Photo quality of an older EOS Rebel

[Abe]

I have an older EOS Rebel that I have used to take thousands of photos. Anymore the quality of the photos just are not as good as that used to be. First is there anything I can do to help this other than buy a new camera body? Also I bought a less expencive Compact Flash card. Would this have anything to do with the quality of the photos?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Abe

[Waddizzle]

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@Abe wrote:

I have an older EOS Rebel that I have used to take thousands of photos. Anymore the quality of the photos just are not as good as that used to be. First is there anything I can do to help this other than buy a new camera body? Also I bought a less expencive Compact Flash card. Would this have anything to do with the quality of the photos?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Abe

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If you using CF cards, then your Rebel must be fairly old.  Typically, the one thing that you can do to make the biggest improvement in your photos is to buy a better lens.  Your images will never be better than the quality of your lens.

Buying a new body will not necessarily improve your photos.  It really depends upon what types of shots you usually take, and with what camera settings.  If you need higher ISO settings, or a better AF system, then a new camera could be beneficial.  Just keep in mind that a newer camera body will reveal all of the flaws of your lenses, assuming they are as old as your camera body.

[TTMartin]

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@Abe wrote:

I have an older EOS Rebel that I have used to take thousands of photos. Anymore the quality of the photos just are not as good as that used to be. First is there anything I can do to help this other than buy a new camera body? Also I bought a less expencive Compact Flash card. Would this have anything to do with the quality of the photos?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Abe

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It is likely that your sensor needs cleaning on your older EOS Rebel.

Take your camera outside, set your lens to a small aperture (high f/number) like f/22, and take a picture of the clear blue sky, Any dirt on the sensor will show up in the photo of the sky.

Ill PM you a link to a write up on another site I did on sensor cleaning.

[TCampbell]

Can you post a sample?

Any digital camera will tend to take fantastic images if conditions are ideal.  E.g. when there's lots of light to allow low ISO settings so there's little to no digital noise in the image.

However, if you're shooting in conditions that really put the camera's capabilites to the test... then sometimes buying a newer camera will be a huge help (newest models have impressive ISO performance, better dynamic range, and can deal with low light shooting much better than older models.)

But before concluding that you should go spend a lot of money, perhaps there's something you can do with the gear that you have now that will get you better results.

Mr. Martin mentions the sensor.  All sensors will eventually get dirty and need to be cleaned.  If it isn't clean then you'll get spots on your images that are basically caused by the shadow of dust particles on your "sensor". I quote the term "sensor" because there's actually some glass filters in front of the sensor - the dust is actually on the filters, not the sensor.  Cleaning is no big deal and it's something that should be checked and done periodically.

There can be other issues such as types of fungi that will actually grow on these filters (typically a problem in humid environments such as tropical locations.)  Fungus will often grow in on the inside of the glass - places you can't clean.  Also the fungus tends to damage the coatings on the filters.  This is more costly to fix.  

If you can post an example of two of the quality issue, we can probably offer some suggestions on what you might be able to do about it.

[Abe]

Here are samples. I used to be able to count the pimples on his face. It's not a joke. I usually just use the automatic adjusment on these type of photos. It really showed up when my daughter tool the same photos right beside me and were clear as a bell compared to mine.

[RobertTheFat]

That particular photo is strongly backlit and badly needs fill flash. That fact dominates all other considerations of image quality in this case.

[TCampbell · Accepted solution]

So some of the relevant EXIF data that I see attached to your image:

EXIF IFD0
Camera Make = Canon

Camera Model = Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL

EXIF Sub IFD
Exposure Time (1 / Shutter Speed) = 1/200 second ===> 0.005 second

Lens F-Number / F-Stop = 0/1 ===> ƒ/0

ISO Speed Ratings = 100

Shutter Speed Value (APEX) = 500948/65536
Shutter Speed (Exposure Time) = 1/200 second

Aperture Value (APEX) = -2147483648/1
Aperture = ƒ/0

Exposure Bias (EV) = 0/3 ===> 0

Max Aperture Value (APEX) = -2147483648/1 ===> -2147483648
Max Aperture = ƒ/0

Metering Mode = pattern / multi-segment (5)

Flash = Flash did not fire, auto mode

Focal Length = 0/1 mm ===> 0 mm

Exposure Mode = auto exposure (0)

White Balance = auto (0)

Scene Capture Type = portrait (2)

What lens are you using?  The EXIF data would normally include the lens model, focal length, focal ratio, etc. but for your image, all of this data is missing. 

This makes me wonder if the camera is unable to control the lens -- in other words, if it is supposed to be an auto-focusing lens, I wonder if the camera actually is able to control focus.

[ElizabethH]

very helpful thank you!

[ebiggs1]

"It really showed up when my daughter tool the same photos right beside me and were clear as a bell compared to mine."

Probably not a good way to judge your camera against a newer model with a newer model lens.   A Digital Rebel is a little long in the tooth by now with a 6MP sensor if memory serves me.  If she has a newer 18 or 20MP sensor there will be a considerable difference.

 Your photo sample is slightly underexposed.  I doubt cleaning the sensor will do anything or help at all.  I think you may have front focused a bit.  Do you remember where the focus point was?