Why aren't my Canon A620 pictures sharp enough?

Question

I just bought this and when compared to my 3.2 Sony Cybershot the Canon's pictures are not as sharp. Is there a setting I should be using? Could it be the lens? I love the features on the Canon but the images are so soft and not sharp enough for me.

Answer 1

There are several things that this could be. However without seeing your images (or knowing if you are talking about screen images or prints) it is hard to determine what the problem is. This camera is considered to be fairly good: http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canona620/page13.asp

here are some things to consider:

go into the function menu and look for the "Photo Effect" menu, from there make sure that "Low Sharpening" is set off.

make sure that your are shooting at the highest resolution and best quality. in the function menu, look under "Resolution/Compression" and make sure that you have "L" (large image size) and "S" (superfine) selected.

It could be a focus issue. I would recommend turning off AiAF in the menu under the camera tab, the "AF Frame" setting remove AiAF. This will result in a single focus area, which allows for more predictability in focusing on subjects. If your subject is off center, just aim at the subject, press the button half way down (which sets focus) and then aim the camera so the subject is in the frame where you want them (off center), and press the shutter button down all the way to take the picture.

you could be moving the camera when you press the shutter button. Attempt to hold still before, during, and after pressing the shutter button. Some camera take a long time to actually take the picture after pressing the shutter button, so really concentrate on holding still.

You could have a defect in the lens or focus system of the camera. but this is a low probability. You could contact the service center, if it is still under warranty, and see if they will look at this issue for you. You could check this by using a tripod, or setting the camera on a table and aiming it at a subject that will not move (like a book case) and has lots of contrasting color objects on it, using self timer and taking a picture. this way the camera will not move, the subject will not move and you can see if the picture comes out sharp. You have to take care so that the camera can focus properly (don't aim the camera at a big plain white area).

if your prints are not sharp, try another print processor. Most print processors will add sharpening for you. If you are printing at home, make sure that your printer is calibrated. You can test this by printing one of your pictures from your Sony and then one from the Canon.

if your screen images are not sharp, you may need to do some photo editing to make them sharp to your needs. I would recommend a very simple (and completely free for home use, with no spy-ware or ad-ware) program to do this for you: http://www.irfanview.com/ If you download this program (you don't need any of the plug-ins to sharpen the images) and use it, just bring up the image you want to sharpen and from the "Image" menu select "Sharpen" or press shift+S to sharpen the entire image. You can repeat this, and/or use the mouse to select an square area of the picture to limit the sharpening. There are many other features of this program, including batch (many files at one time) processing (so you can sharpen all the files in a directory in one click).

If you are taking pictures in dimly lit areas you may not have a fast enough shutter speed to compensate for how much you are zooming in with the lens. usually when this happens, a little shaky camera icon will appear in the LCD display. When shooting zoomed out, your camera shake (how steady you hold the camera) is more critical because the long focal length magnifies the amount of movement. Try using wider angles (less zoom) when in dim areas (inside a house with regular lights is dim, at night is is real dim).

Answer 2

"I focus it correctly" - Does that mean you're manually focusing through the viewfinder? In which casdiureticould simply be a dioprtic adjustment issue. There should be a tiny dial next to the viewfinder. "even when the camera is on a tripod its still not sharp" - have you switched IS off? If not IS will try to find shake when there isn't any, and actually cause blur. Other potential issues: - On a tripod, camera can still shake from just pressing the shutter button. Use a cable release, and mirror lock up. Make sure that you're on stable ground (bridges etc shake). - Dirt on the lens will not affect image quality unless it's caked in it, or you're using an extreme wide angle lens. - You're aperture is too wide and you've selected the wrong AF point. Make sure if you're using a wide aperture to make sure you select one AF point, and then place that over your subject to AF-lock. - Subjects are moving. If your subjects are people, if you're on a tripod, they can still move a little (totally subconciously) but the camera will pick it up. Ditto with boats. We need samples to give you a solid diagnosis.

Answer 3

Check your manual for the settings.
It could be that your old Sony simply sharpened the images more with a software setting. A lot of point & shoots are set to do massive in-camera sharpening and color saturation to make the pictures 'pop'. More advanced models can also do that but they don't by default - they assume the user wants a more realistic reproduction of the actual scene.
If the menu settings don't give you the desired results, check if you camera has a focussing error. The odds are overwhelmingely against it, but sometimes a camera slips though that focusses a bit too far or too near.

Answer 4

You need to change the sharpness setting. Most Canon cameras take "smooth" pictures (note that this is a good thing) but it looks a little on the soft side to some people. Simply adjust the sharpness.

Answer 5

I don't believe you can tune the sharpening on that one. Though you can on a PC afterwards of course.

This being said I have found that such things are often a matter of habit. For example the Nikon D200 digital SLR tends to have a default sharpening setting which is quite soft (but on such a camera, this can be adjusted).

My advice would be to do nothing and see whether you get used to this, and also see what others say. It may well be that your old Sony over-sharpened by a mile, creating lots of artifacts on the photos (which you would see when zooming in on a computer screen), and that your eye just got used to that look.

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Answer 6

Yeh! i have same problem with this camera. I am not happy with the image it produce. I normally use photo enhancing software to make my pictures look better.

Answer 7

Try Canon EOS or the digital one EOS REBEL XT, take great pictures. but you need to use the setting which it is easy,

Answer 8

check and see if your camera menu setting has a feature that lets you take sharper photos. i don't know the A620 system to tell you otherwise.