pictures look soft

<p>Hi<br>

I am not one who thinks gear must be blamed first, but haven't had one successful photo with mamiya c330F (purchased from internet). Photos always turn out soft, even contrast (for some reason) with the most contrasty pictures is not very good (not sure how much a lens could play in that). You could refer to my mamyia trial gallery to see what I am talking about. comments/suggestions very welcome.</p>

<p>Lens is 80 F2.8 Sekor</p><div></div>

<p>note that this is scanned from film using epson v500.</p>

<p>JD, It doesn't look soft on my monitor. The light at the eye (assuming that's where you focused), looks very sharp. If you mean the entire image, in general, looks soft, it's because you've used the lens a bit wide open. You'll need to stop down more, which may mean you need more light as well. Another thing is that MF cameras (and LF too) tend to emphasize shallower depth of field. So you need to close down the aperture a bit more. Many lenses also have optimal apertures between f/5.6 to f/11 (f/8 is usually pretty save). Using a lens wide open will bring out bad lens characteristics. Find out what the optimum aperture is for your lens. There's nothing wrong with a C330.</p>

<p>Looks to me like you shot wide open, very narrow depth of field, and up close too.<br>

Try stopping down some, and a tripod if you did not use one. Lens may be a little soft, hard to tell, but you certainly have very little depth of field.....</p>

<p>many thanks guys. you are both correct it is around f2.8 (lowest dop) I guess or maybe slightly higher. I will try increasing it next time.<br>

I have been trying to get some comments on this picture in general... what did you think about it ?</p>

<p>JD, I like the grain and the tone of the image. The background is a little busy, and the area to the right, behind the girl, so you might crop it a little, but I like it.</p>

<p>You're also testing the limits of the Epson here, the full size image doesn't look that good at 100% zoom, which seems to be in part due to the scanner running out of resolution.</p>

<p>Mamiya 330 lenses are not of the highest quality in the first place (around 55 LPM according to an old 1968 modern Photography test I have), at least compared to Rollei or Hasselblad ones (around 80 LPM), and using it wide open doesn't help. I think using it the way you are you've got about as much resolution as you can expect to get. If you want it a lot sharper you'll have to stop it down to at least f5.6-f8.</p>

<p>There's nothing wrong with the image at all. Far from being soft it's actually very sharp - at least at the point of focus (look at shirt buttons). The depth of field of a 2.8 lens on 6x6 format is very shallow - only a few millimeters at that subject to camera distance. The softness you describe is expected gradation of depth of field before and behind the point of focus. It also seems to be a very nice lens - bokeh is very gradual and pleasing.</p>

<p>If you want pin sharp front to back you'll need to use a tripod and shoot at f16 or lower.</p>

<p>Pretty girl! I hate to be the contrarian here, and it has been quite some time since I've shot any of my Mamyia TLR lenses wide open, but it does look a little soft to me, even for a flatbed scan. Good luck.</p>

<p>As the others have said, it's just very narrow dof at f2.8 - in other words, welcome to medium format! One of the skills you'll soon develop is in using this characteristic, when appropriate, for your advantage.</p>

 

<p>Thanks very much for your responses. Really appreciated. I now attached 1 picture taken with a small aperture smaller than f/8 but can't remember exact. in many ways you are right, it doesn't look much soft in here. I don't know I guess I have to test my camera more. I think like most MF they perform very well under a small set of conditions or so... any of you take street photography with a MF ?</p><div></div>

<p>JD, if you're interested in seeing some street photography with medium format you should check out the work of Hong-Kong photographer and director Fan Ho. He worked extensively in the 60's with a TLR - a Rolleiflex, I believe - and produced an amazing body of work. There is incredible detail and light in his images that really demonstrates the power of the format.</p>

<p>Some small web images on his publisher's <a href="http://www.modernbook.com/fanho/images.htm">website</a> . His books are far superior - truly excellent, in fact.</p>

<p>It appears to me that the sharpest point in your portrait is the buttonhole in the shirt just to the left of her out of focus hands. The thread pattern there looks sharper than eyebrows or eyelashes. You might have a slightly different plane of focus than you intended. <br>

I have two copies of the 80/2.8 for the Mamiya TLR (one regular black 'blue dot' I guess, one 'S') and find both of them to be good sharp lenses.</p>

 

<p>That's a nice shot of a lovely model. You should be looking for the emotion in the shot, not the technical aspect. Many of the greatest shots were taken with lenses far inferior to the excellent Mamiya optics you have. Soft focus lenses and filters exist for good reason. Sometimes sharpness is irrelevant.</p>

<p>I think what has happened here is that the blouse / shirt has a pattern that is in focus where it folds out forwards maybe in the same plane as the face. So one part of it (near the button already referred to) is in focus, and that strong pattern attracts the eye because it is a geometric pattern that is in focus. You could easily put that out of focus digitally and have the print you wanted, I imagine.</p>

<p>Also, contrast can be controlled during film processing, if lack of contrast is what you are worried about.</p>

<p>Having photographed Chinese faces, I find that the softness of their features, the fineness of their lashes and eyebrows can make focusing rather challenging!</p>

<p>At least get the eyes in focus, and don't worry about the rest. Medium and large format lenses can give extremely shallow depth of field.</p>

<p>When working close-in to the subject, a shallow depth of field with a TLR like yours can be a problem where the camera is tilted relative to the plane of the subject. The viewing lens may give a sharp focus on, for example, the eyes, but the taking lens may be a few millimetres closer to or further from the subject, and out of focus can occur. The use of paramender is often necessary for close-work.</p>

<p>All the Mamiya C series were great cameras and lenses that were famous for their output in the hands of wedding and portrait photographers. This is irrespective of lines per millimetre in test work.</p>