EOS 70D soft images

[drrhein]

Hello Everybody.  My name is Dennis and I'm a newb, not to dslr's but to this model, so please have mercy on me.

First question: When using the image processing software, PF 4  should I be able to go to 100% and still have a sharp image?

Every image I take, with any lens, whether I focus manually or with AF, seems soft to me and I can't often make it sharper in post. I use raw.

MY Iphone 8+ does fine at 100% and is razor sharp.

Next: How in the world do you get good focus on water fountains? I can't get any kind of decent focus with MF or AF.

The attached examples are resized to make size limit but to get the size limit I'm afraid I lost resolution, so there's another question.

BTW, my 10D does same thing

Dennis

[Waddizzle]

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@drrhein wrote:

I got the settings reset and managed to get a couple of shots in.

p mode iso 200 AF as requested, still looks soft to me. 2nd image is same subject using iphone 8+

The Iphone pic is orders of magnitude sharper and better in my opinion. Which seems odd because the iphone is 12.1 Mp and Canon 20+ Mp although you have to zoom a bit to see it. It's more obvious at 50% on the little flag

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The 70D photo contains no EXIF data.  Let’s play 20 questions.

What were the exposure settings?  What lens did you use?  What was the focal length of the shot?  Did you use a tripod?  

Was the shot manually focused?  If not, which AF mode and AF point did you use?

Due to their small size, smart phones tend to have much shorter hyperfocal distances than your average DSLR.  This means when you take a photo with a smart phone, it will look like snapshot.  Everything will be in focus.  When you take a photo with a DSLR, you can get depth of field effects.  Sometimes it is very noticeable, and sometimes it is not.  

On the other hand, some DSLR lenses are simply soft, and do not capture tack sharp images, at all.  You are blaming the camera, forgetting the fact that a DSLR is a camera/lens combo.  Images out of any given camera will never be better than the glass you attach to it.

[drrhein]

You said to use P mode, resetting the camera caused the raw to become jpg. P mode decided the settings but I did use autofocus, no tripod. I took a half dozen the same way this AM and I'll try to crop enough to meet the 10MB limit this PM.

[ebiggs1]

The jpgs should be okay as is. I don’t want you to do any editing or at least little as possible. I want it as close as possible to how the camera is doing it. Remember we are eliminating the camera as the cause. If you do any input at all you defeat the test. The 70D and the 17-55 f2.8 lens is capable of super sharp photos.