I swear...

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Permalink Reply by Steve on June 9, 2008 at 9:11am

Yeah, I like it. You must have a nice lens. The aperture you used probably gave it that soft effect.

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Permalink Reply by Reza on June 9, 2008 at 9:27am

The soft effect is pretty similar with the photoshop effect. It shouldn't do that, right? Although with a larger aperture. I'm just concern cause the shop doesn't do refund (lousy shop) and I found out that this type of lens does the similar effect at 200mm, so it wasn't shop's fault. So I'm just wondering about people's opinion with lens that gives this effect. Kind of disappointed that it does the softening effect but glad to find that someone likes it.

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Permalink Reply by jadeast on June 9, 2008 at 10:06am

Reza, I think that it's a combination of thing that some times add up. First It's a zoom lens, which are very good but not quite a sharp as a fixed lens. second you have a very shallow depth of field at the aperture you were using so only a narrow range will be in focus, try a SMALLER aperture but LARGER F# and a slower shutter speed, more will be in sharp focus. Third using autofocus, sometimes it's difficult for the computer to choose the right spot to focus on when there are many distances involved in the same image, the best solution here is to pay attention to what is in focus before you press the shutter, look at the whole image and decide for yourself if this is what you want, if not refocus by releasing the shutter button and pressing again part way. sometimes on a difficult object you may have to do this several times. Add all these things together and sometime very little of the image will be in focus. Try taking a photo perpendicular to a sign, if all is in focus there is nothing wrong with your lens.

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Permalink Reply by Reza on June 9, 2008 at 12:04pm

Hmm, perhaps poor lighting condition and also the distance were the factors as well, it was pretty cloudy and my backyard is not a good site for 200mm. Well, I was just doing an experiment with this lens and did a couple of tests to it. I did shoot at f11 at the same focal length and you were right, the softening wasn't there as well as the blurry details. Testing the lens at f2.8 was part of my experiment with the lens, and pretty surprised with the softening result. I've never experienced such softening with other lenses (200mm). I've seen a photo that was taken with f1.8 and the DOF didn't have such softening, it was just different kind of blurry. Below is another photo that I took with the same specification, but I took it at 135mm. As you can see it's different than the first one, the blurry part is natural and there's no softening.

click the image for bigger size

But I'd like to thank all of you (Steve, Jadeast, Don and Tracy, and Yurick) for the inputs. All your comments kind of put down my disappointment and I hope I can live with this lens, hehe! I'll definitely will run some more tests and will post the results =)

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Permalink Reply by Yurick on June 9, 2008 at 11:48am

Hi Reza,

the shot is really great and you shouldn't worry about your lens. I would say this effect is created by wide open aperture and a little bit too saturated colors. According to my knowledge all the lenses are rather soft if not stopped down a little, especially zoom lenses at full wide or tele, as in your case.

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Permalink Reply by jadeast on June 9, 2008 at 1:57pm

You can't really compare a lens that has an aperture of 2.8 to a lens that has an aperture of 1.8, in all likelyhood the 1.8 was a fixed lens as well. While to this may not seem like much of a difference, there is a world of difference to the trained Eye, virtually every aspect of a lens that has an aperture of 1.8 is superior to a lens that has an aperture of 2.8. Having said that a Zoom lens with an aperture of 2.8 is a superior zoom, I'm confident of that! quicherbichin.

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Permalink Reply by Mulgabill on August 15, 2008 at 5:04am

You have a beautiful photo here. The main blossom is spot on the Rule of Thirds which adds impact. However, on my monitor the blossom appears slightly out of focus rather than soft. This is very subject appraisal because my eyes are quite old and getting a little rusty. ;-o ciao
Mulgabill

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Permalink Reply by Patricia on August 15, 2008 at 7:32pm

I'm not sure what you mean by 'softening detail'. What I see in this picture is a sharp image of a bright and perfect flower with crisp petal edges. Very shallow depth of field with the center of the flower moving into the area of slightly out of focus. I would be very pleased with this image.

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