May 16, 20169 yr Greetings!I'm from Germany, so my English might be not the best - sorry for that I have got some seroius problems with my Alpha 6000 and my 3 lenses (12mm Samyang, Sony Kit 16-50mm and Sony SEL 18-105mm) and searched nearly the whole internet and YouTube - I still have no idea what's the problem, so mabye someone here can help me. My problem: ALL pictures with EVERY lense in EVERY mode and all the various settings are unsharp. It's not like an ISO-noise. I got the feeling that the camera sometimes doesn't even focus the right way (and that for the "superfast autofocus"...). I tried really everything and gone through all the theory, so I know what I should do to get good pictures in the different modes, but even the Auto-Mode is really really bad in picture quality (it's unsharp, colors got a too high saturation, ...). Before this I used a Nikon D5300 with a Kit-lense and the pictures were perfect, far better than the ones I get with A6000 So my question is: What I am doing wrong? Is there some major setting I didn't see or could it be that my camera is damaged somehow? I bought it a few weeks ago and I am on an Englandtrip right now (so I expected to have fun with the camera and the pictures...) and since I bought it the pictures are not really sharp I thought it might be a setting problem, so I wanted to give it a try, but now I am totally done, I have no further ideas.Thank you so much for reading my post!
Advertisement Hi SilvaMithil, You may be interested in this: No sharp pictures with A6000! Need help :( . I'm sure you'll find what you were looking for!
May 16, 20169 yr Where in England are you? I'd suggest trying to find a local camera shop with some knowledge of the A6000 and asking for help there. If you're in London, try Classic Camera (by British Museum) as they're knowledgable and (in my experience) very helpful. Difficult to know what you are "doing wrong" as there is no way to know what you are "doing"! Pop the kit lens on the camera and... Ensure you're in autofocus Programme mode Iso something sensible given the light - try 200 or so... Point and click... What happens? What shutter speed & aperture did the camera use? Is it in focus?
May 17, 20169 yr Initialize the camera and check the sharpness using MF. If all is good in MF but is not good in AF, then you know you have a bad camera.
May 17, 20169 yr Author Where in England are you? I'd suggest trying to find a local camera shop with some knowledge of the A6000 and asking for help there. If you're in London, try Classic Camera (by British Museum) as they're knowledgable and (in my experience) very helpful. Difficult to know what you are "doing wrong" as there is no way to know what you are "doing"! Pop the kit lens on the camera and... Ensure you're in autofocus Programme mode Iso something sensible given the light - try 200 or so... Point and click... What happens? What shutter speed & aperture did the camera use? Is it in focus? In fact I am in London since today Do you think they will help me even if I didn't purchase anything there? Looks like a very high priced store... I took some shots with the kit-lense in program mode (by the way a good idea to check the stats, didn't think of this yet) and it looks normal. Like aperture around 6 and speed around 1/250 from a shadowed balcony into blue sky/sunny scenery. I recognized that the picture looks "normal" (as expected) through the viewfinder or on display, but after taking the shot and checking it on the computer it looks different - like blurry in the details. The camera does a very hard job getting faces sharp, especially in lower light (like in a museum hall with low daylight from the windows). Initialize the camera and check the sharpness using MF. If all is good in MF but is not good in AF, then you know you have a bad camera. Used MF, but still the same result - when the picture is taken, it's not sharp anymore. I really enjoy the electronical MF-help, when you can zoom in to focus. But after shooting it seems it's not the same scenery I saw though the viewfinder. I definitly will go to the shop where I bought it when I come home. So depressing to get such bad travel photos :/
May 17, 20169 yr I would reset the camera to factory defaults, then set the image quality to the highest (JPEG Fine or Large or similar). Its most likely "user error" because the image in the view finder is exactly the same that the camera sensor is seeing ... And also try to put one of these bad photos on Flicker so that people can take a look at the image and metadata (not here since the images uploaded get compressed and never look good), you might get some more help that way. Blurry in the details is sometimes normal.
