[SweetTomato]

Hi every body!
I take photos with my Pentax K-7 and kit lens 18-55mm & 50-200mm WR. But with both lens, I'v always been dissapponted! The photo's quality is terrible!!! They are blurred/not sharp. Why that? What's wrong? What should I do? Here is my image:

1./Resized photo:




2./Crop 100%:



3./Zoom 200%:



I read many about K-7 review, and many ones praised about its image quality. So that I bought it. But... let's see, and compare with the photo which is taken by Nikon D90:

1./Resized photo:



2./Crop 100%:



3./Zoom 200%:

[imtheguy]

The kit lenses are way better than your samples indicate. Please provide full EXIF for the first shot. Also a shot along a progressive line of targets (like looking down a line of fence posts) so we can see where the focus IS hitting verus your target.

[Ash]

Welcome here.
Let's just be clear about your comparisons.
It is NOT about the cameras.
Beyond lens limitations, the sharpness of an image is solely dependent on the operator.
Your kit lenses are more than capable of obtaining sharp images.
There are soooo many variables as to why there are blurred images, and I would implore you to look into each of those reasons before blaming it on the camera (or lens). Switching the camera to green mode may take a lot of those variables away, but you also have camera shake, focusing anomalies and motion blur to contend with, which in the above photo it is hard to know whether you hands were stable when taking the photo.

But if you weren't in green mode, you may have had a slow shutter speed or too shallow a depth of field with your aperture setting, or simply mis-focused (very common problem). Look into all these issues and try again.

[enoeske]

Your focus appears to be somewhere near his far left wrist. Focus on his face, and it will be in focus.

[SweetTomato]

Your focus appears to be somewhere near his far left wrist. Focus on his face, and it will be in focus.

I use Sel-focus and always focus at faces.

[SweetTomato]

The kit lenses are way better than your samples indicate. Please provide full EXIF for the first shot. Also a shot along a progressive line of targets (like looking down a line of fence posts) so we can see where the focus IS hitting verus your target.

First image: 1/20s, 55mm, ISO 100. But SR is on, and other images, shot at 1/400s also have the same problem.

[future_retro]

It's just about impossible to get sharp shots handheld at 1/20s, even if you were on a tripod your subject would be moving ever so slightly which would introduce blur

if you're having the same problem at 1/400s then it's a focus problem, every camera or lens from a cell phone camera to a Hasslebald could get sharp pictures at 1/400s as long as the focus is correct

[SweetTomato]

It's just about impossible to get sharp shots handheld at 1/20s, even if you were on a tripod your subject would be moving ever so slightly which would introduce blur

if you're having the same problem at 1/400s then it's a focus problem, every camera or lens from a cell phone camera to a Hasslebald could get sharp pictures at 1/400s as long as the focus is correct

This is this photo, 1/400s, ISO200, f5.6, 50mm:

[amoringello]

The image does not look like a result of motion blur. It simply looks like poor focusing.

Assuming you know what you're doing and have done the obvious tests by using a tripod, (you are at least getting baseline tests using a tripod, right?), I would have to say you camera or lens is bad.

Even at 1/20 sec, you should be able to get much better images with the K7.
Even at 1/20 hand-held you should get better images, or at least an image showing signs of motion blur.

-edit-
I see you just posted a new photo as I was writing. My comments are in reference to the first uploads.

[sharathk]

regarding the second photo:
i feel their hands are in focus than their faces (front-focus?) allthough can't be sure since the image resolution is smaller.

[JeffJS]

Sorry folks but the D90 clearly nailed the shots. I Would like to know if the Lenses are comparable however. It is actually quite possible to get a clear shot at 1/20sec. Saying that you can't do it is the same myth as someone who said you can't hand hold a 500mm mirror lens (in another thread). Now if you're talking about 2 seconds or even half a second, I can agree.

The kit lens, especially the 18-55 is weak wide open but you do appear to be front focusing a bit on the k7.

[amoringello]

Sorry folks but the D90 clearly nailed the shots.

Are you arguing a point? I don't recall anyone saying the D90 failed in any way. Maybe I'm misunderstanding your statement.

Anyway, the 18-55, although not a bad lens in any regard, is naturally not in league with a DA* or Canon-L or Nikon equivalent. Regardless, the 18-55 kit lens is NOT *THAT* bad.

The problem exhibited here is not a lens quality issue -- other than perhaps a broken lens (or pair of lenses).

Honestly, we don't have enough information to make a good determination.
I would suggest that the OP get out the tripod and take some 'lab' style tests.
Get a baseline with;
- consistent lighting (no passing clouds causing images to have vastly different requirements as are displayed in the first examples),
- static subject. Not one that might move (although this focus problem is more than slight movement)

We also do not know for certain that the focus was in fact locked, or if so; where.
We do not know for certain that the SR was enabled. (On that note, I recently scanned my past 20,000 photos... it seems nearly 40% did not have SR lock although SR was enabled -- and explains the quality of most of them. I would have sworn this number should have been more around 2%... obviously I was wrong. The OP might be as well. :-) )

It would be helpful if the OP could post the original image or run EXIFTOOL or PHOTOME to verify and validate the state of the camera and it settings.

[amoringello]

Just to add an anecdote...
Two years ago, not long after getting my K7 I was on vacation.
The first day out, EVERY single photo was out of focus.
I had been using the K7 for over a week before that without issue.
The whole day of photos was pretty much a failure.
I tried on a tripod. I tried bright light. I tried flash. I tried three different lenses.
I swapped batteries. I hard reset the camera. No luck.

The second day on, everything was good.
I have no idea what went wrong, but did not have another problem since.

Just saying it *could* be the camera. But do your "baseline" tests and make sure.

[JeffJS]

Are you arguing a point? I don't recall anyone saying the D90 failed in any way. Maybe I'm misunderstanding your statement.

I also said I would like to know what Lens was used on the Nikon. No, I'm not arguing per-se but every time I see one of these 'why are my pics blurry--compared to xx' There are the usual number of excuses why the Pentax didn't get it correct, right out of the box. I, just like everyone else here, had to learn How to use my camera. Yes, the kit lenses, are decent, for what they are, but they are Not the sharpest in the box. It would appear to me that in this case, the first photos posted, the K7 simply Missed the focus or focused on something else (the reason I stick with center point AF).

Usually these posts are compared to a P&S and we can blame the difference on the sensor size and lack of understanding what that means. In this case, who ever took the photos with the D90 clearly knows how to take a photo. If the same person took both sets, similar results should be obtainable from both cameras. The only differences being the Lens and the Lighting.

I Like the 18-55 WR kit lens, it has it's uses for me. It is not, again, a very sharp lens but Reasonable results should be obtainable with it.

1A_Compare 28 to kit lens - a set on Flickr

[future_retro]

I redact the 1/20s thing, after reading Jeff's post I picked up my Kx and took a picture of a printed piece of paper that was a few feet away from me at 1/20s, 55mm and the text was tack sharp when zoomed in all the way on the Kx's screen