[varnco]

I'm trying to practice with my new k100D and Takumar SMC 85mm 1.9 lens.

Trying to take indoor pictures, in a YMCA Gym, it's setup as such:

Manual Mode
ISO 1600
Aperature 1.9
Speed 1/250 (minimum speed I need)
No flash.
Manual White Balance set off the nearest white t-shirt

The pictures are coming out very "soft".

Any recommendations?

[-spam-]

Could you post an example?

Im not familiar with that lens, but most lenses will be somewhat softer wide open than if they were stopped down a bit.

The high iso could be playing a part as well. Are you shooting RAW or jpeg?

[DAP]

Shooting wide open with an 85mm lens gives you a pretty narrow depth of field - maybe the lack of sharpness is due to the fact that your subject is located a bit out of the plane of focus (easy to have happen especially if you're manual focusing on moving targets - assumed scenario based on your description). Other than that, it could be that your lens is just soft wide open.

[FotoPete]

Shooting wide open with an 85mm lens gives you a pretty narrow depth of field - maybe the lack of sharpness is due to the fact that your subject is located a bit out of the plane of focus (easy to have happen especially if you're manual focusing on moving targets - assumed scenario based on your description). Other than that, it could be that your lens is just soft wide open.

I agree that is a good possibility. Alot of lenses tend to be somewhat soft at their max aperture. Alot of people find this quite useful for portraiture as it supresses facial blemishes and makes the skin look softer.

I'm sure if you drop it down to say f2.8, the lens will sharpen up really fast.

[varnco]

Here is an example picture.

Jpeg mode, not RAW
1/400 speed
3200 ISO
f 2.5-ish to 1.9 (i don't remember)
Image adjusted with Neat Image

[-spam-]

Here is an example picture.

Jpeg mode, not RAW
1/400 speed
3200 ISO
f 2.5-ish to 1.9 (i don't remember)
Image adjusted with Neat Image

The focus is off. Look at the feet, the one closest to the camera is pretty much in focus while the upper body is. The narrow depth of field is one of the draw backs of using larger apertures.

[carpents]

Focus, focus, focus. It looks like with a little practice you'll be fine.

The colors look good to me, you could probably bump the contrast a bit.

[varnco]

So, I need an open aperature to let light in, but then I'll get an Extremely shallow DOF... so I'm basically SOL or just need to rattle of a bazillion shots and hope to get lucky,

Would switching to the Pentax 77mm 1.8 help the situation a bit (a bit shorter lens and autofocus)?

I've tried the kit lens with low aperature of 3.5, and that just doesn't cut it.

I am amazed at the quality of images the camera can put out at ISO 3200 and 1600.