May 17, 20169 yr So after taking the photo, reviewing on camera looks OK, but on your PC it looks bad? What software are you using to view these photos on your PC? I use Capture 1 Pro, if I set my sharpening to the lowest setting and clarity to the lowest setting my photos will look like they are out of focus. Is it possible that it is not the camera at fault?
May 19, 20169 yr Author Hi again, sorry for late response and thanks for your answers! So after taking the photo, reviewing on camera looks OK, but on your PC it looks bad? What software are you using to view these photos on your PC? I use Capture 1 Pro, if I set my sharpening to the lowest setting and clarity to the lowest setting my photos will look like they are out of focus. Is it possible that it is not the camera at fault? I use Lightroom 5, so that should not be the problem - I hope Got a Flickr Account now and hope that this link works (the only good picture is the one with the pedestrian lights, that's mostly sharp):https://www.flickr.com/photos/142842914@N08/albums/72157668279788552/with/26514911763/
May 21, 20169 yr ......... Used MF, but still the same result - when the picture is taken, it's not sharp anymore. I really enjoy the electronical MF-help, when you can zoom in to focus. But after shooting it seems it's not the same scenery I saw though the viewfinder. .......... MF ... OK good. But did you initialize the camera ? That will undo any basic user error settings, actually ALL user settings. It's in one of the menus. Can't recall where cuz I never use it. Do it and all camera settings return to factory default like new in-the-box, via just one command. Given the info so far, if you didn't initialize it, you don't know where you stand. BTW, does this problem occur even in the "Green" mode ? The green mode is the most automated "idiot-proof" mode so it nullifies almost all user settings. It's similar to initializing, but without loss of your user settings for more advanced modes. Therefore, switching to green mode auto is very often a good way to test against user error.
May 21, 20169 yr Green Square is "beyond stupid" mode. At least use SCN mode and give the camera a hint. Or use A or S mode. In any case the photos seem OK. Chicken - ISO3200, f4.0, 1/640, 105mm - I think under those circumstances you are getting depth of field blur overall and ISO noise on the chicken? Castle - ISO1000, f22.0, 1/160, 35mm, AF_A - difficult in any case, because the castle is back lit, ISO should be 100, f5-6-8, the camera may not have focused where you think. I would use ISO100, f5.6-9 and Spot AF on the main Castle. HDR might help (but I never use that since you can do it in LR). If you use SCN and select Landscape you would get better results. Moors - ISO100, f?? - looks good, ISO 100 helps So, I think what you are getting is Noise for too high ISO and Diffraction blur from to small aperture (above f9). Does the A6000 have a SCN mode, if so, use it and select Landscape, or Sun Set, or Sports (for the chicken) and so on - that should help. I did process three of your photos, they look OK to me, I can put them on my 500px account if you want to see them. Probably you can get better results with LR if you also shoot RAW images and use those for post processing, even the Auto Correct in LR can do a good job.
May 22, 20169 yr The use of "Green Square" mode is strictly diagnostic. The idea of using a somewhat more advanced mode in case he should accidentally take a memorable shot is toadally outa the question. BTW I was going thru the menus on my a7-II ... which should be very similar to the a6000, and the "Initialize" function is in the very last "SetUp" menu [number 6 IIRC]. Also in that section is what appears to be a less thorough version of "Initialize", called something like "Reset Camera Settings". As to small apertures noticeably destroying sharpness, really now .... Here's f:13 cropped to less than 1/4 of the frame. It was originally a standard "Head Shot" : If someone says this image is technically less than geekishly optimally soopersharp, well and good, but the point is that no user getting results like this would ever be authoring a thread about never getting sharp pix from his camera ! Here's for those who rather see an image without severe cropping, shot at ... heaven forbid ... f:32 ! Forum software means all posted images are quite compromised, but once again, you can see this shot would not lead any user to question why his camera never shoots sharp shots. Despite any "techie" realities, small aperture shots are not gonna provoke that type of complaint. While technically never maximum IQ, images at small apertures will appear extra sharp to most viewers ... due to the deep DOF. Back to the problem at hand ,.,, the user apparently has not yet ruled out user error. Initialize it, or shoot some Green Mode, or whatever, but speculation is worth little. Speculation and generally accepted "wisdom" would insist that the two images above cannot be sharp, or even appear sharp. Rubber gotta hit the road here.
