Has anyone got a cure for Nikon Softness, I noticed Canon pics are sharper

I DO always have to saturate the colors more on my Nikon and in the camera I have it set on Vivid setting too which the manual says is the highest color setting. As far as lenses go, I have 4 and have used the kit VR lens too, have noticed the same with all of them, it is especially worse in low light, no matter whetrher the ISO is set for auto, 3200, 1200, 800 or 400. I have varied the metering the autofocus mode AF-S, AF-C etc and also taken them on manual ( which seems to be better than using autofocus but in low light or fast and rapid shooting situations I can't see well enough to get a perfect focus. I have tried normal and FINE picture mode. and used this on program, scene, and auto mode. Still no saving grace. My point is, I picked up he canon on auto, never having used it before and it took a great shot. Nikon requires a thick manual that I have worn out and is a pain to navigate through all the menus to set something for each shoot. Many times I revert to my FujiS1800 which is not a DSLR but most of its pics are just as good as the Nikon and the colors are even better, I have less editing to do too. But as you know a DSLR does more. Its is frustrating.

Yes there are a lot of Variables and that is why I keep trying to change everything until it works

He was using he automatic setting and his kit lens, mine was on auto for most of this shoot too. we had to grab pics fast.

Wow thanks for that link, I am sire I will find a LOT of information that I need there.
When I am in a hurry yes I can miss shallow DOF shots, I did notice that My macros are somewhat better but still can have some of the same problems there too ( THAT I DO attribute to shallow DOF error because I can then find a point in the photo that was in focus. In these others, I see no point where it is in real focus and my subjects eye's are never sharp and that is the main thing I try to look for, I even tried zooming in, focusing on the eyes holding the focus button and then zooming out. Still nothing. I have notice thet flash shots and my manual focused shots are better than the others but still slighly blurred, ( when I said around the edges, I mean of the subject and not the photo, just to clarify) I will go through your link you gave me now and see if I can find anything to help and I SOOO appreciate your input. Thanks you Stealthy! If I can remedy this I will be ecstatic!
I will try going back to default settings and see if I can find anything to reset there,. The menuing system on this particular model has been a technical nightmare and I see that thankfully Nikon did away with it on the 5100 and the 7000 so they must have listened to consumers. I guess the thing I like best about the canon as well is the ease of use and the pictures it produces on the low end cameras even on auto. I will try finding the settings for the JPEG in the manual or online and changing them If it works I will post that it is fixed and maybe it can help someone in the future, Thanks for the link again, It will be bookmarked for any future reference. I LOVE this place!

P.S. Stealthy Ninja, I LOVE the cartoon!!!!!!

Ok, good info. I don't know the Nikon settings that well, but "Vivid" may be part of the problem. Try dialing that setting back to "Portrait" or "Standard". For post processing purposes, 'tis better to undershoot contrast a little than overshoot, and this is critical for JPG images.

Dunno how new your friend's Canon is. But the very latest models have the Intellegent type Auto (in addition to standard Auto) which might have detected the face and automatically put the Canon in Portrait settings.

In any event, especially for JPG, stop shooting in Vivid, I'm sure it's causing more problems than it's fixing. BTW, Canons do not even have a Vivid mode. On a Canon the Landscape setting can give more saturation, but not the right saturation for skin. So a JPG Canon shooter would be more likely to set Portrait or Standard for people.

It also may be that the Nikon overcooked the flash when shooting Auto. Find the setting for cutting back on the flash, and the mode that supports that setting.

Kelly

I did just dial down the flash settings because it was a little overdone, Then I got on here again and saw your suggestion to do the same. I will try other modes besides vivid and see if it helps any. I just turned it to manual focus. and focused in medium light. to the clearest focus that I could find on a still object. took the pic and zoomed in..... still not crisp. Haven't changed the vivid yet, still experimenting with all these combinations. will post of I EVER find a solution.
Still going with the camera for now.

The canon pic while better lighting still looks soft to me. Would really like to see the exif on them tho. Turn the vivid off for people. Never a good look. Neutral is the best for getting the right skin tones. Keep trying

tkguess wrote: I did just dial down the flash settings because it was a little overdone, Then I got on here again and saw your suggestion to do the same. I will try other modes besides vivid and see if it helps any. I just turned it to manual focus. and focused in medium light. to the clearest focus that I could find on a still object. took the pic and zoomed in..... still not crisp. Haven't changed the vivid yet, still experimenting with all these combinations. will post of I EVER find a solution.
Still going with the camera for now.

