Truly Testing a Camera

[CanonKen]

Does anyone have any advice on how to truly test a camera to see if it is working. To explain, I have owned my Canon Digital Rebel (350D) for almost two years. I have taken literally 20 gig of pictures. But I feel I have to rip off a lot of shots because I am not sure when the 'good one' will show up.

My main lens is a Canon 28-105mm f/3.4-4.5 USM, and I have a Canon f/2.8 70-200mm. Now I know I have good equipment, and a great deal of the problem is user knowledge (which I am trying to gain more of). But, to avoid anymore frustration, it would be nice to have a standard procedure on how to test a camera/lens to ensure it is working. Maybe there are some industry tests that a manufacturer does, or can suggest. Has anyone every come across these, or can they suggest one. I would like to test the camera before I go to my Canon dealer.

When I look at photos from other Rebel users and look how wonderful they are, I sit back and ask....... why doesn't my Rebel like me.

Cheers,:cool:

[inkista]

Err... step 0) Eliminate user error.

I will tell you that in my experience, it's user error more than 90% of the time. And the equipment performing a certain way or not is not going to effect how well you can compose a photo or your sense of color and design. If all you can tell us is that other people have better pictures than yours, there's not much we can do to help you. :)

If you're talking about sharpness, especially with long lenses, the first user error to check is whether your shutter speed is fast enough.

The rule of thumb for avoiding camera-shake blur in a photo is that the shutter speed has to be 1/focal_length or faster. So if you're shooting at the long end of your 70-200, at 200mm, then your shutter speed has to be 1/200s or faster. Assuming you know how to hold your camera (http://digital-photography-school.com/blog/how-to-hold-a-digital-camera/).

The second thing to check is autofocus accurancy. If a picture is blurry, it may be that the camera's autofocus system chose to focus on the wrong thing. Use the Canon software to display which AF point was used for the photo, and chances are good you'll see your camera was working fine--you just didn't tell it which AF point to use. Accuracy goes way up if you only use a single AF point in the array.

The third thing to check is did you post-process with the correct amount of sharpening? A lot of the photos you see on the web are by accomplished digital photographers who know how to enhance/balance/tweak their work in post-processing and get the most out of their lenses by simply knowing how to sharpen and saturate photos in software.

If you still think it really is the equipment that's causing problems, go back to Step 0. Eliminate the user error by putting the camera and lens on a tripod, shoot it at something, like a dollar bill taped to the wall (high detail, flat on), and then go pixel peeping. Make sure that you've eliminated camera shake, and AF inaccuracy first.

[wulf]

Inkista's tips are excellent. If you can identify the problem with your pictures, you can probably overcome it.

However, don't forget that those who seem to produce a lot of amazing shots are probably throwing away a good proportion of those they take. If, as you review your shots, you find a lot that are okay but not amazing, then the most expedient solution may be just to throw more away! ;)

Wulf