350d/Rebel XT sharpness setting: is "-2" actually zero, or does it actually blur the pic?

On the 350D (Rebel XT) the sharpness setting is labelled from -2 to

+2, with 0 in the middle. If I want to get the unsharpened photo from

the camera, should I have it on -2 or on 0? Is 0 just "ordinary"

sharpening or is it NO sharpening (making -2 a

deliberately-blur-the-photo effect?)

 

I know I could shoot in RAW but I don't want to for a variety of

reasons; I'm just looking for a simple answer as to which is the 'zero

sharpening' setting :)

 

I've tried Google with no success.

 

Thanks,

Jonathan.

Do the test yourself: shoot the same thing (with tripod) with both settings, then shoot raw and compare the shots. The only danger is to fall in love with raw and never wanna shoot jpg again.

 

Andre

<p>The anti-aliasing filter, mounted in front of the sensor, causes some blurring. As a result, some sharpening is necessary, and intentionally blurring the image in software makes no sense. So I'd expect that -2 is either no sharpening or possibly very light sharpening. 0 is definitely sharpened, as I think you'll find if you try the previous poster's suggestion (as long as you're using a RAW converter which lets you turn off sharpening entirely).</p>

I've done just that. Using Canon's raw conversion software to turn the sharpening off completely, I was surprised to find that even "-2" causes considerable sharpening. In fact, the difference between "Off" and "-2" is much more that the difference between any of the other increments (eg "-2" to "-1", "-1" to "0", etc.) which is often only just noticeable.