I have the Nikon D80. Is it possible to sharpen the image as sharp as the Canon Rebel XTi?

Question

I saw the review on www.dpreview.com and the Canon had much sharper image quality. I was wondering if it were possible to sharpen the image of my Nikon D80 to the sharpness of the Canon Rebel XTi's sharpness?

just want to make sure. So you can make it as sharp as the Canon?

when I say sharpen I mean crisp detailed images rather than somewhat blurred which you see on that site i posted.

Answer 1

If you really want to do this...
Go to P,A,S or M mode.
Go the Shooting Menu.
Go to Optimize Settings.
Go to Image Sharpening.
Try a +1 or +2 setting for a while and see what you think.

While you are there...
Go to Tone Compensation.
Choose +1 or +2 for more contrast.

You can play with color saturation, but you are not ready to make such a decision that will affect ALL of your images yet.

While you are there...
Choose your color mode.
Some people think it's cool to use the Adobe RGB color space. This gives you a broader range of tones than sRGB, but it also softens the image, in my experience. sRGB is the default setting and I doubt you would have changed this already, but if you have, change it back to sRGB and see what you think.

I have a few observations, as you might expect by now.

1. ALL of these adjustments can be made in post-processing. I prefer to handle these issues that way. It's not like I am shooting in RAW, but if I alter my sharpness, etc., I can never go back to the native image if I want some different effect.

2. What lens do you have? Are you comparing lenses or cameras when you look at images? The sample images are taken with a 50 mm 1.8 lens and THAT is one sharp as a tack lens. A prime lens will always be better than a zoom lens, unless you are comparing a real piece of crap prime to a primo zoom.

3. You have had your camera a week now. You will like it more once you learn more about it, even if it is at a cerebral level where you don' tquite realize you have learned something.

4. I don't really see much difference in the sample images. It's a trade-off. Look at the lower ISO images where there is no noise reduction kicking in. I don't see too much difference. In some side-by-sides, the Nikon even seems sharper. In some, especialyl the paper clips, the Canon seems to actually have some fringing which would give the appearance of additional sharpness. The summary on this page says that Canon has chosen to increase sharpness in the processing, which means you can do the same in your D80.

