[JinDesu]

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well i certainly thought so as well.
but i can't really blame the tammy. yeah i do get a missed focus here and there but that seldom happens.
when i was failing time after time with my tammy today i slapped on my helios and gave it a shot.couldn't get a single sharp shot either in that same room.i was trying to get a shot of my girlfriend while she was studying.the sun was beginning to set.the light was all natural.i tried focusing on the eyes to no avail with both lenses.it was all blur.i place my camera on a glass then (immitating a tripod), switched IS off and no luck still.
i was only able to get a crisp shot with eyelashes i could count only when out of frustration i asked her to come to the balcony which was facing the sunny side.
bingo!!!my helios did it!!!!
so yeah i recon the shutter speed had a lot to do with it and the fact how close was i to the subject.
but correct me if i'm wrong - doesn't sharpness of an image suffers the farther you get away from the subject,especially when shooting people?

Not necessarily, nor significantly. Unless you're shooting from like 30 feet away.

But try a few shots, post up the problem ones, and give us information on the camera settings and we can definitely help analyze. It's hard to analyze just from your statements because you don't know what you don't know (there, I said it). So your explanation may not actually give us the whole story.

[racingsnake]

Not necessarily, nor significantly. Unless you're shooting from like 30 feet away.

But try a few shots, post up the problem ones, and give us information on the camera settings and we can definitely help analyze. It's hard to analyze just from your statements because you don't know what you don't know (there, I said it). So your explanation may not actually give us the whole story.

will do for sure)

[eddie1960]

sharpness does not suffer with distance from the subject otherwise there would be no sharp landscapes. Certainly distance from a subject will affect the way they are isolated from the surroundings. that is a DOF thing. the further back you stand from the subject the more area behind and in front will be in focus. Sharpness is also a function of the ISO (higher ISO are noisier and cannot render the same detail for instance. then there is shutter speed. though the oft stated rule is 1/1xFL on film/FF for acceptable sharpness (1/1.5xFL on apsc) to really acheive the sharpest possible result that needs to be higher. more in the range of 1/4.5xFL on apsc - so at 75mm on your Tammy you should look to 1/350 or so as a shutter speed that will capture the sharpest hand held image. SR likely lets this drop as low as 1/125 with proper technique. A tripos of course eliminates the issue. Enough light also is an issue so Flash in lower light will achieve sharper shots (the duration of a flash is faster than the 1/180 shutter speed of sync)
I can't look at the sample you loaded on my work computer so I am flying a little blind on what you consider a sharpness issue though

but when all else fails remember HCB - this was my tag line for eons - covers for my poor technique
"Sharpness is a bourgeois concept"

[icywindow]

It is also possible that the IS system has something wrong with it - just for diagnostic purposes, shoot 1/250 with IS turned off for a couple hours and see if you're happier with the shots. It does happen very infrequently for me that the IS will miscalculate and make the shot more blurry. Also, for your Manual lenses, are you setting the focal length when your camera turns on?

[racingsnake]

It is also possible that the IS system has something wrong with it - just for diagnostic purposes, shoot 1/250 with IS turned off for a couple hours and see if you're happier with the shots. It does happen very infrequently for me that the IS will miscalculate and make the shot more blurry. Also, for your Manual lenses, are you setting the focal length when your camera turns on?

thanks for the suggestion.yeah i do manually input the focal length for my manual glass.
i'll try and shoot without IS today. it's bright and sunny so the conditions are great.

[magkelly]

MF isn't the easiest thing in the world if you ask me. I'm getting a lot better than I used to be at it but when I first started I was pretty awful at it. I've put in a lot of time and a lot of practice I think but I don't know that I'll ever be brilliant at it. I've seen much nicer images here than mine with MF. There are people who are much more talented at it than I am. There are times when I am very glad there is such a thing as AF. Composition comes easy, lighting well I get, but the MF focusing thing does still challenge me a fair bit sometimes. It's partially my bad eyes, but also I'm not naturally great at MF I don't think. It's something I really have to keep on doing. If I was a lazy photographer I'd just take the easy way out, always use AF lenses, but I honestly feel to be the best photographer I can be I have to continue to work all the time on that. Same reason I shoot with an SLR and film sometimes. Give yourself all the time you need. It's not something most people get brilliant at overnight I don't think.

