Taken today

External images still need a bit of work on my part but much better overall

I really don’t understand why you’re using 400ASA in that light.

Bright sunshine, low evening/morning sun and clear blue skies usually mean 1/640 sec at f/8 or thereabouts for me. At 200ASA.

Please don’t take this the wrong way, but I think you need to buy a book or DVD about digital photography and go through it (and your camera manual) carefully before you bin your camera.

You’re looking for a quick fix, but there are no quick fixes. You simply have to take the time to learn to use your equipment.

Just like the rest of us are still doing. 🙂

That’s a fair appraisal, I can usually pick things up very quickly and become very good at them but i’ve been taking photos with the camera for a while now and still have problems with sharpness, perhaps there is more art to producing excellent photos that I am appreciating! To solve my problem I have tried to Technically replicate the circumstances that should give good photos but I’m just not getting it and I just don’t know what else to do! This morning the 400 was plainly because I forgot to switch it it 200 and only found out once back home so that was purely an oversight, I would have used 200 if I had checked! The reason I am getting a bit desperate is that I have tried lots of things, I seem to be doing the right things, exposure is fine, white balance good (except forgetting to set 200 ISO although that wouldn’t make too much difference) and yet the photos are all not sharp enough! If the photos were bad due to me not having any artistic insight or flair (not that I do!) then no problem and I could understand that but the fact with everything supposedly set up correctly I am not getting sharp shots is very disheartning and i don’t know what else to do!

Here’s another of my cameras disturbing habits! This is an in flight shot (cropped of course but at 100% size) and it shows the strange effect that often happens on detail cockpit shots. All in all I’m pretty disillusioned at the moment and I’m not seeing a fix for the problems.

Thanks for the further input, I have changed the aut focus from dynamic to single area, I haven’t been able to get out to test it though, will get back when i’ve got some new shots!
cheers

You guys are on to the same things as me, The conditions down in NZ are pretty much top notch for photo taking and I’ve tried alot of different things to try and crispen the shots up but I do often seem to get this softness with this lens which is really unattractive. i’ve just had another browse through my photos and overall although I get some crisp shots generally they could really do with all being a bit more defined. The lens itself has a UV filter fitted and I do seem to get crisper shots when using a 300mm lens. Perhaps I need a tripod, i’m leaning towards user error here though!
Cheers
augsburgeagle

Heres a little example, First photo is 1/1600 18mm, Lacks definition again, you can hardly read the P68C!
Second photo was taken about 10 seconds later 1/1600 62mm but although still not great it seems to have much better definition of the subject than the first photo, I can’t work out why the second photo is much sharper than the first!