May 22, 20169 yr So much for "tiny f-stops". Now for the destructive nature of 4-digit ISO speeds: There's theory, and there's received wisdom, but then there's REALITY. Reality is just so irrational !
May 22, 20169 yr Here, go look at the photos: https://www.flickr.com/photos/142842914@N08/sets/72157668279788552/with/26514911763/
May 22, 20169 yr Author Given the info so far, if you didn't initialize it, you don't know where you stand. BTW, does this problem occur even in the "Green" mode ? The green mode is the most automated "idiot-proof" mode so it nullifies almost all user settings. It's similar to initializing, but without loss of your user settings for more advanced modes. Therefore, switching to green mode auto is very often a good way to test against user error. Okay, I initialized it, but the problems still occur - As I said, I could be "the problem", too Most of the problems are user-caused issues and that's okay - I am here for learning. Green-Mode, you mean the standard Auto-Mode? Yes, the problems are most bad in this mode! Not sharp (it alway chooses to high ISO), too high in saturation and in all modes with all the - not manual - focus settings my Alpha 6000 has big problems to get the right focus. Green Square is "beyond stupid" mode. At least use SCN mode and give the camera a hint. Or use A or S mode. In any case the photos seem OK. Chicken - ISO3200, f4.0, 1/640, 105mm - I think under those circumstances you are getting depth of field blur overall and ISO noise on the chicken? Castle - ISO1000, f22.0, 1/160, 35mm, AF_A - difficult in any case, because the castle is back lit, ISO should be 100, f5-6-8, the camera may not have focused where you think. I would use ISO100, f5.6-9 and Spot AF on the main Castle. HDR might help (but I never use that since you can do it in LR). If you use SCN and select Landscape you would get better results. Moors - ISO100, f?? - looks good, ISO 100 helps So, I think what you are getting is Noise for too high ISO and Diffraction blur from to small aperture (above f9). Does the A6000 have a SCN mode, if so, use it and select Landscape, or Sun Set, or Sports (for the chicken) and so on - that should help. I did process three of your photos, they look OK to me, I can put them on my 500px account if you want to see them. Probably you can get better results with LR if you also shoot RAW images and use those for post processing, even the Auto Correct in LR can do a good job. Oh my god, you're totally right! As I said, I am currently traveling, so I must have chosen the wrong pictures to show you. Of course a high ISO on a good-weather day causes noises, that really was a user-error SO: I added some new pictures to the Flickr-album, hopefully they express better, what my troubles are. The thing is: I want to shoot good pictures in a short time (like walking through a city with short stops to take a picture). I usually don't carry a tripod around when I do streetphotography. With my Nikon D5300 it all worked great, I did some great shots with it and really liked my pictures. But with the Alpha 6000...It seems I just don't get into that camera everybode who uses it, likes The use of "Green Square" mode is strictly diagnostic. The idea of using a somewhat more advanced mode in case he should accidentally take a memorable shot is toadally outa the question. BTW I was going thru the menus on my a7-II ... which should be very similar to the a6000, and the "Initialize" function is in the very last "SetUp" menu [number 6 IIRC]. Also in that section is what appears to be a less thorough version of "Initialize", called something like "Reset Camera Settings". As to small apertures noticeably destroying sharpness, really now .... Here's f:13 cropped to less than 1/4 of the frame. It was originally a standard "Head Shot" : Nick Papraz Rig Test2 1Xcrop.jpg If someone says this image is technically less than geekishly optimally soopersharp, well and good, but the point is that no user getting results like this would ever be authoring a thread about never getting sharp pix from his camera ! Here's for those who rather see an image without severe cropping, shot at ... heaven forbid ... f:32 ! Yellow Pair 5488 MW.jpg Forum software means all posted images are quite compromised, but once again, you can see this shot would not lead any user to question why his camera never shoots sharp shots. Despite any "techie" realities, small aperture shots are not gonna provoke that type of complaint. While technically never maximum IQ, images at small apertures will appear extra sharp to most viewers ... due to the deep DOF. Back to the problem at hand ,.,, the user apparently has not yet ruled out user error. Initialize it, or shoot some Green Mode, or whatever, but speculation is worth little. Speculation and generally accepted "wisdom" would insist that the two images above cannot be sharp, or even appear sharp. Rubber gotta hit the road here. Okay, to be honest: I am not sure if I got everything you wrote.. My English is not perfect, so I don't even recognize sarcasm or something like this - not sure if there was even something sarcastic in this post Your kind of writing is a bit to difficult for me a non-native-speaker, I am sorry. BUT: My pictures are NEVER as sharp as the ones you posted. Not in one mode or setting I tried to use. I always got the opinion that especially Automode just can't do wrong when it comes to take a nice picture on a sunny day, but in my case it's not possible. Thank all of you for your answeres! I hope it's my fault with the pictures and you can help me getting closer to the things I do wrong. Really never had problems with my DSLRs before...it's the first time I am perplexed
