Kaib795 Loc: Maryland, USA

Okay, before you toss the rig try this: set the camera on a tripod, find a subject (like a bowl of sea shells) and using either a camera timer or a hand held release, focus the camera using spot focus on a shell in the center of the bowl and take the shot. Now do it again with Live View. Usually cameras will focus better using Live View and if you have some focus breathing in the lens you'll notice that the Live View is much sharper. The intent is to eliminate the human factor and test your rig. I've used some older Nikon D5000's and they definitely focused better in Live View but certainly using a tripod will help you create much sharper pictures. If neither shots are in focus, you need to adjust the camera to focus with that lens. Modern cameras can do this but my old D5000 couldn't. Also some folks just need a faster shutter speed to get better shots. Looking over your pictures I notice you are sometimes targeting a subject with objects nearer to the camera and if you don't use spot focus you'll catch these objects and the camera naturally focuses on them instead of your subject. Your camera may be just fine so do the test and see.

Kaib795 Loc: Maryland, USA

I did find a test I made with that old Nikon D5000 (12 mpx camera) and had fun in the process. Mind you, it's a shot using a cheap kit lens that came with the camera, 18-55mm, but by using the tripod and a release it was easy to tweak out everything the camera had to offer. The lens was fine but better in Live View. It also helps to know the sweet spot for your lens, most are around f4 to f5.6, and take your portrait shots at that range. This was taken at f11, 1.3 seconds at ISO 200.

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