[hman]

eddie 1960: I have been looking for diopter parts and am unable to find on Pentax webstore site? Can you provide some direction? Thx!!

[eddie1960]

eddie 1960: I have been looking for diopter parts and am unable to find on Pentax webstore site? Can you provide some direction? Thx!!

I emailed Pentax parts in Canada when I bought mine. cost about $30. Someone else in the US tried emailing Pentax in the US the same way and got no reply so he emailed Pentax Canada. Pentax US ended up replying (and I think sending it for free LOL)

I think the Diopters are all sold through parts. they are really useful, though I hate the design since they have no rubber eye cup (I may get an aftermarket cup i like and retrofit it with glue)

[hman]

thx so much for the quick reply!!

[racingsnake]

hey guys how are you?
so i think i was able to replicate the problem once again.
here's the story-i went out today for a stroll to take some shots which i'm not gonna post just yet on purpose.simply put - i'm happy with the shots.
but that was in the great outdoors.
i came home and asked my GF to come along once again so i can take some shots in pretty much same conditions again.
and here we go i fail again.
i took a batch of 20 shots total of her which i'm gonna attach as a zip file.sorry it's not a small one(((
i took some shots with tammy 17-50 followed by helios.
all the exif data for tammy is there.
for helios i started with f 2.8 and went up to 5.6.
all shots taken hand held.

so help me out on this one cause i really don't know what i'm doing wrong.
thanks so much guys.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/32746869/%D0%A2%D0%B5%D1%81%D1%82.zip

[JinDesu]

If you can - please generate the pictures and put them onto a photo hosting site like Image hosting, free photo sharing & video sharing at Photobucket so more people have access to review. I tried to download that zip and it didn't unzip for me.

[racingsnake]

If you can - please generate the pictures and put them onto a photo hosting site like Image hosting, free photo sharing & video sharing at Photobucket so more people have access to review. I tried to download that zip and it didn't unzip for me.

yeah no problem at all.
uploading em to flickr as we speak.
should be soon.

[racingsnake]

one of my teachers at school who i respect deeply taught me one thing:
when you don't know the answer to the question don't just ask it, ask it and say what you think before letting someone answer, cause this at least shows you put some thought into it.
so i did. and i think that the problem is that my room's too dim for any decent shot to be produced hand held without flash (cause there's a shot in the batch with flash and it came out ok).
but again i would love to hear your opinions guys.
i still can't blame my equipment cause it produces great images in good light.

http://flic.kr/s/aHsjA7Bwwd

thanks for hanging in there with me guys.

P.S. this is weird - i uploaded them and of course they look all pretty much fine cause i can't zoom in on them and see the problem.

[JinDesu]

Can you highlight which ones you are unsatisfied with? Because that first shot is pretty damn good, especially shooting at 1/13s. You chose F4.5, but the Tammy is good at F2.8. Why didn't you choose F2.8 in that shot?

[eddie1960]

Ok looking at the shots. Exposure wise they all look fine . the one you shot on the Helios at 1/10 is also pretty sharp. From a technical standpoint (exposure focus) I don't see any reall issue. Com positionally and artistically they all suffer a bit (but assuming they are just casual shots that is not always an issue)
The backgrounds in most shots detract from the image. Pose wise they lack life for the most part (this is where professional models make shots for people). I think this one is probably the best overall, but it could use a little post (which can't really give a quick example of since I'm at work but a little fill, boost the clarity in LR, maybe bump vibrance a bit. Shooting posed portraits takes a lot of practice. using some lighting you could have shot this at a higher shutter speed. given the backgraound you wouldn't want to shoot it stopped down any more as it would become more distracting than it already is. When you shoot any portrait of people (whether posed or spontaneous) the background needs to be taken into account, a poor background can ruin an otherwise good shot




If you really want to move your talent in this direction aside form practice with lots of different models, it's worthwhile to read a book or two that will cover all the basics and rules of portrait photography. once you have those down you can throw them out the window and put your own style on it.

these are pretty good books the first is actually a university text

The Portrait Photography Course: Principles, practice, and techniques: The essential guide for photographers: Amazon.ca: Mark Jenkinson: Books

Portrait Photography: Secrets of Posing & Lighting (A Lark Photography Book) by Cleghorn, Mark: Pixiq 4/28/2004 9781579905484 Paperback - Your Online Bookstore