How can you check image sharpness in the field with a mirrorless camera?
Asked 4/2/2017
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I shoot with a Sony A7 II and often review images on location by zooming in after each shot to check sharpness. On a recent sunset shoot, many exposures were 10–20 seconds in mild wind. Even though the images looked fine on the camera, later on my laptop I found that about half were slightly blurred from camera shake or focus issues.
Is this mainly a mirrorless-camera limitation, or is it a general problem with checking sharpness in the field? What practical expectations or techniques should I use when reviewing images on the camera so I can avoid bringing home soft shots?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
9y ago
2 Answers
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Regardless, what tips could you provide to verify that your photos will look perfect on your screen when you are out shooting?
You can't. There are several reasons why.
- There's no such thing as a perfect photo. Look at it close enough and hard enough and you'll find something wrong with every single one.
- Unrealistic expectations. Zooming in at 100% on your computer monitor is way more critical than the way photos are meant to be viewed. If you're using a 23" HD (1920x1080) monitor, a 24 MP image viewed at 100 % (one image pixel per screen pixel) is going to be the same size as a piece of a 60x40 print! No one looks at a 60x40 inch print from only 18 inches away. If you have a 15.6" screen on your laptop, that same 24 MP image will be magnified the same as a 40x27 inch print.
- When you're viewing at 1000% (as you state in your question) each pixel in the image is getting a 10x10 block of pixels on the screen. Now you've blown that same 24MP image on your 15.6" laptop screen up to 400x267 inches! Of course it will be pixelated!
- The LCD screens on the back of cameras Lie like politicians! Remember, typical DSLRs now have resolutions of around 20+ MP, give or take a few. The LCD screen on the back of most DSLRs is about 1MP, give or take a few. What this means is that blur that is less than about 5 pixels wide (or high) will be combined into a single pixel on the LCD preview screen and will appear to be sharp! Even when you zoom "all of the way in" on your camera's LCD you're often still viewing a resized version of the preview jpeg produced by your camera when you took the photo. Preview images displayed on your camera's LCD screen are also sharpened and usually have a bit (or more) of contrast and saturation added to give them a little "punch". Hey, the camera manufacturers want that preview image to look incredible when you make a sample snapshot under the crappy light at the camera store!
For more, please see:
Why is there a loss of quality from camera to computer screen
Why do my images look different on my camera than when imported to my laptop?
Why do images look sharp on my camera's LCD, but not tack sharp on my laptop?
Why do RAW images look worse than JPEGs in editing programs?
Originally by user15871. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user15871
9y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
This is not just a mirrorless problem. In the field, you usually cannot guarantee that an image will look flawless when inspected extremely closely on a larger screen later.
A key issue is expectation: viewing a high-resolution file at 100% on a computer is far more critical than normal viewing. At that level, you’re effectively examining a very large print from unrealistically close distance, so tiny blur or focus errors become obvious.
Camera screens and EVFs are useful for a quick check, but they have limits: small size, glare, and lower effective review conditions than a laptop or desktop. So use them to catch obvious problems, not to prove “perfect” sharpness.
The practical approach is to judge sharpness based on intended use. Ask whether the image is sharp enough for the print size or screen display you actually need, not whether it survives extreme pixel peeping. If conditions are risky—like 10–20 second exposures in wind—shoot extras and vary technique, because some frames may still be spoiled by movement even if they look acceptable on the camera.
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AI9y ago
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