Complete newbie, soft focus with Nikon D7100 and 18-140, user error or tech issue?

GertjanGoetynck · Apr 25, 2014

Hey all!

I bought my first DSLR, the Nikon D7100 with the 18-140 kit lens, last week and I've been playing around. However, I noticed some softness in my pictures and posted on another forum. There I got the worrying news that the issue may not be me, but either a bad camera body or a bad lens that can't be solved with fine tuning.

How can I know if this is the case though? How can I know if it's user error, or a bad lens / body? I could take it to the camera shop, but I'd make a huge fool of myself when it ends up being purely user error and nothing more...

Here are a few examples of JPEG images, straight out of the camera: https://www.flickr.com/photos/108609642@N02/sets/72157644304807795/

In the pictures I shot through my bedroom window (sorry for the scenery) I focussed on the black windows in the garden shed. They also were taken from a tripod, with the timer function of the camera to eliminate shake from pressing the button.

Could anyone tell me if this is the sharpness I should get from the D7100 and 18-140 combo considering the EXIF settings you can see I used? Or should I go to the shop tomorrow and get it checked just in case (with a huge risk of embarassing myself)?

Thanks alot in advance!

TheNevadanStig · Apr 25, 2014

First, describe shot through the window. Was the window closed? If so, you'll never get tack sharp images through a window. The window basically becomes another lens, and the shot will only be as good as the glass in front of it, in those cases a window. And optically speaking, windows have absolutely horrid glass.
The dandelion shot has a few things wrong with it. First, its pretty underexposed. Second, you missed focus. Focus appears to be more on the front blade of horizontal grass or somewhere in between. Third, you're using a pretty wide aperture for a shot like that, giving you a small DOF.

GertjanGoetynck · Apr 25, 2014

TheNevadanStig said:
First, describe shot through the window. Was the window closed? If so, you'll never get tack sharp images through a window. The window basically becomes another lens, and the shot will only be as good as the glass in front of it, in those cases a window. And optically speaking, windows have absolutely horrid glass.
The dandelion shot has a few things wrong with it. First, its pretty underexposed. Second, you missed focus. Focus appears to be more on the front blade of horizontal grass or somewhere in between. Third, you're using a pretty wide aperture for a shot like that, giving you a small DOF.

Thanks for the feedback!

I shot through an open window, sorry for not mentioning that. Do you think the sharpness I should be getting with the given settings and a tripod should be more?

As far as the dandelion goes, I selected the flower dead center (the sort of brownish area) so there seems to be something wrong there... I just doublechecked in my camera (I got the option that shows where my focus point was when taking a picture enabled) and it is indeed dead center of the flower when checking it there..

PrecisionCamera · Apr 25, 2014

There's nothing wrong enough to be embarrassed about here. Your questions are very relevant and if anything, indicative of the attention to detail that comes with expertise, not inexperience. Your local photo store can easily do two things to help. 1. Try the lens on another body and your body on another copy of the lens. Simple in-store test shots should provide all the evidence necessary to know if your lens is out of tolerance, or if you're just noticing the inadequacies of this lens. The 18-140 is, after all, versatile but not high end. 2. They can perform or suggest micro-focusing adjustment to fine-tune the camera to the lens. It's inexpensive and almost always delivers noticeable improvement.

Micro-focusing Adjustments

GertjanGoetynck · Apr 25, 2014

PrecisionCamera said:
There's nothing wrong enough to be embarrassed about here. Your questions are very relevant and if anything, indicative of the attention to detail that comes with expertise, not inexperience. Your local photo store can easily do two things to help. 1. Try the lens on another body and your body on another copy of the lens. Simple in-store test shots should provide all the evidence necessary to know if your lens is out of tolerance, or if you're just noticing the inadequacies of this lens. The 18-140 is, after all, versatile but not high end. 2. They can perform or suggest micro-focusing adjustment to fine-tune the camera to the lens. It's inexpensive and almost always delivers noticeable improvement.

Micro-focusing Adjustments

Thanks alot!

My main issue when doing tests myself is that I simply don't have an "eye" for sharpness yet (no idea if this is because of my poor eyesight or lack of experience), so I come to forums to ask advice from people who know what they are talking about

My main worry is with the pictures out of my bedroom window, the background looks pretty unsharp to me, while I tried to apply the things I read about "hyperfocal distance" by focussing on something roughly 1/3 in the picture, in this case the glass window of the garden shed. When asking opinions on another forum I got the answer that the foreground wasn't as sharp as it should be either while it looked fine to me, a few comments and mentions of possible "bad body or lens" later the panick train got started...

I guess I'll just go to the shop tomorrow, to be sure and see what they say

The hard part will be explaining my problem with my lack of experience.

Braineack · Apr 25, 2014

viewing them at 6000x4000, they aren't as sharp as I'd expect. IS that the only lens you have to test against?

GertjanGoetynck · Apr 25, 2014

Braineack said:
viewing them at 6000x4000, they aren't as sharp as I'd expect. IS that the only lens you have to test against?

Unfortunately it is yes :/

bigal1000 · Apr 26, 2014

User error.....Put it on tripod set f stop around 8, don't hand hold the lens then see what you get also don't shoot out a window and shoot a stationary object not a flower that's blowing in the wind !!!

GertjanGoetynck · May 2, 2014

Alright, I got 2 more examples. Both are straight out of camera JPEGs with sharpening put quite high. I posted them like that to get postprocessing out of the equasion, so my lack of experience with lightroom could not be to blame for possible soft results.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/108609642@N02/14067350166/ and https://www.flickr.com/photos/108609642@N02/14090446015/ are the examples in question.

Is this the level of sharpness I should be getting with the 18-140 on a nikon d7100, with the settings you see in the exif data? According to the DOF calculators I found online both should basically be hitting hyperfocal distance.

Seventen · May 2, 2014

Just a thought you said you have the camera on a tripod shooting? Do you have the image stabilizing turned off? It can cause issues like camera shake if it is turned on and on a tripod.

Derrel · May 2, 2014

1/100 second is a VERY dangerous shutter speed; fast enough to think you can hand-hold it, and yet slow enough that mirror slap, and shutter vibration, and hand-holding tremors, as well as camera shake caused by an unsteady tripod or hand, or a rough push of the shutter release, can cause loss of sharpness. Motion of the subject? 1/100 second will not stop lot of motion that we se in real life. Anyway...one thing I DO see is that the corners of the image are not all that sharp...I would say by looking at the picture on top, that the lens is not up to the task of pulling the extreme corners into good sharpness at the f/stop you used. The issue, as I see it: you have a HIGH-resolution camera, with no AA filter...but you have a most decidedly consumer-level, wide-ratio zoom lens. The first image looked pretty good to me at 2048 pixels wide.

If you want higher sharpness, you will need to make sure you use a fast shutter speed, focus precisely and accurately, and have a QUALITY lens; right now, you have a convenience lens, with wide-ranging capabilities, but it's clearly a consumer-grade lens according to Thom Hogan; the 18-140 he says is NOT capable of showing what the D7100 or other 24-megapixel Nikon cameras are capable of showing. I really think that at 2,048 pixels or smaller, the images look totally "fine".