soft D50 and lens advice?

[Pinoy2.0]

Hello, I'm new and I bought a D50 kit with lens (18-55).

The portraits and macro work great.

I've had the camera for about a 9 months and was wondering why do my images come out soft if it's not portrait or macro? I guess the D50 is a "soft" picture taker, but I'm going to upload a photo, so if you want to see that stats, be my guest, bc I don't really know what I'm doing, I just point and shoot, but the pics seem to be a little overexposed and not sharp.

The sharpness really really gets to me. I've seen some great pictures of the D40 and the canon digital rebel xt with their kit lenses, and you can see the photos, with no pp, the images feel like you can grab them or the jump off the picture. I don't feel anywhere close to that with my kit lens and d50. I don't have the money for a Nikon 17-55 or anything close to that. Whether or not I can tweak my camera settings to make it sharper...anyone want to recommend an everyday lens for about less than $400 (similar to my kit lens of 18-55)?

http://img120.imageshack.us/img120/5470/dsc06712mk8.jpg

sharpness: hard
exposure time: 1/320 sec
F number: 11
exposure bias: F1 (0.00)
max aperture: f/4.9 (4.60)
focal length: 40mm

[rawpaw18]

Do you find this only happens when using the landscape mode, such as this picture? Does it happen in other modes?

The kit lens you have is a very good kit lens, a lot of times all over softness is camera movement. Try using A or S mode to take a picture you just shot using landscape, pick out your focus area, and compare the two.

You can get the most out of your camera by controling the camera yourself.
It just takes a little practice. Your lens is probably not the issue if it takes good pictures in other modes.

[Rooz]

[quote=Pinoy2.0;246430]Hello, I'm new and I bought a D50 kit with lens (18-55).

The portraits and macro work great.

I've had the camera for about a 9 months and was wondering why do my images come out soft if it's not portrait or macro? I guess the D50 is a "soft" picture taker, but I'm going to upload a photo, so if you want to see that stats, be my guest, bc I don't really know what I'm doing, I just point and shoot, but the pics seem to be a little overexposed and not sharp.

The sharpness really really gets to me. I've seen some great pictures of the D40 and the canon digital rebel xt with their kit lenses, and you can see the photos, with no pp, the images feel like you can grab them or the jump off the picture. I don't feel anywhere close to that with my kit lens and d50. I don't have the money for a Nikon 17-55 or anything close to that. Whether or not I can tweak my camera settings to make it sharper...anyone want to recommend an everyday lens for about less than $400 (similar to my kit lens of 18-55)?

sharpness: hard
exposure time: 1/320 sec
F number: 11

exposu

[tcadwall]

ok, I can be way off here, since I can't see the shot. (firewall between me and many photo hosting sites.) However, According to what I can see, I wonder if it is your aperture setting. Try somewhere around f11 and see if that helps. f4.9 for what i read is a lanscape shot, would not have much depth of field, and depending on where your focus point is, it may be impossible to distinguish ANYTHING in focus.

Jump on me freely if I am way off, since I can't see the shot... LOL!

[jcon]

T, the OP posted EXIF and it was actually shot at F11 and does look pretty soft.

I dont know what to suggest, but what format did you shoot in?

The D50 is not a "soft picture taker", quite the opposite. post some more samples taken with that lens, you may have a "bad" copy.

[Stoller]

D50 and kit lens are not soft.
Learn how to shoot in A,S,P and M for best results. :)