Nikon 18/300 DX / VR - Lens soft

[Mata]

I don’t know what the issue is. As I am now going through my images I have notices a certain softness when I used the above lens.

I have had a HOYA UV filter on from the start to protect the main lens.

The question is whatever the filter is causing the softness or the lens needs to be looked at.

I have been thinking about having the camera body and the lens cleaned so that may highlight the issue.

Does anyone know of a good place in the Croydon area as I would need the job done quickly?

[Mike Farley]

You could try asking Reg at Croydon Photo Centre. Alternatively, Fixation at Kennington have a good reputation. However, a lens is unlikely to be soft as it requires cleaning and another explanation is more probable. Images are naturally a bit soft OOC and a bit of sharpening is required at the Raw conversion stage, as well as at final output, so it might be a processing issue. One way to check this would be to shoot Raw and JPeg and compare the two after processing the Raw. In any event, a lens with such a long zoom range will have more than a few optical compromises and it will not be as sharp as a more high end optic.

Do you have any examples?

[davidc]

I would try taking the filter off to see if it makes any difference before anything. I doubt it'll make much difference though. Suspect Mike's assessment is correct.

Have you got a camera that allows micro focus adjustments? You may have a lens that front or back focuses slightly and using the MFA feature you can correct for this.

Of the lenses I've tried with this so far, every single one has benefited from a small but noticeable improvement in sharpness.

[Mata]

It’s taken a while to find out what I was doing wrong when working with this lens. The others 35 & 50mm are as sharp as can be, so nothing wrong with them or the camera body.

I did pop over to fixation in Kennington and asked them to have a look and give it a clean. It came back with a clean bill of health.

It’s also the only lens I have that has a micro focus and again it works fine.

The issue was not the lens but how I was supporting the camera / lens when in use. I noticed one of my fingers of my left hand was resting on the micro focus ring when I was shooting. Any small movement in the hand was also causing minor adjustment in the micro focus.

I have posted another image that I have re-taken in the same way, you can see the difference?

[davidc]

Not sure I understand your micro-focus thing? No photos attached either

edit - think I found the thread with the photo

[Mike Farley]

Thanks for the explanation, especially as the cause turned out to be something I had not considered so we have both learnt something. Glad that you have found the solution.

One way to rule out any handholding issues in the future would be to mount the camera on a tripod, turn off image stabilisation if it is present, engage mirror lockup and trip the shutter either with a remote release or use timer delay. If the resulting image is sharp, you know that the problem is down to technique.

The adjustment exists so that you can modify focus after AF has engaged and usually requires a half press of the shutter button to be effective. How useful this is with an optical viewfinder is debatable, although it would work with live view. At least you have discovered another function of your camera, albeit in a roundabout manner.

[Mata]

Yes some good has come out of this experience. It’s given me an idea to experiment with a slight soft focus look with street photography rather than add it later when processing the image.