Help - soft images with SLT 18-55mm lens

[YS0203]

Hi,

I am a newbie to photography and would like to ask some simple questions...apologies to those of you who already know all this...

I have an SLT 18-55mm lens which came with my Sony A37 camera and I want to use it to take some nice sharp landscape photos but so far all of my attempts have been quite soft.

I followed some tips from another web site about the best settings but haven't been able to get any really sharp images (suitable for A3 size printing).  Can someone tell me what settings I should have to achieve this please?

I have been using Aperture priority with f16, 100 ISO as I was advised to do to get good depth of field.

Any advice would be really helpful!

Many thanks.

[Bieomax]

Hi YS0203

While F16 will give you a good depth of field, it won't be the optimal F for sharpness on the lens, try and take some shots between f5 to 8 or 9 and see if that helps improve some of your sharpness, as alot of lenses seem to have a sweet spot between them points.

Wiki has more information (see effects on sharpness section)

Here

If you have a smart phone, you can get apps which will help to tell you the distance your depth of field has at which F stop and focus distance your using. so for example if your Lens is at 55mm, aperture at F4.5 and focused at approx. 40m, your depth of field will be about 291meters wide starting at 21meters and ending at 312 meters from you.

if you have a read up about Hyperfocal distances this may be of help with shooting landscapes, as it can tell you how to get everything into an acceptable focus.

to use the details from the example above about depth of field, if i changed the focus distance to 46meters, the lens would hold a reasonable focus/depth of field on everything from 23 meters in front of me to infinity (the app i use helps me tell what rough distances to use to get the hyperfocal distance)

again Wiki has an ok primer on this, but google will help further at.

Here

I hope this helps

Kind Regards

Mark.

[YS0203]

Mark,

Thanks for the advice, I will take a look at both of those links.  I was beginning to worry that these lenses were just not good enough to get a really nice sharp photo (capable of printing to A3 size) and before I spend yet more money on a new lens I want to make sure that I'm using the ones I have correctly.

Thanks.

Yasmin

[Bieomax · Accepted solution]

Let us know how you get on,

you'll never get amazing sharpness from it, but you should get a good level. if not maybe have a look at some of the Sony Prime lenses as the 'Easy Choice' range they do (35mm 1.8/ 50mm 1.8 and 85mm 2.8) or even the 30mm 2.8 macro (which i think will be my next purchase, either that or the 35mm 1.8). i have the 50 and the 85 and for the cheap price (from £100-£200) they are very well regarded for optical quality. plus they are all quite physically small.

anyhow if you do start looking for another lens check out the Dyxum.com lens database as they have community based lens review system which is very very helpful when looking for a new lens, the forum/community over there are very helpful too.

Mark.

[YS0203]

Mark,

Thanks for the advice, I will take a look at those Sony lenses you mentioned.

Yasmin

[Numchuk]

I would say that you have a poor a example of the kit lens. The example that I have is pleasingly sharp at all settings except at maximum zoom (55) and at maximum aperture. At this setting the result is a very poor, soft image, totally unsatisfactory considering the price of the kit. You may have to buy a different lens to achieve the results you want. My view is that the 18-55 lens is a cheaply produced piece of kit manufactured with low quality control.

[YS0203]

Thanks I am inclined to agree that this is a poor lens, compared to my 50mm
Tamron lens, they're like chalk and cheese.

[ingleson]

Hi there

I would definitely echo what has been said so far.  My 18-55 is not bad across the range but it just is not a prime either.

Of all my little primes I have to say the 35mm is my favourite ( I also use the 28, 50 1.4 and 85).  All little and light weight, all very good but for me the 35 stands out in terms of IQ.

If you want have a look at my Flickr images - Hols52 - and you will see sets of all these lenses to give you an idea.  However, do not forget that lenses will vary between copies and if you can test before you buy or at least buy with a dcent returns policy.  Wex and LCE are both very good with this.

Hope that helps a little.

Graham

[YS0203]

Thanks very much for the information, I will look at your images too. I
suspect I have a poor lens so have decided to go for a Tamron 17-50 which
looks much better. Thanks for your help.