Originally posted by saint_david Thanks for the responses. Most have my shots so far have been in pretty dreary weather so maybe that's playing a part? How would I adjust or calibrate my lens to make sure it's sharp?
Sure, light conditions can affect perceived sharpness. What lens are you using? The kit lens is never going to be ultra sharp, but you can get the most out of it if you buy a lens hood and shoot between f8 and f11. The 18-55mm lens performs best at around 35mm. Other lenses have different sweet spots, you can find these reading online reviews.
Make sure your camera has enough time to focus and is focusing on the right object (the AF point are larger than the little red focus point overlay in the viewfinder makes it seem) and that your shutter speed is high enough. If your shutter speed is too low, the shot will be blurry due to handshake. Your shutter speed should be 1/(2*focal length). So for a 50mm lens you should use a shutter speed of at least 1/100 or faster (1/200, 1/500) when handholding. But this kind of depends on how steady your hands are, this is just a general rule some of us on these forums follow. I also try not to go under 1/90 at all, unless I want motion blur (like, of a car driving past me).
And make sure your photos are bright enough.
So, this is quite a lot of stuff, but work on it one step at a time and soon you'll get the hang of it. To "test" your lens sharpness you should place it on a tripod or something, use live view in bright daylight and focus on an object that is relatively near (like, 1-5 metres, but depends on the FoV of lens). You can use the AF or do it manually. You should take a few shots with different aperture settings (because a bigger f number will give you a bigger DoF, which makes the lens look "sharper". If the DoF is very thin, you might mistake it for the lens not being sharp)