Herschel:
Thank you so very much for your help. As you will have the chance to see I
have posted a message to the group earlier today with a follow up to my
problem and how I was finally able to solve it.
On 11/8/05 10:06 PM, "Herschel Mair" <herschelmair@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Joseph
>
> Firstly I must say that I'm a little embarrassed by some of the responses you
> got from this list.
You have no reason to be embarrassed for the actions of others. Your replies
to my questions have always been very helpful and I am grateful for that.
> I am also a person who works extensively with Nikon and Canon. I have just
> bought the Nikon D2x and it¹s a fine camera but it¹s not in the league of the
> Canon 1DS MkII. I don¹t have the 2 lenses you¹re complaining about but I have
> Excellent Canon and excellent Nikon lenses. So far I have been ecstatic with
> the Canon lenses I have bought. The focus much quicker and far more accurately
> and the results have been really excellent
>
> But there are a few Nikon lenses that are awesome too and I wouldn¹t like to
> have to stop using them.
>
> I think the problem may be digital
>
> In simple terms, all digital cameras have a sort of "diffuser" right in front
> of the sensor. This is to "spread" the colors around and make each photo-site
> more aware of what is happening in the surrounding photo-sites.
>
> In the process of turning photo-sites of a single color into pixels of RGB,
> ("Demosaicing") the fuzziness is theoretically removed... But you can observe
> that raw images on a monitor don't have quite the acutance that prints from
> negatives do, or for that matter high-res scans of film or prints.
I was under the impression that sharpness information traveled along with
the RAW file in much the same manner that white balance information does.
The RAW file only gets the white balance applied once the RAW processor
software reads the white balance tag and applies it as it processes and
renders the image. In this case if the processing chip (DIGIC 2 in my case)
is applying sharpening algorithms than the image is not really RAW straight
from the sensor but it is being altered by processing inside the camera,
right ?
> The thing is that you HAVE to do a certain amount of USM to all digital raw
> images. They are inherently softer, with lower edge contrast, than you'd
> expect.
>
> If you shoot JPG, the camera does it for you (Not a bad job usually) Of course
> you end up replacing REAL acutance with APARENT sharpness.
I am shooting RAW only as JPEGs would not be appropriate for the work I do
and for other uses I still like the benefits of working with RAW. I will
follow your suggestions and work with the unsharp mask as well as Les
suggestion to play with the sharpness setting on my camera.
> Also there¹s the problem that you are probably viewing at 72DPI. You have
> not said whether you made prints or not.
>
> Then, of course, there¹s the possibility (Blasphemy in Canonland) that those
> particular Canon lenses are simply not as good as the Nikon equivalents. In
> which case, what¹s there to say?
I am now happy that I have solved my problem. After testing the 135mm f/2.0
lens at the reseller and seeing how good that lens is I feel a little more
comfortable. I have to admit that I find Nikkor lenses to be better in
general based on the experience I have with my own lenses, but the results I
am now obtaining with Canon are very good too.
Thank you very much once again for your help and suggestions. I really
appreciate you taking the time to answer my post and try to help me solve my
problem.
Best regards,
Joseph
---
Dr. Joseph Chamberlain
Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery
> Herschel
>
> Herschel Mair
> Head of the Department of Photography,
> Higher College of Technology
> Muscat
> Sultanate of Oman
> Adobe Certified instructor
>
> + (986) 99899 673
>
> www.herschelmair.com <http://www.herschelmair.com/>
>
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