internal processing.

Look in the camera's menus for a setting named "Parameters". This is where I change Contrast, Sharpening, Saturation, and Color Tone settings on my Rebel XT. For me, it's under menu2. I don't know how different the XTi's menu system is, but I would guess it's similiar.

- Joe U.

You might also consider posting this type of question on either the Canon forum or the Digital SLR forum.

A digital SLR is different from a compact digital camera. It was designed for a different kind of user. Although they have become more user-friendly, they're still a more high-end camera for a more demanding user. Compact digital cameras have a lot of in-camera processing to sharpen the images and enhance the color. Basically, the camera companies want compact digital cameras to deliver very pleasing, easy-to-digest images, right out of the camera. But digital SLRs are different. The goal with a digital SLR is to produce the absolute best quality image - and that's not necessarily going to look great right out of the camera. In-camera processing degrades the ultimate image quality. So digital SLRs back off on the in-camera sharpening, contrast, color saturation, etc., so that the original information is preserved and the photographer can make the decision about how the final image looks. The truth is, your digital XTi images are likely no softer than photos from other cameras you've used. But the point-and-shoot camera processing has made them appear to be softer. Most of us that have been using digital SLRs for a while, do our sharpening after the fact, in Photoshop or some other software. It's the same thing that your old camera did, but we get to decide exactly how it's done and fine-tune it for each image, if we want. In the end it delivers a better quality image.

If you don't want to do any post-processing in Photoshop (or the software of your choice), there are in-camera sharpening settings you can use. If you haven't already tried them, see if that helps. But I would recommend leaving your camera at the default settings and try using Photoshop's Unsharp Mask filter. That will give you the best results.

so-cal-
There are two issue involved here, one is focus or depth-of-field, and the other is actual image sharpness. Compact digital cameras, like your Kodak, have more depth-of-field than digital SLRs. That means more of the area in your picture will be in focus. "Stopping down" your digital SLR lens to f/8 increases the depth-of-field on your XTi so that your subject is more likely to be in focus. However, it doesn't actually affect image sharpness, even if it appears to. Image sharpness is actually affected by the optics of your lens, your camera's sensor, and the in-camera sharpening that your camera does. Although stopping down to f/8 is a reasonable solution if your having focus problems, it doesn't address the issue raised by the original question here.

I would also like to suggest that stopping down to f/8 might not always deliver the best results. Sometimes you might want to isolate your subject by have a shallow depth-of-field. This is very hard to do with compact digital cameras because they have so much depth-of-field. But it's one of the benefits of a digital SLR. With a "fast" lens and a large aperture, like f/2.8, you can make the foreground and background go completely out-of-focus, making your subject stand out. This is a normal portrait technique you might have noticed.

Hope that helps. There are lots of interrelated settings and issues in photography. Every decision you make affects some other element of your photos. There is no one solution. Since you're starting to play with the aperture, I thought you might appreciate a little more information. If you want more, take a look at our photography Learn section, and in particular, the Basic Exposure Guide. That's a good place to start learning about the basic principles of photography.

:)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by bpeyton

I'm hoping someone out there can help. I am having problems getting a sharp image out of my new Rebel XTi. I have messed around with the quality settings, even shot several in RAW. The last thing I did was take several, transfer them directly to my hard drive with no software involved, then uploaded them to print at our local printer. I had a couple blown up to 8x10 to see the quality better. It's not just part of the picture that is out of focus, it's like the entire picture is somewhat out of focus or just not sharp. I have tried both lenses, so I'm thinking it's camera related rather than the lens.
Anyone ever had this problem and know of anything I may be able to try?
Thanks,
B

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Try posting an example of the problem so that we can see the problem. Then you'll get better responses to help you solve the problem.

Roger

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Originally Posted by Photo-John

so-cal-
There are two issue involved here, one is focus or depth-of-field, and the other is actual image sharpness. Compact digital cameras, like your Kodak, have more depth-of-field than digital SLRs. That means more of the area in your picture will be in focus. "Stopping down" your digital SLR lens to f/8 increases the depth-of-field on your XTi so that your subject is more likely to be in focus. However, it doesn't actually affect image sharpness, even if it appears to. Image sharpness is actually affected by the optics of your lens, your camera's sensor, and the in-camera sharpening that your camera does. Although stopping down to f/8 is a reasonable solution if your having focus problems, it doesn't address the issue raised by the original question here.

I would also like to suggest that stopping down to f/8 might not always deliver the best results. Sometimes you might want to isolate your subject by have a shallow depth-of-field. This is very hard to do with compact digital cameras because they have so much depth-of-field. But it's one of the benefits of a digital SLR. With a "fast" lens and a large aperture, like f/2.8, you can make the foreground and background go completely out-of-focus, making your subject stand out. This is a normal portrait technique you might have noticed.

Hope that helps. There are lots of interrelated settings and issues in photography. Every decision you make affects some other element of your photos. There is no one solution. Since you're starting to play with the aperture, I thought you might appreciate a little more information. If you want more, take a look at our photography Learn section, and in particular, the Basic Exposure Guide. That's a good place to start learning about the basic principles of photography.

:)

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Thank you Thank you....It seems the more I learn the less I know. The stopping down thing was the first thing I tried ( I read it somewhere) and as you say it is always different. I am as new and ignorant as they come but my thirst for knowledge is huge. I wonder how many other newbies have a difficult time grasping the shutter speed/aperature concept. At 47, I have taken thousands and thousands of pics on point and shoot cameras. Now that I own an SLR it's a whole new world. Any more links and or info would be highly appreciated.
Thanks again for the help.
TC

First switch all the settings to "auto" or "default". The pictures should look fine if the camera is not broken. Then, step by step, you should try all the settings until you get what you expect.

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Originally Posted by so-cal

Thank you Thank you....It seems the more I learn the less I know. The stopping down thing was the first thing I tried ( I read it somewhere) and as you say it is always different. I am as new and ignorant as they come but my thirst for knowledge is huge. I wonder how many other newbies have a difficult time grasping the shutter speed/aperature concept. At 47, I have taken thousands and thousands of pics on point and shoot cameras. Now that I own an SLR it's a whole new world. Any more links and or info would be highly appreciated.
Thanks again for the help.
TC

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Also you can choose the type of auto focus the camera will use. When I do micro-photography, I use manual focus. There are with the Nikon I use, there are at least four different AF modes, and I would be supprized that over camera's didn't even have more focus modes.