May 22, 20169 yr Author Oh, the link to the new pictures: https://www.flickr.com/photos/142842914@N08/albums/72157668279788552
May 23, 20169 yr Your photos seem fine to me. Perhaps you want to adjust the JPG settings to get more sharpness, or contrast and so on. I think they call it Picture Profiles, and I use one called Vivid IIRC. EDIT: its called Creative Style MENU → (Camera Settings) → [Creative Style] → desired setting.explained here http://docs.esupport.sony.com/dvimag/ILCE6000_guide/en/contents/TP0000301878.html I use Vivid myself.
May 23, 20169 yr Within those picture profiles you can modify various attributes. For example you can increase or decrease 'sharpening'. It might be worth trying that out. Perhaps it is set to -3 (soft). What lens did you use with your older camera? Was it a legendary sharp lens that provided awesome sharpness? Most of the photos that you linked seem OK to me, considering the camera settings. Like people have said above, use ISO100 (or as low as you can go ) and F22 will always result in a soft photo. What focus mode are you using? Perhaps setting it to center focus point and making sure that you are focusing on your intended subject might help? In some situations having 400 focus points is a disadvantage. Also within lightroom I'm sure there is a sharpening tool. I don't use LR, but I'm sure someone here can provide some tips to sharpening images. I know when I am tweaking my photos things like sharpening and 'clarity' (as it is known in Capture 1) can make or break an image. Different camera manufacturers render their out of the camera files differently. Which means different things will need to be done to get the same results.
May 23, 20169 yr Author Your photos seem fine to me. Perhaps you want to adjust the JPG settings to get more sharpness, or contrast and so on. I think they call it Picture Profiles, and I use one called Vivid IIRC. EDIT: its called Creative Style MENU → (Camera Settings) → [Creative Style] → desired setting.explained here http://docs.esupport.sony.com/dvimag/ILCE6000_guide/en/contents/TP0000301878.html I use Vivid myself. But shouldn't be the images of this really good camera sharp from its standard settings? Within those picture profiles you can modify various attributes. For example you can increase or decrease 'sharpening'. It might be worth trying that out. Perhaps it is set to -3 (soft). What lens did you use with your older camera? Was it a legendary sharp lens that provided awesome sharpness? Most of the photos that you linked seem OK to me, considering the camera settings. Like people have said above, use ISO100 (or as low as you can go ) and F22 will always result in a soft photo. What focus mode are you using? Perhaps setting it to center focus point and making sure that you are focusing on your intended subject might help? In some situations having 400 focus points is a disadvantage. Also within lightroom I'm sure there is a sharpening tool. I don't use LR, but I'm sure someone here can provide some tips to sharpening images. I know when I am tweaking my photos things like sharpening and 'clarity' (as it is known in Capture 1) can make or break an image. Different camera manufacturers render their out of the camera files differently. Which means different things will need to be done to get the same results. I initialized the camera, so the settings are all set to standard - but a good hint, if I ever experience problems with those things, thanks With my old camera I only used the kit lense Nikkor 18-140mm - it worked well for me. So you think there is no real problem with my pictures and they look normal to you? I mean, that's not bad I just expected them to look a bit better, since I saw all those great images on Flickr (in quality, not in all those great composing styles). I just got the feeling, that it's not tack-sharp. Not the best the camera can do. With the ISO 100 and the f/22...maybe I got something wrong. I thought a small aperture would be good to everything in fore-and background sharp (as on landscapes). But if I increase the ISO, it will get noisy. Hm...I might got it wrong with the apertures But I mostly use f/8 and try to keep the shutterspeed similar to the (don't know if it's the correct word) focal-length. Like 80mm = minimum 1/80 shutterspeed. For the focus I usually use broad one, that covers most of the scenery. Exept I want to focus on something specific. Sure, I can increase the sharpness in Lightroom. But sometimes it's very frustrating to see, that especially faces are not sharp enough out of the camera to look natural after I processed them in Lightroom. I am so sorry, but so thankful for you hints and thoughts!