When manual focusing a Nikon DSLR, I always use the green rangefinder dot to obtain a precise focus....it is better that guessing by just looking. On my D70 I think the Green Dot was on the lower left and when the green dot is solidly lit, you are in perfect focus.

My dot just blinks, it won't stay on. I can go back and forth but will not stay list solidly.
I tried some indoor pics on some stationary items playing with the picture controls and so far that has made a huge difference, I need to try it tomorrow with a person with several settings and write them down and see it it helps. I no9ticed that the sharpness cant be too high or too low to get a sharp pic but the pic I took tonight with flash looked more like the canon pic I referred to.
I will try several settings outside tomorrow and inside without flash on a person. If it works then I am thrilled, admit my stupidity at this 4 level deep menu that I never knew existed and will owe a large heap of gratitude to you all! THANKS for ALL of your input here, You saved me from losing money on this camera.
Canon just made their cameras so easy to use over this one. I noticed that they deserted this menu system on the 5100 and 7000 thank God. I hope this works tomorrow, I have an upcoming shoot and it would be great to be able to exhibit some pics with pride.

butterflygirl921 wrote: This is why i will only buy canon products i personally dont like what nikon has to offer

tkguess wrote: My dot just blinks, it won't stay on. I can go back and forth but will not stay list solidly.
I tried some indoor pics on some stationary items playing with the picture controls and so far that has made a huge difference, I need to try it tomorrow with a person with several settings and write them down and see it it helps. I no9ticed that the sharpness cant be too high or too low to get a sharp pic but the pic I took tonight with flash looked more like the canon pic I referred to.
I will try several settings outside tomorrow and inside without flash on a person. If it works then I am thrilled, admit my stupidity at this 4 level deep menu that I never knew existed and will owe a large heap of gratitude to you all! THANKS for ALL of your input here, You saved me from losing money on this camera.
Canon just made their cameras so easy to use over this one. I noticed that they deserted this menu system on the 5100 and 7000 thank God. I hope this works tomorrow, I have an upcoming shoot and it would be great to be able to exhibit some pics with pride.

Manual focusing takes a little patience and a tripod doesn't hurt either. Green dot will blink when you are close to focus and it will stay solid green when perfect focus is obtained, every time. I do a lot of this type of focusing and it really works better on a tripod.

By the way if you put the camera on a tripod and focus on a subject you SHOULD see the green dot turn solid, if it is not ... and you have to switch it into manual focus and adjust the focus at all to turn the dot to a solid green then you need to have the lens calibrated. Calibration is more critical with the newer lenses that have the focus motors inside them instead of the camera body.

You are manually focusing? Also Im guessing you are on the Continuous Focusing Servo, this could be a part of the problem. I dont know about your model but if you can set your rear button as the Focus and then the shutter release as a release only. You use the rear button to focus and the shutter button as the release. I did that on my D80 with my D300 it already has the rear focus which is all I use. You leave the servo in AFC but to do single focus you focus and let your thumb off the focus button then release the shutter. If you need to continuously focus just hold the rear down. Works everytime.
Also on the lenses you mentioned they dont start getting sharp till f/6 and above to about f/12. I personally shoot in f/8 a lot it gives the best results.

I found the hidden settings menu for the sharpness contrast etc for each setting and it helped quite a lot, however it still wasn't as clear as the Canon. I kept looking around on topics and finally found a place called Nikon hacker, I ventured in there and found nothing to help but through there I found a link nikonimglib.com/dcdata/ it contained a lens distortion update for the D90 but said it was also for the D5000, Since the Nikon site said that there was no firmware updates for my camera, I was fairly scared to try it but I followed the instructions on the screen. It said that it also dealt with distance issues with various lenses. I did the update, and tried the camera again shooting a few different things and Voila! I have a sharp clear photo, it's wonderful and it looks every bit as good as the Canon to me. It was called Nikon distortion control data, If you hear of someone else having a problem with their 5000 such as mine please save them a lot of bad shoots and problems and give them this link! IT'S FIXED! I have never gotten sharp pictures on this camera till now. Thank you for all of your input, I tried your fixes and learned a few more tweaks and things than I knew before. I appreciate your imput!

not sure if you figured this out or not ... but if you haven't already, take some shots using a tripod and possibly a shutter release to see how the pictures come out.