# Left part of image is often more blurry. Why?



## biggerben (Jan 24, 2011)

Title says it all really. Using a Nikon D90 and a 70-300VR lens. Could this be:

Camera shake (although that should affect left and right parts equally, no?)
VR (Vibration Reduction) problems?
Lens broken?
Camera broken?

Reference pic here (just cropped, otherwise unedited). This one is by far the most obvious, but I have this problem in a lot of my shots, just not so severe.

Several more shots in this album. I cut out the interesting bits and resized them to 200% in case anyone wants to pixel peep 

Can anyone tell me what the problem is? Is there any way I can avoid ruining some of my shots because of this?

-Ben


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## ann (Jan 24, 2011)

What are your focal points set too?


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## biggerben (Jan 24, 2011)

The focal points are automatically chosen ... but doesn't the camera focus on a "plane" instead of "points" anyway?


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## mikelmartin (Jan 24, 2011)

Did you try it on a different lens? I would do that if I were you. Too see if it's the lens or the camera that's busted.

Mikel Martin


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## shortpballer (Jan 24, 2011)

If you are using a kit lens, the mount is plastic, so it may not be mounting exactly on the same plane as the sensor.  Therefor one side would be less in focus.


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## D-B-J (Jan 24, 2011)

mikelmartin said:


> Did you try it on a different lens? I would do that if I were you. Too see if it's the lens or the camera that's busted.
> 
> Mikel Martin


 
+1


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## KmH (Jan 24, 2011)

ann said:


> What are your focal points set too?


In other words where in the photo is the focal point? Is there a filter screwed onto the front of the lens? How heavy are those photos cropped, before you made the small left/right crops?

Has the lens or camera ever been dropped?

What focus mode, and focus area mode are you using?

What aperture and shutter speed?

It could be a lens element slightly askew, it could be the image sensor slightly out of alignment, it could be a cheap UV filter on the front of the lens, or a UV filter that is cross-threaded.


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## djacobox372 (Jan 24, 2011)

Were you shooting through glass? Like an airport window?  If the window your shooting through is not 100% perfect, it could cause something like this.


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## biggerben (Jan 24, 2011)

The camera and lens have not been dropped. The focal point is the plane (don't know which part as it's auto selected, but it's all equally far away). Photo is not heavily cropped and is at about 1/250, f/7.1.

No UV filter on lens and not shot through glass.

I guess I'll call Nikon tomorrow. Thanks for all your posts.


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## KmH (Jan 25, 2011)

How far from these airplanes were you? 1 kilometer? 2? 3? 500 m?

How heavy is the cropping? 50%? 100%?

In most of the shots you posted the airplane is NOT parallel to the image sensor. Only that portion of the image that is parallel to the image sensor will be in plane-of-focus. In front of or behind that plane-of-focus, focus starts to soften. How much it starts to soften depends on the lens focal length, subject distance, and aperture.

Nikon's View NX (it came with your D90) can display the focus point that was used to make the photo.

If the focus point used is always on the right side of the frame.......


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## bloeppky (Jun 2, 2014)

Hi. I'm new to this site and I am having similar problems with my 18-200 sigma lens on my Pentax KX camera. I did some test shots of a newspaper spread and the problem is clearly there. It's most frustrating when I am photographing a group of people and the image is crisp over the right two thirds but softens to the left. In reading I've been doing I understand this may be a problem in the lens (element out of position?) or maybe in the camera (sensor?) My next test is to try a different lens on the camera, as a couple of people suggested above.  Any other ideas?  bloeppky


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## 480sparky (Jun 2, 2014)

bloeppky said:


> Hi. I'm new to this site and I am having similar problems with my 18-200 sigma lens on my Pentax KX camera. I did some test shots of a newspaper spread and the problem is clearly there. It's most frustrating when I am photographing a group of people and the image is crisp over the right two thirds but softens to the left. In reading I've been doing I understand this may be a problem in the lens (element out of position?) or maybe in the camera (sensor?) My next test is to try a different lens on the camera, as a couple of people suggested above.  Any other ideas?  bloeppky





If you know of someone else with a camera that can use that lens, have them try it on theirs and see if they have the same issue.


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## 71M (Jun 2, 2014)

biggerben said:


> Title says it all really. Using a Nikon D90 and a 70-300VR lens. Could this be:
> 
> Camera shake (although that should affect left and right parts equally, no?)
> VR (Vibration Reduction) problems?
> ...



Possibly lens element/group out of alignment or similarly lens mount/body flange issue.


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## chris (Jun 3, 2014)

In the photos of the Lufthansa and BA planes coming in to land the rear of the plane is shot through the exhausts from the engines so they are always likely to be less sharp than the front.

In the shot of the PGA plane it is not parallel to the camera, the front, lefthand side in the photo, appears to be slightly nearer than the tail. if you are shooting wide open then there may be DOF issues.

What shutter speeds and apertures were used?

The shots look to be a bit underexposed as well (I might be wrong on this, I'm looking at them on my computer at work which doesn't have the best of monitors).

Other possibilities could be smearing on the sensor, lens or any filter used.


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## SweetBiscuit (May 22, 2017)

bloeppky said:


> Hi. I'm new to this site and I am having similar problems with my 18-200 sigma lens on my Pentax KX camera. I did some test shots of a newspaper spread and the problem is clearly there. It's most frustrating when I am photographing a group of people and the image is crisp over the right two thirds but softens to the left. In reading I've been doing I understand this may be a problem in the lens (element out of position?) or maybe in the camera (sensor?) My next test is to try a different lens on the camera, as a couple of people suggested above.  Any other ideas?  bloeppky


I have the same problem. The left side of my photos is slightly blurry but not on the right. I use a Nikon-Fit 17-70mm Sigma lens. I can't figure it out what's causing it. I just bought a new D7200 Nikon camera and the result is is still the same.


bloeppky said:


> Hi. I'm new to this site and I am having similar problems with my 18-200 sigma lens on my Pentax KX camera. I did some test shots of a newspaper spread and the problem is clearly there. It's most frustrating when I am photographing a group of people and the image is crisp over the right two thirds but softens to the left. In reading I've been doing I understand this may be a problem in the lens (element out of position?) or maybe in the camera (sensor?) My next test is to try a different lens on the camera, as a couple of people suggested above.  Any other ideas?  bloeppky


I have the same problem too with my Nikon-Fit 17-70mm Sigma lens. My photo is slightly blurry on the left side. I bought a new Nikon D7200 camera body and the result is still the same. I don't know what's causing it which is so frustrating.


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## snowbear (May 22, 2017)

SweetBiscuit said:


> I have the same problem too with my Nikon-Fit 17-70mm Sigma lens. My photo is slightly blurry on the left side. I bought a new Nikon D7200 camera body and the result is still the same. I don't know what's causing it which is so frustrating.


You realize the quoted comment is three years old and the BLOEPPKY never posted anything else?

Post an example with EXIF and we might be able to help you figure it out.


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