A little advice sought!

[pbrstreetgang]

Hi all, there were a few small coasters in the docks local to me so i went down to take some pics, took my new A200 and my Fuji S6500. I took some shots of one vessel with both cameras but was not very impressed when i got home and put the images on my pc. The fuji images just looked better? sharper and with better contrast. Is the 18-70 sony kit lens really this soft? Settings on both cameras were pretty much the same and i do realise that they are very different systems, the sony may well benefit from more hands on time and setup, heres the links for the pics on my Photobucket,

Sony A200
http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r129 ... C00869.jpg

Fuji S6500
http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r129 ... CF6299.jpg

Both images at iso 100,

Have a look, Any suggestions will be very welcome

[David Kilpatrick]

Simply the difference between consumer colour and sharpness/contrast settings on the Fuji, combined with exposure off the Fuji CCD - versus DSLR-style (neutral) colour contrast and sharpness settings on the A200, with exposure from the TTL system requiring (for this type of sky condition) a +1 compensation. The Fuji could have benefited from +0.5 too.

If you want results like the Fuji, set colour or the picture style to Landscape - or when using Standard sRGB set +2 sharpness, +1 contrast, +2 saturation and enable DRO Automatic for JPEGs.

David

[pbrstreetgang]

Thanks David. Will try what you have suggested over the weekend.

I was expecting a little more "wow" from the images if i am honest but not miracles given i have had the sony less than a week. I had a nikon D70 last year and had the same situation in comparing shots of my Fuji`s. I have taken over 50 images this morning in my front garden trying lots of different settings and modes and i am seeing a marked change in the image quality, will be avoiding full zoom on the lens tho as it does seem to be quite soft at that end!

Will be looking into a 70-210 or 70-300 zoom in the next few weeks, there is a good choice of minolta kit on fleabay right now too

[bfitzgerald]

Both are somewhat underexposed. The A200 can at times (not always) underexpose, pushing highlights into the mid tones. I've found this happens more on cloudy days, or when there are a number of lighter tones in a shot (your AF point also makes a difference on exposure) On bright days, it's pretty much spot on. Just something to keep an eye on.

As DK says, I would bump up sharpness on the jpegs, I set -1 contrast always, you can play about with the creative styles, but I mostly shoot raw with the A200, I find they deliver better results than the jpegs, though ISO 100/200 is ok on the A200. You could try the vivid mode, but it can be a bit cooked, so play with the settings, contrast and saturation.

[TomB]

The Sony picture seems really out of focus to me. In camera sharpening will not improve such a blurred picture. The right hand side of the picture seems to be a little bit sharper. This could be caused by camera rotation shake. Was the super steadyshot on? Full EXIF information is missing. Anyway, the SSS can't counteract the camera rotation. It's hard to judge one picture. There could be something misaligned on the camera or lens, the picture looks like taken through a window. Even a kit lens should produce a better image.

No comments on colors - everything was written before.

[Lonnie Utah]

Looks to me like a shutter speed issue, not a focus issue. If you look, there are ghosts in the image that would indidcate that the shutter speed is too slow.

[pbrstreetgang]

Thanks again guys, tried out all that was suggested above over the weekend, the initial images were probs so bad as i had not setup the camera to suite the conditions more than anything else. My dissapointment has now lessened somewhat

Heres a few random images, Used "standard" creative mode with minor adjustments, SSS was on. ISO 100 on all. I do understand that to some members on here there may well be problems with these pics too but for me they are 100% better than what i got last week and thats what i was after.

[Birma]

They look fine to me pbstreetgangs . I think the 18-70 is a bit maligned on the whole. Shots I originally took with it, and was disappointed with, now look 100% better just through more post processing know how. I'm sorry that Sony just returned to the herd and has reverted to 18-55 as the kit lens now. At least the 18-70 boasted a bit more reach.

[bfitzgerald]

I'm sure there are good copies of the Sony 18-70mm DT out there, I just think there are probably a lot more bad ones! I've commented on how huge the differences can be on samples, both Sony ones I had were awful, only the KM one was good.

Easy to spot a dud 18-70mm DT, at 18mm it just won't be that sharp, and corners are hmmm. At 70mm f5.6 it's soft, and by soft I mean out of focus looking. A good one has sharp corners at 18mm and won't require fully stopping down to look pretty good, and is decent at 70mm f5.6.