Originally posted by TER-OR I'd really crank the exposure until you can see the bird's details. I can't tell what type of bird this is from the image now. That will at least help you figure out where the lens is focusing.
There is a reason people "graduate" from kit lenses, though.
There's not a whole more detail to show in that bird... which is probably the K20D's dynamic range fault as well.
I'll probably work on that bird later and see if I can get a better image out of it, but I don't even think the kit lens is good for beginners. When I first got the K20D with it, and tried to take pictures inside, it misfocused so badly and locked the camera so many times (due to not being able to lock focus), that I thought something was broken...
Its only use (at least with the K20D) is to take to places with tons of light, and where it would be hazardous to take a better lens (like the beach).
Originally posted by DeadJohn That bird is a tricky subject - dark object on a white background. My recollection from when I used the kit lens is that it was reasonably sharp. My memory could be bad, or maybe I was lucky and got a better copy, or maybe there's something you can change.
What software do you use? If you use Lightroom and raw/DNG images, undo all your changes on the bird, then try adjusting the "blacks" slider to brighten the bird. If blacks doesn't work well, give "shadows" a try, and finally adjust the overall exposure. Reduce contrast to see if you get more detail in the bird. Play with sharpening after the exposure is adjusted. You can do similar things with JPG (but with more difficulty and maybe less success) or with other software.
During image capture, try these things, but I realize it's too late for the bird photo after the fact: Stop down to f8 for maximum sharpness when there's enough light. Overexpose the scene to brighten the bird, then fix snow highlights during processing or just let them be blown out. The bird's body doesn't have much contrast and AF might fail to lock onto it; set focus to center point only, focus on the edge of the bird, recompose as needed.
Check the AF fine adjust under controlled conditions on a tripod if none of the above helps. Your camera+lens combination might be misadjusted.
I use Corel Aftershot Pro. Before I adjusted the levels, the bird was just a black blob. I think it's probably got to do with the severe underexposing that happened, and the fact that the K20D just doesn't have that much dynamic range. If this was a K-5 or newer, I'm sure I could have recovered a lot more detail from that bird.
Still, the point is that a "walk around lens" should be a lens that you can rely on, to quickly take a picture without having to spend a minute metering or adjusting your levels until you are happy with your exposure. For that, my manual primes do a better job anyway.
The walk-around lens needs to expose, and focus quickly and reliably. My DA 35 2.4 would have nailed that shot. That is what I should have had on the camera at that moment.
Originally posted by altopiet You're going to sell it, and surely some fool is going to buy it��
Maybe I'll start the auction at 1 dollar, so I don't feel too bad about it
If they use it on a K5 or K30 or K50, due to the better ISO handling, auto-focus and the better shadow resolution, it's probably going to be much more useful than it is on my K20D.