Keith Reeder
Watch the birdie...
Shooting in RAW gives you the least sharpness because it has no in-camera sharpening like jpgs do. RAW images are then expected to be sharpened in software.
Hi Harold,
I know what you're getting at, but I don't necessarily agree with that - or rather, I wouldn't want Terry to get the impression that the solution to his problem is all in PP (I know you aren't saying that, Harold).
I can produce sharp images from RAW files without applying any PP sharpening.
This picture for example, is a RAW file which has simply been cropped and resized to 800px in Irfanview - no sharpening at all applied (and the crop isn't far off "actual pixels").
It's true that downsizing an image will increase perceived sharpness to an extent, but as I say this isn't that far off a 100% crop, and it is "out of the camera" sharp (note that there's a 1.4x TC in there, and it's wide open at f/5.6).
But it started from "sharp", and to an extent that's the point - as others have said, PP can't do much for a picture that isn't inherently sharp, so shooting (expecially handholding) technique is important, as is shutter speed and a general understanding of how cameras and lenses work.
If this was a "proper" picture rather than something I'm just using as an example, I'd almost certainly run it through Neatimage - not necessarily to deal with noise (not really a problem here) but because it does a great job of blurring the background - an instant "depth of field" effect.
Terry, it should be relatively easy to get sharp handheld images from a 300mm lens, but shutter speed and technique are everything (my picture is at a handheld actual 560mm - 896mm if you take "crop factor" seriously - coming from a 400mm lens + 1.4x converter: but the lens has stabilisation, which is a Godsend. Even so, it can't make up for bad technique at low shutter speeds).
Unfortunately I can't see the EXIF in any of your images (you're using "save for web" I guess) which makes it very hard to troubleshoot what's going on.
Now... About your lens. Is it the Nikon 300mm f/4 prime? If so (and I reckon it is), it's a very sharp lens indeed - one I'd have ended up with if I'd stayed with Nikon - and the D50 is a nice little camera. So the hardware is unlikely to be the problem...
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