6 replies to this topic

[jiggysmb]

Hi guys, I am new here and semi new to photography. In the past I used a D3200 and for the past 5 years a D5200, I loved them both. I recently jumped up to a D7200 for the low light "feature" but I am finding many of my images have soft edges. If I hit the zoom in button on the camera more than twice. A friend had a Canon that he zooms into an eyeball and it will be sharp. I don't recall having this issue on my past cameras but maybe I am more picky now....

 

If I look at a photo that is roughly 40" wide and crop out a 14" square at 72dpi the photo is so soft it is almost not usable. Is trying to use 25% of a picture asking too much?

 

 

I noticed the focus hunting back/forth, so I have stopped using AF-A mode and use AF-C S for mostly all shots but the camera still tends to hunt for focus when taking a couple shots quickly. I have sent the camera to Nikon and they say it is operating as it should.

 

I bought the camera from Cameta so they offered to exchange for another model but I really just need some to if there is actually an issue or not.

 

 

[Merco_61]

What lens do you use?

Cropping that much will not give you usable files from any camera. 14" @ 72 ppi will be only 1008 pixels, which will mean that you use a little over 1 MP of the available 24. Part of the low-light performance lies in the reduction in resolution as you downsample for screen or print use.

What ISO did you use for these?

The view on the LCD isn't an useful way of comparing different cameras as the internal algorithms in the camera that generated the preview will differ more than the file output.

[mikew]

We do need to know which lens, what fstop, what iso, then are you shooting raw or jpeg,are you shooting the largest file size, if you are shooting jpeg have you made in menu adjustments to the jpeg files,Nikon cameras leave the factory with poor jpeg settings, i think they need to be about +7 for sharpening and often + a bit on contrast, once set these will improve your jpeg files.

[jiggysmb]

Thanks guys. I received some feedback from a local camera shop that when cropping this is to be expected with any camera, but am still a bit mystified to why my D5200 took sharper pictures.

 

Mike, I will look for the sharpening and contrast setting, thank you! I normally shoot JPEG/Large, but started shooting JPEG/Medium and the overall images seem to appear a little sharper.

 

Merco, the cropped images I posted were all taken with Nikon lens' (55-200mm, 18-55 & 50mm) and zoomed/cropped to 4x. They were originally 300dpi before cropping if that makes any difference. I will have to find the original uncropped images to find their ISOs.

 

Thank you all for your input. This was a "refurbished" camera which I know can mean a lot of things but looked brand new when I received it. It seems I may have just expected too much out of this camera as a upgrade over my D5200.

The only other thing I noticed is the D7200 does seem to shoot at a higher ISO in the auto mode. Looking back at similar lighting situations, I noticed the D5200 used ISO 140 where my D7200 used 1000-2000. Some of my indoor day time pics have an ISO of 8000! Is there a way to set an Auto high ISO stop point?

 

Here is one more pic in live view. It seems to have soft edges when I zoom in as well but I will move forward with that is normal.

 

Here is one from my D5200 on a cloudy day taken in Auto, ISO is 140. I found similar pics from my 7200 where ISO was 2000!

 

[mikew]

A few points, do any testing with the 50mm it should be the sharpest, go back to jpeg large fine, make the in camera adjustments jpegs need it.

 

There will be a way of limiting your iso top end buts too long since i had a 7200, if your going to crop and pixel peep you will have to keep the iso down.

 

What distance are you viewing the images at, get too close and any  crop like your talking about could start to fall apart, the D7200 is one of Nikon best cameras.

[Merco_61]

For information about the AutoISO, read pages 102-104 in the manual.

 

For optimal sharpness from any of the 50-s, set it to f/5.6 to f/8, they are all at their sharpest in that span.

 

To experiment with the jpg settings, shoot one capture in raw and play with the Picture controls and other jpg settings in the free Capture NX-D application as that raw converter uses the same algorithms as the camera.

[jiggysmb]

Thanks guys, I will play with it this afternoon. I am going to borrow an 80D and compare. Looking at iphone pics, I can crop away 80% of the photo and they look fine, so I guess I was expecting to be able to have that level of flexibility. I will report back shortly.