Leica C-Lux 2 / Sharpness

[alpiarts]

Hi folks,
I've got a new Leica C-Lux 2, but it's not possible to make sharp photographs with it.
I tried normal modus, ISO modus, SCN modus, makro modus. I have read the instructions through and through - in the meantime I almost know it by heart. I tried and tried (day light, indoors, candle light, landscapes, portraits, zoom and so on).
Please may somebody help / explain me ? Thank you very much !
I'm sick of testing and comparing again and again. With no progress.
Sorry for my bad english, I'm an Austrian...

[stuny]

Please show us some examples so we can try to diagnose the problems.

[ho_co]

Alpiarts--
Welcome to the forum!

As Stuart said, we need more information.

Do you make your own prints or have them made commercially? At what size are you judging that they aren't sharp?

To check what the camera is capable of, you should use the lowest ISO speed with the camera on a tripod and fired by self-timer to avoid any possibility of camera vibration.

Perhaps you've got a defective camera. Maybe you're expecting too much from its small sensor. Or you could be causing unsharp pictures inadvertently.

[wparsonsgisnet]

I just bought one of these for the bride.

The technique that we are both using successfully is to hold the camera with both hands, press the shutter half way until the green focus indicator comes on, and then slowly press the shutter the rest of the way.

If you are not getting a green indicator of good focus, you may have a defective cameera.

Regards,

[earleygallery]

Hi,

The Clux is pretty straightforward and it would be difficult to get poor results IMO. I'm guessing that this is either user error or a faulty camera.

Would suggest turning off the digital zoom (if you haven't already) and try the different focus modes. You need to depress the shutter halfway so that it focusses/reads exposure, then press fully to shoot.

As suggested please post a photo or two here so that we can see what the problem looks like.

[alpiarts]

Originally Posted by alpiarts

Hi folks,
I've got a new Leica C-Lux 2, but it's not possible to make sharp photographs with it.
I tried normal modus, ISO modus, SCN modus, makro modus. I have read the instructions through and through - in the meantime I almost know it by heart. I tried and tried (day light, indoors, candle light, landscapes, portraits, zoom and so on).
Please may somebody help / explain me ? Thank you very much !
I'm sick of testing and comparing again and again. With no progress.
Sorry for my bad english, I'm an Austrian...

Thank you for answering. Each file is over 3 mb, so I cannot place or send them here.
Of course I could reckon them down in photoshop, but then it would not be the original solution. Further infos: in the meantime I make evry pic with self trigger (2 sec.).
ISO: w.balance as it's necessary, limit 400, aspect ratio 4:3, pict size 7M, quality high.
I rarely make "wackelig, blur" pics. I do not tremble when shooting. I am grafic designer, illustrator and painter and create flash movies. But I spent very much time by taking photographs longer time ago. But with a "Spiegelreflex Kamera" (do not know the word in english). With own darkroom, developing the pics. Many kilos. Thousands of pics, but not for commercial / professional reasons. Anyway - sorry that it's not possible to load up here my original Leica pics. But thank you for feedback. Perhaps you got a tipp how to. The sharpness is still missing until now. A pitty. I'm beginning to find myself a fool...

[alpiarts]

Dear people,
OF COURSE I press the shutter half way until the green focus indicator comes on, and then slowly press the shutter the rest of the way. Maybe there's actually something wrong with the camera.

[alpiarts]

Dear Bill,
OF COURSE I press the shutter half way until the green focus indicator comes on, and then slowly press the shutter the rest of the way. Maybe there's actually something wrong with the camera.

[wparsonsgisnet]

I would take the camera back to the store so they can see that it doesn't work right.

Your background certainly indicates that you know how to take pix. Beat up the store.

From just a few days use I would say that this is a terrific little camera.

[ho_co]

alpiarts--
My D-Lux 2 was initially defective, but it took me over a year to realize that the image stabilization wasn't working. You're doing right to question it immediately.

A couple pointers useful for people coming from SLRs (Single-Lens-Reflex cameras = Spiegelreflex Kameras):
1) The sensor is extremely small, so the inherent sharpness may simply not be as great as you would like.
2) The camera is harder to hold because it requires being held out in front of the body. (I do have tremors, and usually make three of each shot to try to be sure I've got a good copy.)
3) Unless absolutely necessary, I avoid using any ISO above 200 because (on the D-Lux 2), ISO 400 shows a lot of what we used to call 'graininess' (= Korn) in film days. (Today it's called 'chroma noise.' ) I just set the camera to ISO AUTO to avoid having to mess with it, but I'm not sure whether the C-Lux 2 offers AUTO ISO.

It does sound as if you know your way around cameras. Your camera may be defective, since you shouldn't be having this much trouble with it. It may be that your photo dealer will be your best assistant at this point.


As for uploading, it's the same for all of us. Just takes a few seconds:
In Photoshop, go to Image >> Image size... >>
and reduce the pixel dimension of the longer side to, say, 900, then click "OK."

That will downsize the image to a size usable on the forum. SAVE THIS VERSION UNDER A DIFFERENT NAME, so that you don't accidentally replace the original.

Good luck! Sorry we couldn't find a quick solution for you.

[earleygallery]

If you resize and post here we should still be able to see what extent of a problem there is, but if you are doing everything correctly then it sounds like a fault with the camera, maybe the lens just isn't focussing?

That said I do find that I need to add a touch of unsharp filter in PS to my Clux (PanaLeica) images.

But I don't think you could say that this isn't sharp......

[alpiarts]

Hi there, here a typical pic with no sharpness anywhere.
Focus was onto the white ventillator in the middle.
Please : this is a test photo (!)

[earleygallery]

I can see its not pin sharp, but what ISO did you use? as its an indoor shot the shutter speed is going to be fairly slow given the lens max aperture etc.

I use mine at ISO100 90% of the time, and as I've said generally add to sharpness in the Photoshop (which makes for better images that perhaps having an oversharpened image straight out of the camera).

[alpiarts]

There is only ISO LIMIT: 400, 800, 1250 available. If you mean that.
I chose 400 (lowest). Perhaps I should load up an outside photo also...
Thank you for reply and interest.
Regards,
Albrecht (alpiarts)

[ho_co]

Albrecht--
Thanks for the clarification; you're doing right--as several of us have said, you do seem to know your way around. I don't know the C-Lux 2; if the minimum ISO limit is 400, you're doing exactly the right thing.

(There's one thing to consider in that regard, though: if the camera is choosing an ISO with a top limit of ISO 400, in low light that will force a lower shutter speed than a higher ISO would. So even though you're getting a better image structure in terms of 'grain,' the lower shutter speed may tend to offset that.)

You say the focus on on the ventilator (or "fan" in US English). But if you're using AF that's just what you were pointing the focus point at; focus is still only approximate. You don't necessarily know what the camera decided to focus on.

Of course, in downsizing the image for forum posting, we lose some of the data that we need to evaluate the problem. But the watch looks fairly sharp to me. Maybe the AF chose a more general, overall focus.

This picture may be a little disappointing, but given that it was shot indoors, I think it may not be outside the expected range.

I'd like to see an outdoor shot, as you said. And since we're checking the camera's performance, in order to eliminate any outside influences, you'd want to use a tripod both indoors and outdoors if you can.

[earleygallery]

I use my camera on 'Normal Mode' that is the symbol of a red camera (in between the Macro mode and the Intelligent ISO ! on the dial). In normal mode I set the ISO to 100 so it always shoots at ISO 100.

If you are using other modes the camera will default to a higher ISO in lower light so the picture above was almost certainly at ISO 400. If I'm right, you should notice a big difference if you try shooting at 100 instead.