This will teach me to check camera settings more closely

[barry lloyd]

camera Nikon D800 lens AF-S 80-400 mm f4.5-5.6 G ED

I just could not understand why my shots using the above were not sharp as they should be with expensive gear with this lens. So decided to really sit down and have a think. I was wondering if I had a "soft" lens or not as the other lenses I have seem ok . So after a deep "thunk" I checked out the settings in the Shooting menu -set picture control and there lay the problem. Portrait -standard and mono settings ok but how on earth did the others such as Neutral -Landscape and Vivid get turned right back the opposite end to sharp ie soft?
Don't ask me as I normally leave halfway between the two extreme ends. Now I will regularly check these in the future.

 

[McQ]

Oops!

Barry, we've probably all missed settings of some sort like this. You bring up a good point. I was giving some tips to a new-to-DSLR photographer, and he recently bought a D300s from KEH. I asked him about some of his menu settings, including any presets, etc. He hadn't gone through his menu AT ALL!

Now, KEH may be good about putting the bodies they sell back to factory reset, but you never know. In this case, we went through everything just to be sure.