Critique Lukky - Part 3

RMPS - I don't know what a focus sweep is. I am shooting in full manual. I feel like I'm getting the most focus possible through the view finder. I spend time on every shot to make sure that the coin is at full focus.

And if I scale back to 50% it's definitely sharper. But the problem is the coin is smaller to the viewer. So for example, if I made these coins 400x400 they're a lot sharper.

I will also say that these two pictures are within my acceptable range for selling a nickel.

I haven't been shooting these tethered. I've been putting the camera on a 2 second delay and shooting on my own. Unfortunately where I'm shooting I don't have room for my Laptop.

I could give it a go on the autofocus ordeal and see how that turns out.

By focus sweep, I mean adjust the focus to where you think it's definitely out of focus on the "high" side and snap a pic, then just a little out of focus "high", then just right, then a little out of focus "low", then definitely out of focus "low", snapping pics at each focal adjustment. Focus for macro is so very critical that even a slight shift in the focal plan adjustment between your reflex mirror and your sensor will make a big difference. You may think you are perfectly in focus, but may not actually be.

I don't recommend going to auto focus. I have not found a camera yet that can give an acceptable autofocus in macro mode. I always have to adjust the focus manually to get best results, and it's almost never the focus that the viewfinder says is correct. My Nikons are always a bit off looking through the viewfinder, and even more off with autofocus. The only way I get acceptable focus in one shot is to use Live View tethered to a PC, and then zoom in to 100% and fine focus until it looks perfect, then snap the pic tethered.

Remember, when you look through the viewfinder, you are not seeing what the sensor will see, but a reflection of it through the mirror, which may not be at exactly the same plane as the sensor. When in Live View, you are seeing the actual image that is hitting the sensor, so you can trust critical focusing.

Does your Canon have a Live View mode? I shoot Nikons so don't know much about Canon features. Judging by my Nikon, the various modes induce different amounts of blurriness in the following order:

worst: pushing shutter button with finger after framing and focusing in viewfinder
better: using a timer or PC tether after framing and focusing in viewfinder
best: using a timer/tether in Live View

Your Canon likely has one more option that my Nikon does not have: Quiet mode. Actually, my Nikon has a Quiet Mode but it only makes the mirror move more slowly so it is quieter. Your Canon has a special shutter mode that only Canons have that is enabled in the Quiet mode.

By the way, I am being highly critical because "you asked for it". In reality your pics do look good, and your lighting and color are quite good. But I always say that getting good focus is the number one job, with lighting and other compositional topics coming second in priority. So keep working on getting the focus nailed!

With all due respect, rmpsrpms, perhaps you're shooting the wrong brand.

If you go through every single image in my CCF Gallery (and I have the largest Gallery of any member) you won't see 10 images that were shot with manual focus. Not even a slab causes the Digital Rebel/100mm Macro combination to miss an autofocus. The only times I've ever played with manual focus were essentially to confirm the autofocus capability of the lens. With AF Mode set to One Shot and focus point forced to Center, it just plain gets it right every time.

This may, of course, be assisted by my habit of throwing huge piles of light at the coin.

Lukkyseven, rmpsrpms' use of the term "macro mode" is not a physical camera setting but a description of the field on which you're playing, so to speak. You're in "macro mode" because you're using your equipment in that fashion.

The "Quiet Mode" referred to here is actually intended to make the camera audibly quieter to use, for situations when you really don't want to have that snapping sound. Many cameras have it as a menu choice. The Digital Rebel series use this mode by default, always - it doesn't turn "on" or "off."

Here's how it works (your eyes may glaze over here):

Visualize a physical aperture inside a camera. A bunch of curved blades, forming a circular opening of a diameter determined by your Aperture setting. In the old days, this was the shutter, as well - when you actuate it, the blades snap open to that aperture diameter for a moment (your Exposure setting) and then close.

These days, they do it with curtains in front of and behind the physical aperture blades. The First Shutter Curtain (in front) and the Second Shutter Curtain (behind). These move horizontally in front of the sensor, starting on the same side and in the same direction. When you start the exposure, the first curtain snaps open, then the second curtain closes to finish the exposure. For really fast exposures, both curtains move at the same time, the second trailing the first slightly. What that creates is a vertical slit of light moving across the sensor; the sensor is never completely exposed at any moment during the shot.

Now, a neat thing you can do with a digital sensor that you never could with a film sensor: You can tell the digital sensor when to start capturing information. Quiet Mode eliminates the first shutter curtain by telling the sensor when/how to start capturing data, and then the second shutter curtain, synchronized with the camera's computer, finishes the exposure. You can electronically mimic the "rolling vertical slit" operation of a fast shutter speed this way, eliminate the first shutter curtain's noise, and as a neat benefit it also eliminates the minute mechanical vibrations that the first shutter curtain passes on to the mirror. The vibrations caused by the second shutter curtain are less important.

That, in combination with Mirror Lockup - which you, lukkyseven, are getting automatically with the 2-sec timer, but you can also force it manually - leads to as vibration-free a photographic experience as can be had with a dSLR.

And that's one of the reasons I shoot Canon.

I'm thinking of renting a Canon to see if I can improve the clarity of my shots. Every so often I see a picture on the web that just blows me away with its clarity, and invariably these shots were taken with a Canon. I don't know if it's the EFCS or some other technique the shooter is using but with all the work I do to get clear pictures, to see an image that's so easy to look at is disheartening...

Here's an example of what I'm talking about. This image is just so easy to look at. The lighting is not optimum, but the shooter is not a coin photography specialist. I'd love to hear comments as to how others see this photo. Is it just the Canon jpg engine making it look good? Does it even look that good to you all? It is even through a slab!

Careful what you make of it...it's easy to let shadows create an optical illusion. The coin appears to have some mouse bites out of it, and that it is a raw coin projecting a shadow on the lower edge. But look at it closer...it's in a slab, and a poorly-finished one at that. The white plastic of the slab is obscuring part of the coin. The shadow is on the concave surface of the slab, not below the coin.

This was lifted from a Canon macro forum. Nice coin, nice photo, but not mine. Do I have to buy a Canon to get the clarity I see in this photo?