May 23, 20169 yr There is a question to what you mean by "sharpness". What is wrong with the sharpness of this image (yours): https://flic.kr/p/Hb3foQ I processed that one; light sharpening, contrast and a typical Landscape presetting (saturation mostly), and got this (note the image is resized to 20% the original - I can put the full size image to 500px if you want to see it): The original was OK too. But I'm sure that if you play with the creative styles you can get the same result out of the camera. Generally I find you photos a little flat, perhaps even underexposed in some cases. So, those suggestions again: Reset camera to defaults Use the SCN mode with Landscape OR Use creative styles, select a preset or define your own (sharpness + contrast + saturation = typical Flikr photo). HDR and so on (especially for sunny conditions).
May 23, 20169 yr This one https://flic.kr/p/HiFjor was underexposed, but still with the same processing as above it looks OK. The bubbles to the right seem sharper than on the left. Could be the large aperture? You have nice photographs ...
May 23, 20169 yr Author There is a question to what you mean by "sharpness". What is wrong with the sharpness of this image (yours): https://flic.kr/p/Hb3foQ I processed that one; light sharpening, contrast and a typical Landscape presetting (saturation mostly), and got this (note the image is resized to 20% the original - I can put the full size image to 500px if you want to see it): for_SilvaMithil-025.jpg The original was OK too. But I'm sure that if you play with the creative styles you can get the same result out of the camera. Generally I find you photos a little flat, perhaps even underexposed in some cases. So, those suggestions again: Reset camera to defaults Use the SCN mode with Landscape OR Use creative styles, select a preset or define your own (sharpness + contrast + saturation = typical Flikr photo). HDR and so on (especially for sunny conditions). The picture with the pedestrian sign is the one that appears sharpest to me, yes. Looks great with your processing! What do you think about the landscapes with the wideangle? Okay, I will try the camera-settings and the scn-mode, even if I would love to shoot in A-Priority and get this results, haha. I will keep on trying! Btw, the bubble-picture was underexposed, because I used S-Mode with a high shutter-speed -> Am I doing this the wrong way? I thought of capturing the bubbles (or the waves on the stairs on the other picture in the album) with a high speed, even if it's too dark then and then lighten it in Lightroom. Wrong way?
May 23, 20169 yr What you did with the bubble was OK, just mentioning that it was underexposed, ISO 400 and f8 might have also worked out well. What I do is use Auto ISO between 100 and 1600 (beyond that I find the noise objectionable) and then normally use Aperture Priority or Shutter Priority depending on the situation (sometimes both actually P mode I think its called). The landscapes with 12mm are quite good too, but need some help, this is one I tried process, its a great picture to start with actually and only needs a little bit of contrast and sharpening to look a lot better: All this processing is done with Capture One (free for Sony users) and only takes a few moments, and can be automated on Import. Also, some shots are taken directly into the sun (the House) and have flare, which reduces contrast in the image, so they look a little flat. A better quality lens can help with that, some what, but its generally a fact of life.
