A personal lesson in fundamentals, or, "A tripod, a tripod, my kingdom for a tripod"
I mentioned earlier that I had a recent vacation which served to rekindle my excitement for photography. For that alone, it was one of my better "shoots" (for lack of a better term). However, for some time I have been a little disappointed in the sharpness, or rather lack of it, in many of my photos. Some older shots from a few years ago with the same equipment are so crisp and clean, its made me wonder why I'd need to consider "L" glass.
I've reviewed the Exif data on various photos to see what I've been doing different. Well, I realized two things. Fast shutter speeds and use of a tripod (BTW, no matter how long you stare, use of a tripod will NOT show up in the Exif data :P ). My really sharp photos were all done with a tripod, mirror lockup, and a cable release. The good ones in which I didn't use a tripod for, used a fast shutter speed, as small of an aperture as I could reasonably use, and an ISO of 400 or 800. With that in mind I set off first and foremost to improve sharpness. I was somewhat successful. Some shots that I thought were going to be tack sharp were not so good. Other shots surprised me. Where I really failed was that I didn't use the tripod as much as I had promised myself. That said, I'm pretty happy with what I was able to accomplish. "Sunflowers" is an example of a handheld shot I made on that trip that has decent sharpness. http://artalyst.com/image/5097
Bottom line, never forget the fundamentals.
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Comments
I know what you mean about sharpness. When I purchased my first SLR film camera I was surprised at the fact that it wasn't as sharp as a good quality point-n-shoot that I had. I soon learned that it was the cheap kit lens that came with it.
I also discovered like you, that a tripod, cable release, then mirror lock was helpful in getting a sharper image (in that order).
Then I discovered "L" lens quality. It seemed sharper even without the methods listed above. Of course it was a faster lens and therefore faster shutter speeds, but the lens sharpness was fantastic too.
And of course prime lenses (fixed focal length) are sharper, but the zoom lenses are sharpest in the middle focal lengths. Example, a 70-100mm zoom lens, it is usually sharpest 78-92mm.
That sunflower picture is a great example of a sharp image though. It looks like you can touch it!
Something that I think we all learn also is that the better the camera, the more you actually need to sharpen the image in post. My 1d's images can really take a healthy dose of sharpening.
Carl