Soft!

[doug3fflux]

My fz1 has generated so many darn good keepers for me all this while, and today I found out that at 11x zoom, the images are rather SOFT.

This means all my beautiful bokeh at long focal lengths, all the constant 2.8 at tele, all useless liao!

I just feel so depressed. Now I can only use macro or normal picture taking. Im pretty sure its not handshake.

As much as I shoot film primarily, ( singlelensreflex-wise ) can u imagine, now I cannot bring my beloved fz1 out cuz its so light and easy to use??

So if I want to continue shooting long tele shots, dun tell me my next investment has to be a 70-200/2.8 constants etc etc etc.

:cry:

flower taken at 11x optical zoom

same flower taken macro

plainly soft

 

[eow]

Bro u using spot or centre metering?
did u try the focus button method?

 

[espn]

Metering has nothing to do with focusing.

The images look to me like it suffered handshake because of the full 11x zoom which obviously is more prone to handshake.

 

[doug3fflux]

espn, Eow has a point, cuz spot metering for the fz1 means spot focussing also. Focus arnd that cross area.
Maybe it really is handshake! But then again, no. OIS is on, and for the sunbird photograph, its 1/125. So no. But for the soft flower, maybe, but very unlikely leh.....OIS on also, 1/30..

Eow, thanks for the reply. Okay I didnt use the focus button simply cuz the sunbirds are flitting often. Who uses Focus Lock for birds flitting around? Must keep pressing the button. So I used the normal half shutter squeeze.

 

[danster]

Agree with ESPN. Think it's handshake for sure. Even with Mega OIS on, I don't think you can get sharp pictures handholding at 1/30 or even 1/125 when the effective focal length is 385mm! (at 11x zoom), especially when the camera is so light...

If I recall (I used to own one), the FZ1 does produce sharp pictures when used correctly, just don't expect 70-200mm f2.8 AFS VR quality lah

If you want to be absolutely sure, why don't you take test pics on a tripod?

 

[ricohflex]

well it is 11x zoom.
on a consumer compact FZ1.
even if not due to handshake, the optics cannot make it.

a SLR on tripod (regardless whether film or digital) with a prime macro lens will be razor sharp.

 

[doug3fflux]

okay. Thanks guys.