Digital Pics Not Sharp - in General?

[uncle_ben]

Hi,

I have used cheap Konica Minolta and have recently upgraded to Nikon D40.
I always use AF and lenses with some, short optical zoom. I have observed almost all my pictures require sharpening in photoshop. I talked to a friend and he told me this is normal with digital cameras. They are not as sharp as analog cameras. Can that be true?

Thanks for any input on this...

Ben

 

[voltbang]

Point and shoot digital cameras will do their final sharpening stage in-camera. This will result in a generally nice crisp picture. Once you move upscale, especially once you get to digital SLR cameras, the camera will leave the sharpening step for you to do off camera. Sometimes you can set the level of sharpening as a user option, and get that generally good sharp setting, check your manual. The reason for not doing it in the camera is that the sharpening step can result in artifacts and noise. If you have the original sensor data, you can sharpen it until you get it right. Once the sharpening is done wrong, you can't undo it accurately and get all the original detail back. The whole point of having a dSLR is control over the final image, so the default is to leave that in the photographers hands.

I know some people don't like post processing their digital shots. It's just part of the process, unfortunately. The un-processed digital image is more viewable than undeveloped film, but it's not done yet.

I have digital shots taken from across the room where you can see every hair in my brother-n-law's beard stubble. I have soccer pictures where you can see the kids eyelashes. If you aren't getting crisp sharp pictures, you need to check your settings, and consult your manuals.

 

[deusex]

seems like SLRs are even more trouble XD

 

[phecksel]

seems like SLRs are even more trouble XD

They can be, but the benefit far far outweighs the "trouble".

With Nikon software, changes are NOT permanent. It's a nice to be able to mess up and not worry about it.

I will process a couple hundred photos in literally an hour. Can look at a photo and determine what I need to do to make it look good. For the shots that HAVE to look great, I'll take the extra time.