May 24, 20169 yr Did anyone say anything about diffraction? Apart from it makes things less sharp? https://luminous-landscape.com/understanding-lens-diffraction/ Has some examples. Every lens has diffraction, its physics. I usually don't shoot past F/8 but some people like F/9 or F/11. The diffraction is usually obvious starting at or soon after F/8 or F/9. Of course there may be reason to use a higher F stop, like F/22. But that will always result in a less sharp image. More post processing might be required. Thus if wanting to maximize your sharpness, don't use anything past F/8 ( depending on the lens ). The most often quoted F stop I've seen is F/8, but it does vary. F/5.6 will almost always be safe from obvious diffraction issues. This diffraction problem is, as I understand it, why macro photographers use focus stacking methods. What e-mount lenses do you have? We should be able to give you a summary of each lenses performance. For example: The old 16mm prime, its tiny, light, small...it is a neat little lens. But the corners are not great. So it does not make the best landscape lens. Or, the Zeiss 24mm, its awesome. However, it is expensive.
May 25, 20169 yr This fellow on his blog gives some insight as to his settings http://blog.thomasfitzgeraldphotography.com/blog/2016/3/an-improved-import-and-calibration-preset-for-sony-a6000-images-in-lightroom I use his Lightroom preset and it works very well for the a6000. It's easy to tweak it to your personal preferences as well Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
May 30, 20169 yr Author Hey everyone, finally got back from my journey, sorry for taking so long to answer. What you did with the bubble was OK, just mentioning that it was underexposed, ISO 400 and f8 might have also worked out well. What I do is use Auto ISO between 100 and 1600 (beyond that I find the noise objectionable) and then normally use Aperture Priority or Shutter Priority depending on the situation (sometimes both actually P mode I think its called). The landscapes with 12mm are quite good too, but need some help, this is one I tried process, its a great picture to start with actually and only needs a little bit of contrast and sharpening to look a lot better: for_SilvaMithil-027.jpg All this processing is done with Capture One (free for Sony users) and only takes a few moments, and can be automated on Import. Also, some shots are taken directly into the sun (the House) and have flare, which reduces contrast in the image, so they look a little flat. A better quality lens can help with that, some what, but its generally a fact of life. Thank you, the landscape looks good now! At the moment I'm post-processing all the images in Lightroom and got some very good results with the ones I shot in Landscape-Mode and A-Priority. Maybe I just have to accept, that they look a bit different to the out-of-the-camera pictures of my old D5300 and that I have to spend some time to process them in LR. Did anyone say anything about diffraction? Apart from it makes things less sharp? https://luminous-landscape.com/understanding-lens-diffraction/ Has some examples. Every lens has diffraction, its physics. I usually don't shoot past F/8 but some people like F/9 or F/11. The diffraction is usually obvious starting at or soon after F/8 or F/9. Of course there may be reason to use a higher F stop, like F/22. But that will always result in a less sharp image. More post processing might be required. Thus if wanting to maximize your sharpness, don't use anything past F/8 ( depending on the lens ). The most often quoted F stop I've seen is F/8, but it does vary. F/5.6 will almost always be safe from obvious diffraction issues. This diffraction problem is, as I understand it, why macro photographers use focus stacking methods. What e-mount lenses do you have? We should be able to give you a summary of each lenses performance. For example: The old 16mm prime, its tiny, light, small...it is a neat little lens. But the corners are not great. So it does not make the best landscape lens. Or, the Zeiss 24mm, its awesome. However, it is expensive. Okay, thanks! I see that I just got the aperture-thing a bit wrong...always thought that of that beginner's guides which tell you "f/22 will make everything in fore- and background sharp, f/2 will make the things in the foreground sharp" -> so my conclusion was: Hey, let's use f/22 if I want to be sure, that everything is sharp (when there's enough light)!That was totally wrong I got it now. I use the Samyang/Rokinon 12mm, the Sony SEL 18-105mm and the Kit-Lens (but not often) 16-50mm.I am currently thinking about getting the Sony 50mm 1.8 for people and city fotography - but first I want to get the other lenses working.
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