5. If you really think you should have bought the Canon, see if you can make a swap and be done with it.

I've said a few times that I sense you're uneasiness about spending this kind of money on a camera. If you bought the Canon, you'd be moaning about not having the spot meter or you'd complain that it was too sharp. Or more likely, that it was not as sharp as you thought iw would be based on smaples shot with a prime lens. "If only" you had bought a D200... Well, then, you'd wish for a Canon 5D.

~~~~~

Additional info:

I have the infamous Popular Photography "10 MP dSLR Shootout" issue at hand. When testing for image quality, which includes resolution, color accuracy, and digital noise, all five cameras were fitted with the manufacturer's own 50 mm f/1.4 lens. Shots were taken under exactly the same lighting conditions with the cameras set at ISO 100 and in the highest-quality, highest-resolution JPEG format.

"Most of the variations in color, contrast, and detail are the result of JPEG image porcessing. In all cases, RAW images from these cameras exceeded JPEG quality, and differences between images became less apparent."

The test rankings for image quality and [editted] comments were:

Rank No.1 Overall: Nikon D80. "Overall color accuracy was excellent, especially in purples and reds. Yellow flowers showed greatest detail in highly saturated aras, more so than in other cameras. Contrast was normal with very high detail in shadow and highlight areas. Resolution and image detail were superb."

Rank No.3 in the studio and No.2 in the lab: Canon Rebel XTi. "Excellent color accuracy overall. Red flowers were just slightly orange in appearance, but yellows were bold. Slightly lower contrast softened the image very slightly and dropped color saturation in purples, but it helped improve shadow and highlight detail. Resolution and image detail were the least of all cameras in JPEG setting."

Short interim summary:
Nikon - "Resolution and image detail were superb."
Canon - "Resolution and image detail were the least of all cameras in JPEG setting."

Comments:
Nikon - "Given the superb noise suppression, it maintains an Excellent image quality rating through ISO 3200. At lower ISOs, the D80 produced the highest resolution numbers of these five tested cameras. As the ISOs increased, the aggressive noise reduction diminished resolution to the point that the Canon Rebel XTi had slightly better resolution at ISO 800 and above. But the Nikon could still resolve an average of about 1750 lines at ISO 3200.

Canon - "Excellent image quality up to ISO 400; at ISO 800 and 1600, increased noise (ranked Moderately Low) dropped overall rating to Extremely High.

MY OWN Conclusions:

Popular Photography says that the D80 tests sharper than the Canon XTi when using comparable lenses. This tells me that the sensor is doing its job. If you want more sharpness at higher ISO ratings, you have the flexibililty of setting noise reduction to Normal, Low, High or OFF. You can also set sharpness, etc., as discussed earlier in this answer.

Dude. You have a great camera.

Answer 2

Nikon D80 Dpreview

Answer 3

And if you look at the CNET's review, you will read that the D80 is hand down much better than the Canon Rebel. But in terms of imaging, they are comparable. In terms of everything else, the D80 is much better.

Canon's trademark is that it's default setting cleans its images more than Nikon where what you see is what you get. But I dont agree that the Rebel is sharper than the D80. They are both sharp as long as you know how to take sharp pictures.

Furthermore, the lenses used are not comparable. The 1.2 Canon lens has extra low dispersion elements which the f1.8 Nikon does not have (because it is an old lens). Any lens with extra low dispersion elements will be superior than those that dont.

Take a course on the D80 (check out betterphoto.com) to help you maximize its features. What you have is the best prosumer DLSR.

Answer 4

The short answer is "yes".

I think you are confusing "Sharpening" with which image resolves more detail. Sharpening is an image processing function which can always be added later in Photoshop to give the visual impression of a 'sharper' image.

both the D80 and Xti resolve image detail identically.

Here's a little tutorial to help you understand:
http://www.imaging-resource.com/TIPS/SHARPEN/SHARP1.HTM

Answer 5

Sure put it into Photo Shop and hit the SHARPEN button.

That's all Canon does.

If you noticed in that review the COLORS on the Canon were mottled, this is due to edge sharpening of dithered irregular colors.

Nikon chooses to smooth out the colors by going in the OPPOSITE direction and hittin the SMOOTH button on Photo Shop.

While this knocks down some clarity, it keeps the colors smooth and well saturated and when you blow up your images you see less grain, less outlines over objects and get less artficats.

It looks more like film that way than digital.

YOu don't get a "digitzed" object.

TV sets are the same way. Some LCD HD sets turn up the contrast (sharpness and saturation) and you see an outline around everthing and see stairs (aliasing) on angled lines.

Some LCD sets softten and provide anti-aliasing.

Answer 6

From photography and DSLR camera basics right through to advanced techniques used by the professionals, this course will quickly and easily get your photography skills focused! Go here https://tr.im/TDsO2
By the end of this course you will have developed an instinctive skill-for-life that will enable you to capture truly stunning photos that not only amaze your friends and family... but could also open the doors to a brand new career.

Answer 7

Kirr, this is getting old. You claim to have read this review: http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/nikond80/page29.asp , so I'm sure you noticed this bit: "Default sharpness level perhaps still a little conservative." It was listed in the conclusion.
And the remedy to your concern seems obvious - dive into the menu and crank the sharpness up a notch.
Or if you have any ambition to post-process your shots, leave the default sharpness the way it is and do all of your sharpening in an image editor.
---
You can make your shots as sharp as you want with the camara settings. And if you also crank up the color saturation, they will really 'pop'. If you don't want to ever use Photoshop or so, that might even be a good idea.
I personally prefer the natural look that Nikon produces with the default settings. This way I can enhance the look on a file-by-file basis in an image editor. I only do what's needed. If I let the camera do all of my editing, I can't UNDO it.

Answer 8

1

Answer 9

Haven't thought about that

Answer 10

change the sharp setting

Answer 11

Wow! Thanks! I was asking myself the same thing today