A while ago, I switched from a Nikon D90 to a D7100. A great camera, but the images, although 24MP, are noticeably softer than those made with the D90 (12MP). I wonder what can cause this soft feel and how I can adjust this, if possible. I still use the same lenses on both cameras.
Pierre
A few things that will help you maximize sharpness in your photos...
First and foremost, adjust the Sharpness setting in the Picture Control menu:
Press the Menu button.
Highlight the Shooting Menu (camera icon)
Drop down to "Set Picture Control" then click right one time.
(This menu contains all the Picture Controls (Stanadard, Vivid, Landscape, etc. and each one has it's own set of Quick Adjust menus)
Highlight the Picture Control you're using, probably "Standard" and click right one time to enter the Quick Adjust menu.
Highlight the "Sharpening" setting and increase it from the oddly low default to +6 or +7.
Press "OK" to exit the menu.
Keep your shutter speed up around twice the focal length. For instance, if you're shooting at 100mm, keep your shutter speed at around 1/200 or so. If you're shooting at 35mm keep the shutter above 1/70 and so on.
If your lenses have VR enabled, try turning it off. VR is not a "set it and forget it" sort of thing; it's a specific solution to a specific problem. If you don't have that problem, VR can actually *cause* image softness.
Fine tune the Auto Focus on your lenses. There are several methods for doing this but it absolutely needs to be done in my opinion. Nikon has a tutorial,
How to Use the AF Fine Tune Function, there's software solutions like
Reikan FoCal or the
Dot Tune method (also free). Choose one that works for you but definitely check your lenses for front/back focus issues.
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