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Soft Lenses?

Whappeh From United States of America, joined Mar 2006, 1560 posts, RR: 2
Posted (5 years 2 months 3 weeks 1 day 12 hours ago) and read 1476 times:

I've been having a conundrum lately with one of my new lenses. I got the 18-200VR at Christmas, and was very happy to pick it up. However, it seems EVERYTHING I shoot with it is soft as soft can be. Far much more so then my 18-70 that was the kit lens I was using before hand. I'm just curious, how can you really tell if its a lens problem, or is the lens naturally soft? If it is a problem with a specific lens, can you do anything about it? Send it to Nikon? Warranty?

-Travel now, journey infinitely.

9 replies: All unread, jump to last

Ruudb From Netherlands, joined Jun 2005, 163 posts, RR: 6
Reply 1, posted (5 years 2 months 3 weeks 1 day 11 hours ago) and read 1459 times:

I think it is typical for these kind of lenses with a long reach, also it has a lot of vignetting, at least the sample I used. To be honest that was a bigger problem to me as being soft.

Whappeh From United States of America, joined Mar 2006, 1560 posts, RR: 2
Reply 2, posted (5 years 2 months 3 weeks 1 day 11 hours ago) and read 1458 times:

I haven't had much vignetting issues, atleast none that stood out worse to me then the overall softness. I'm having to do so much extra sharpening to my photos in post-processing, its damn near making them unusable.

-Travel now, journey infinitely.

777MechSys From United States of America, joined Apr 2006, 350 posts, RR: 2
Reply 3, posted (5 years 2 months 3 weeks 1 day 9 hours ago) and read 1420 times:

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Quoting Whappeh (Thread starter):
how can you really tell if its a lens problem, or is the lens naturally soft?

The first 18-200 lenses are supposed to be good. After that they pretty much suck. I tried it out on two different bodies and noticed the same soft issues.

The 18-70 was a descent lens. I liked it better than the 18-200.

Whappeh From United States of America, joined Mar 2006, 1560 posts, RR: 2
Reply 4, posted (5 years 2 months 3 weeks 1 day 9 hours ago) and read 1414 times:

I'm really surprised by the softness... I'm going to have to do some tests in good light tomorrow with some letters and text from fixed positions and find out.

-Travel now, journey infinitely.

JeffM From United States of America, joined May 2005, 3266 posts, RR: 53
Reply 5, posted (5 years 2 months 3 weeks 1 day 8 hours ago) and read 1406 times:

How do your prints come out? If they are acceptable at around 11x14 or slightly larger, I wouldn't worry unless you primarily display your images on the web. Trying to judge an image on a screen can be futile.

Whappeh From United States of America, joined Mar 2006, 1560 posts, RR: 2
Reply 6, posted (5 years 2 months 3 weeks 1 day 8 hours ago) and read 1402 times:

I haven't done any print work since I got the lens, only been working on shooting for anet and other digital medium. I may go make a print and find out, that could be good advice. Thanks.

-Travel now, journey infinitely.

Preelude From Canada, joined Dec 2006, 17 posts, RR: 0
Reply 7, posted (5 years 2 months 2 weeks 5 days 11 hours ago) and read 1323 times:

It's a general rule that the more range a lens covers, the poorer the optical performance will be, however there are exceptions. 18-200 = 11.1 zoom. Also if you want sharp images you usually have to step down the lens, typical sweet spot is around f/8 to f/9, at 500mm I have to shoot f/11 with my sigma 170-500. Prime lenses seem to be sharp at all f/stops...

Whappeh From United States of America, joined Mar 2006, 1560 posts, RR: 2
Reply 8, posted (5 years 2 months 2 weeks 5 days 10 hours ago) and read 1313 times:

With my 18-200 I always shoot at F/8 on Aperture priority (unless the situation warrants a change). I may do some jumping around the fstops and trying to find a sharper setting.

-Travel now, journey infinitely.

Kereru From New Zealand, joined Jun 2003, 873 posts, RR: 50
Reply 9, posted (5 years 2 months 2 weeks 5 days 3 hours ago) and read 1293 times:

Check this out.
http://www.dpreview.com/lensreviews/...8-200_3p5-5p6_vr_afs_n15/page4.asp

I use my 18-200 on mainly walk around or close stuff.

Cheers,

Colin old

Good things take Time.

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