Does the EOS R apply any sharpening to the zoomed live view?

[Mikael]

Recently, I was taking some photos of the moon with my EOS R with a RF 24-105 f4-7.1. Something I noticed is that, when I was focusing in the live view, full zoomed, the image looked sharp as a knife, but when I shot it was kinda soft. Not out of focus, but not as sharp.
More details:
• Camera was in a stable tripod, IS off, hands off the camera (releasing the shutter with a remote control);
• I checked with faster shutter speeds, electronic shutter, different apertures and ISOs, no difference.
• Tryed auto and manual focus, no difference.

What buggs me is that it was way sharper in live view, and that doesn't makes any sense to me, unless there's a artifical sharpening going on on the preview.

[Tronhard]

Personally, I don't honestly think you can judge that level of detail in live view - the screen is just too small.   There are a lot of things that can influence the sharpness of an image of the moon.   The method of focus, atmospheric interference, lens optics, and shutter speed, just to name a few.

I was wondering why you decided to shoot the moon with the RF 24-105, which is a very small focal length if the moon is your main subject.  I normally shoot the moon at between 600 and 900mm.

[Mikael]

Yes, I agree, there are many things to interfer with sharpness, but it's strange how the preview can be sharper. I mean, the image is still going through the sensor, why not being that sharp after the pic is shot?

---

@Tronhard wrote:
I was wondering why you decided to shoot the moon with the RF 24-105, which is a very small focal length if the moon is your main subject.  I normally shoot the moon at between 600 and 900mm.

---

Just bought the camera with the kit lens, and I still did not have the budget for a upgrade. Also, I'm not a sky or landscape photographer, it just happened to the moon be spetacular and near some towers, were I live.

[Tronhard · Accepted solution]

Simply put, the image looks sharper because the pixels are smaller.  If you have ever looked at an image on a small screen monitor or TV and then the same image on a large one, then you would likely see a similar loss of quality.  The pixels are smaller and that ties into the phenomenon called circles of confusion, which is normally applied to what appears to be sharp in terms of depth of field, but the principle is the same.  Very small pixels look like pin-points and thus sharp.  FWIW, the image you have shown actually looks very good!

Absolutely understand your challenge in shooting with a mild telephoto lens, it works if you want the moon to be the element within a landscape, but filling the screen with the moon needs long lenses and that's not cheap.