Thanx for the reply Fish
no I've done no pp at all just the 2 sharpening in camera which I think doesn't affect Raw anyway
Any suggestions why they are soft or , with Raw is it all about pp
Should I shoot some JPEG with in camera processing and see the results ?
I just feel I'm not getting the quality the 7100 should give me or as I said
is it all about pp , I always shoot raw but not got wiz bang pp progs
If you plan on shooting JPG primarily I would suggest you adjust the Sharpness setting to +6, or +7, in each of the Picture Control settings (Landscape, Vivid, Standard, etc.); that one adjustment should make a huge difference in the overall quality of your JPG images. My preference in the Picture Control menu, when shooting in JPG, is to use Standard with Saturation set to +1 and Sharpening set to +6. I also use the Landscape setting with no adjustment to Saturation but Sharpening set to +6. You could try those settings and see what you think. Again, that's if you want to shoot JPG.
If you have decided you want to shoot RAW primarily, then that means you have decided you want to post process. I say that because, simply put, RAW files require post processing; all of them all the time. It's just part and parcel of shooting in RAW and your understanding that Picture Control settings (like Sharpness) are not applied to RAW files is correct. Some software applications will work with some of the PC settings, but generally speaking I think it's best to simply assume PC settings will not be applied to a RAW file. So, yeah... If you're going to shoot RAW, you're going to need to invest in software that will allow you to post process. The 500 Pound Gorillas are, of course, Adobe Lightroom and Adobe Photoshop. There are alternatives but in my opinion these two 500 Pound Gorillas happen to *be* 500 Pound Gorillas for very good reasons.
In order to get the very best out of your D7100, my experience has shown you are going to need very good glass (seriously good) and very good photographic technique. On top of that you are going to need to shoot RAW and you going to have to learn how to post process those RAW files.
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