Why do 50D images look soft

[arith]

It's not the camera. FF has a tighter DoF by about a stop (which isn't a big deal),

I'm really confused now Colin, I used to use medium format at school and thought 35mm was a tad on the small size but the dof I find confusing. For me it is all about capturing a lot of detail and be able to crop. I want 28 inch wide prints to look sharp close up.

[William W]

I'm really confused now Colin, I used to use medium format at school and thought 35mm was a tad on the small size but the dof I find confusing.

Gidday ---

Your DoF chart has a 50mm lens on BOTH cameras and BOTH shooting at 5m.

The 5DmkII will see more of the Subject sitting at 5m (have larger FoV).

For the comparison you cited, you would be to mount an 85mm lens (actually an 80mm lens, but Canon don't make one) on the 5DMkII - OR - you need to be CLOSER with the 5DMkII and the 50mm lens to get the SAME FoV.

Alternatively - grab another Photographer and put a 135 on a 5D and an 85 on a 20D (for the same FoV) and shoot each other (with the same aperture):



WW

[William W]

That's something we have been discussing behind the scenes recently and we're going to come up with some guidelines and put them on FAQ - in due course - days jobs, other CiC duties and ones own photography permitting

My thoughts are that as long as no one is making a commercial gain from it (that's pretty much a given here at CiC) and assuming they are here for instructional use; then any third party images used should (ideally) be photographer name credited and/or hyperlinked back to their source website.

Used sparingly, I don't think that's a problem, obviously if admin/mods see anything we think goes over the line, we'll act accordingly.

Cheers,

Well that sounds very sensible to me Dave – kinda “Common Sense” – which the world is sadly lacking.

***

I write in a light hearted manner here: I just had a squiz and dpreview have pretty strong wording about getting written permission first, before COPYING anything other than "quoting" a maximum of 20 words, from any part of their webpages . . . so avoiding all stress . . . I just "uncopied" the two image files from my computer . . .

I wonder how many unauthorized "copied files" are sitting in computers around the world in "temporary internet files" as a result of people reading dpreview ? ? ?

I understand the logic of strong copyright wording, but what ever happened to: "quotes and extracts for academic, research and private study purposes provided all are properly cited and fully referenced"? That clause that was in all of my textbooks . . .

The world’s a little more crazy now, I think . . .

Like if you stick it on the web, someone’s gonna knock it off whatever strong words you write – just think of Sean Peele - they are the bad people, so why not let the good people advertise you? ? ?

Anyway, that stated dpreview is a really nice website with lots of good information, and I do read a lot there . . . but I guess, technically, I can’t do that any more either . . . not until I find a way of disabling my temporary internet file gizmo .

WW

[arith]

Good thinking William, now all I need is somebody to photograph; nope non of my family so I guess I will just have to get back to landscape and in the unfortunate event of somebody asking to be photographed; whip out the 10D. cheers

[William W]

For me it is all about capturing a lot of detail and be able to crop. I want 28 inch wide prints to look sharp close up

Hey arith,

Well that really depends on what “sharp” means and what “up close” means – if you mean “Tack Sharp – Display Quality at arm's length after cropping ½ of the image away” then that is tall order, IMO. . .

But, more importantly . . . you mentioned a while back that you only do Landscape and Architecture then IMO those exclusive Subjects make the decision easy in a Canon kit – it must be to buy 135 format (Full Frame) cameras.

The reason is simple - because that’s the format where:

> the best wide glass is made to suit
> the TS-E is most effective

I believe that camera kits should be based upon outcomes – if I were mainly only shooting those two subjects and using Canon then I would have only Full Frame bodies – because of the GLASS – that’s the main criterion.


WW

[arith]

That's right William. I've got good lenses for wide work and a 20mm f2.8 has less than 1% distortion and very good CA, but it is too wide for the kind of detail I want when using my 10D unless I get it right and don't have to crop. However it is even wider on a full format and there is enough room to crop.

I only got started on this comparison because the 50D is cheap at the moment and has a lot of pixels, but is 1.6 crop meaning I have to stand 1.6 times further away which sometimes isn't possible. cheers

Like I said I will keep trying but at the moment I'm being beat by new buyers that just happen to buy everything, you can see there bidding history if you click on them, if by Thursday I still haven't got one I will go for a 50D rendering my 10D obsolete.


Actually a 5 year old 5D went for £650 but the seller was too honest, and I bet a dealer got it since it looked like it was straight out of a box and dealers don't say how old they are.

[arith]

Well I've paid for a brand new 50D because I got sick of the deception in the used market; such as 'I bought it last week and it is guaranteed for a year, including backpack 580ex and L type lens only £700'.

I might be stupid but I'm not that stupid, so if I manage to avoid prison for going overdrawn I will have a nice camera to learn.

[Dave Humphries]

Well I've paid for a brand new 50D

Glad to hear you're 'expecting' Steve

When's it due?

[arith]

Supposed to be today from Camerabox Dave, cheers

[arith]

Just phoned them and apparently they are out of stock despite the website suggesting otherwise. I wonder if I will get it in time for xmas, so much for highly recommended.

[Dave Humphries]

Just phoned them and apparently they are out of stock despite the website suggesting otherwise. I wonder if I will get it in time for xmas, so much for highly recommended.

I have to say I hadn't heard of them, but I see what you mean; I just looked up the Nikon 300mm, f4 and it says "Out of Stock, Arriving Fri 30th April" !

Seems their website isn't what you'd call "realtime" (given it is now 13 May, almost two weeks later).
But is doesn't say "2010", so perhaps ...

Hope your new baby comes soon,

[arith]

On the 9th May it said out of stock arriving 28th April and on 10th they had 10 but in the evening got only 2 left so I got one one day before pay day, getting me in trouble with my bank because I had only just enough. There is £65 cashback on this so I hope they do send it very soon, it was actually £40 cheaper elsewhere but these were recommended by another photographer.

[arith]

Its been dispatched It will probably take me a week to sort out the functions and I have ordered a 4GB Duracell UDMA 300X compact flash.

[arith]

Got it, and it seems to work fine. It is a lot more complicated than my 10D but at least I know my 28mm is ok on it and the 50mm is bound to be ok. It is also a lot lighter. Got a lot of reading and now back to normality for a bit.