Both of those photos show me sharper areas in other areas than the intended subject. For example, in the first photo the man's hand seems detailed, sharp, moreso than his face. In the next photo, the rock in the right side seems more sharp.
Here are the possible causes for this:
a) Smudged, dirty lens. Check for finger prints, especially the back lens element. If you find anything, be careful how you wipe, as wiping it wrong can damage the lens! There are tutorials online about this
b) Focusing issue. Maybe the wrong focus point was chosen or something like that, but it is also possible the focus just needs to be adjusted/calibrated. There are some threads ant tutorials about this, as well.
c) Decentering. It is possible the lens is somehow damaged. Decenetering is an issue where the AF and everything works, but the image is consistently blurred on one side or in one corner because some lens element is off the optical center. You can test this is different ways. Basically look at whether the lens is always soft on one side but not the other.
The DA 50mm f1.8 should be fairly sharp at f5.6. But also keep in mind that the "tack sharp" photos you see online are taken in raw and then digitally developed (post processing), where a lot of sharpness is added. Digital sharpness has to be added these days, because our expectations are so high. If you shoot jpeg, you can go into the Info menu and choose jpeg mode (Bright, Natural, Portrait, etc.), and press Info again to edit it. There you can add a little more sharpening if you want.
Originally posted by sundr No, fine tuning is not necessarily the answer. There are plenty of photographers who never touch that feature. The truth is that if you're new to photography and the k5 is your first DSLR then you are in for a steep learning curve. Tac sharp photos require good lighting and a tripod. You can get still get reasonably sharp photos hand held with good technique and practice, though
This is golden advice, as well. If you look at my photos, it took me a long time to figure out my gear, the camera and the lens and how they work together and which settings to use, until I would finally get sharp photos. And I still sometimes get soft, misfocused, shak-blurred photos. And it seems inexplicable to me, but that is only because I have not yet learned everything. Even things like my stance, the way I hand-hold the camera, the way I press the shutter button affect image quality (and Tripod with timer is the surest way to avoid these factors)