Happy New Year everyone! I originally had a great idea for a New Year’s photo, but didn’t have time to set it up and photoshop it. My wife was generous enough to buy me an entry level dSLR camera for Christmas this year, a Sony a300k.
…which I happily returned for a Canon 450D (Rebel XSi). Long story on that, but don’t worry, it was NOT a heartless decision. So while the first photo I took with it was that of my wife for obvious reasons (it turned out terrible because I didn’t know how to use the thing), the first photo post of the year is of Kureha with my new camera.
Overall, I’m in love with what a difference dSLRs make. They’re able to capture light so much better, and with greater depth of field. I took the same shot with my previous camera, the Panasonic FX-9, and honestly, I can’t go back anymore.
Messing with the settings are quite time consuming, but with the Canon’s Live View mode, it’s a lot easier to do properly exposed photos than with previous dSLRs! Being a first-time dSLR user, this makes learning a lot easier too. The only problem with Live View is AF doesn’t work, so I use Live View to adjust my aperture and shutter speed, and go back into viewfinder mode to do auto focus. This particular picture I’ve posted however, is done using manual focus, which Live View supports.
I’m still struggling with the camera, as for some reason it doesn’t take nearly as sharp an image as my FX-9. With the FX-9, I can see the dots in Kureha’s eyes exceptionally clearly, while the 450D doesn’t do nearly as good.
Here’s a cropped view of the photo above, using the 450D. It’s a 35mm kit lens, with 1/125 f5.6 ISO800.
Here’s a cropped view of the camera that I’ve been using for all my images up until now, the Panasonic FX-9 in Macro mode. The ISO is not nearly as good, with a maximum of only 400, and this camera decided a 1/60 shutter speed. I can’t control it. I’m either doing something wrong, or the lens just isn’t capable of outputting a clear enough image.
Forum posters on neogaf suggest that it could be the kit lens, and not the camera itself. I’m inclined to agree since I really know nothing about dSLRs. Some also pointed out that the FX-9 could be processing the image.
Overall, great camera, so expect many better quality images in the future!
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hmm that picture looks normal for me.
it’s true that some non DSLR the camera pre-process the image before displaying it to you, to get sharper result. while using DSLR you’ll get much more natural image..
try taking picture with f/8 and lowes ISO you can get, you should get sharper picture. (you will need tripod for this)
Congrats on the new cam. Kitlens tends to be not as sharp, as they are more or less a beginner lens to get you started on things. Also for Canon dSLR, you’ll need to tweak the Picture style setting a bit, as the default sharpness is quite low, up it a notch or two should be fine 🙂
You guys are right on both fronts. The FX-9 is definitely doing some post processing. dSLRs tend to do very little processing. I did change the sharpness in the picture styles, all the way up to 7, but it didn’t seem to make that drastic of a difference. That’s okay. The kit lens definitely isn’t the best lens anyway.
ISO is nothing more than “gain” really for digital cameras. It’s definitely better to use a lower ISO and re-adjust the brightness of the image in photoshop.
With a lower aperture, I’ll get more depth of field, which with a not-so-steady hand, isn’t good. Optimally, it seems that a long shutter speed on a tripod, is the best way to test this thing properly. A bit of a bother though! 😛
It was not a bad choice trading the a300 for the 450D, I think one of the differences is that the canon pictures are always a bit warmer compared to the sony nothing like a photo program won’t do the trick 😛 .
The 450D has the best live preview in terms of final picture but not as smooth as the a350. As for image stabilization I think the sony ones are still the best because this system is incorporated inside the body instead of the lens.
Overall it’s always a good choice the 450D. It’s almost impossible saying that this one is better than the other because all have their pros and cons, the final decision is always up to us. Enjoy your new “toy” ^_^
Just to expand on the earlier comments about lens sharpness….
SLR lenses need to be “stepped down” about 3 f-stops from their fastest aperture to achieve maximum sharpness. (ie. for a lens that is capable of f5, step it down to f8). Unfortunately, this sucks for when you want a shallow depth of field.
You can compensate for this by getting a lens that that has a faster aperture – look for f2.8 or lower. That way, you can step it down to an aperture that will give more sharpness and still have a very shallow depth of field. And the best way to get a fast lens without taking out a second mortgage is to get a non-zoom lens (called a “prime lens” in camera lingo).
Prime lenses also tend to be sharper than zoom lenses. (less glass elements in the lens = less distortion) My first lens purchase was a 50mm f1.8 prime. The ‘bang per buck’ on this lens is incredible. Its sharp, its got a big aperture and I got it for less than $100 (in Japan). Next time I’m over at your place, I’ll bring it along for you to try out.
In the meantime, one final suggestion for using your kit lens: don’t shoot at the ends of the zoom range on the lens. (ie. not at the widest and the most zoomed in points) Just like aperture, lenses (especially cheaper kit ones) aren’t their sharpest when at the low and high extremes of their zoom range.
In case half of what I said didn’t make any sense… 😉
Camera lingo glossary:
low f-stop number = larger/faster aperture = shallow depth of field = more light going onto the sensor/film = able to use a faster shutter speed
high f-stop number = smaller/slower aperture = more depth of field = less light going onto the sensor/film = need to use a slower shutter speed