EFS 18-55 Lens Questions

[srd-software]

Hi All, 

I am still testing and experimenting with the "new" 80d I got. My question is, is this EFS 18-55 any good? It's the cheapie that came with the camera and the same one as I had on my 40d (the one with the 80d is much newer manufacture than the 40d lens though).

I can't seem to get images that are razor sharp no matter what I do: MF or AF, wide or telephoto or anything in between. I've taken a lot of test shots now and they are just never as sharp as I think they should be. They are usable, but when I zoom in on things like signs, wires, branches or leaves that I would think should be razor sharp, they are not.

If I'm expecting too much from that lens I can look into another one IF I could get the sharpness out of something else. I can't find many 17mm-only lenses. I don't care about telephoto range as I rarely use it. 

I'll add a couple of example images. First one was MF, 2nd was AF, both shot wide. They looked focused when I took both images, but if you enlarge it and look at the branches and leaves they appear soft to me. These are cropped from the original images as the originals were too big to upload. They may look OK below, but open them in a new tab to see them enlarged.

Maybe this is the limit of this level of DSLR, but I don't know. All I have to compare it to is the old 40d.

Thanks

[Waddizzle]

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@srd-software wrote:

Example image was cropped (but not resized) to allow an upload of the example. 

I'll try some shots at 1/200 and 1/400 and see what I get.

OK, tried a couple of shots ISO 400, 1/200 at F16 (lighting changed from earlier). Those don't look too bad. MF shot is better than AF. 

Thanks for the suggestions!

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I would have bumped up the shutter speed, instead of stopping down the aperture.  I think f/8 is probably too narrow for a shot of trees that are at least 100 feet away.

The more light that you can let into the camera, all the better.  A too narrow aperture introduces diffraction distortions.

[ebiggs1]

"I've got a lot of new stuff to look at now. Thanks for the help!"

OK, good, yes you do! Keep this guide in mind.

"So our general rule will be stop down one stop, keep SS at 1/100 or 1/200, ISO 200 to 400. Middle FL range (35mil in your case) will be the sharpest. Shoot Raw format.  Then in PS or the free and very good DPP4, do a lens correction. Once in the editor add a small bit of sharpening. That will be the best it gets."

PS. Faster SS isn't going to help or sharpen a shot like this.  Most things in nature do not move on their own faster than one 200th of a second. If a problem does appear move it up to 1/400, that's OK too.  And, diffraction isn't the first concern with a basic quality zoom lens like yours, f8 is totally fine. 

Happy shooting!