amadjuster Loc: Amarillo, TX

Oops, Wrong thread. Sorry

oldtigger Loc: Roanoke Virginia-USA

Now that i've lived with the 18-55 kit lens for a couple weeks i feel very strongly that it should not be considered for use on a 7100 body. Go directly to a good autofocus zoom from a variety of manufacturers; you will be much happier with your captures.

winterrose Loc: Kyneton, Victoria, Australia

Either there is something wrong with your copy of the 18-55mm lens or you don't know how to use it. Please don't mislead other newbies into thinking what a lot of people think, that a "good" (meaning far more expensive) lens will be the saviour of all their woes, or scare them into spending a lot of money. The Nikon 18-55mm may not be in the league of far more expensive glass but it certainly has the capability of producing very fine images. A good tradesman never blames his tools. That you avoid the mid range of the zoom is surprising as the 18-55mm is yet another zoom that produces its optimum IQ in that very area. Lastly, if your sensor isn't flat then you have a far more significant problem! Rob.

chodrak Loc: Connecticut

The photo looks out of focus. That would explain the lack of focus. It is hard to focus when there is no large object to focus on.

winterrose Loc: Kyneton, Victoria, Australia

"It is hard to focus when there is no large object to focus on."
Not valid.

oldtigger Loc: Roanoke Virginia-USA

i agree with you in a sense chodrak, trying to focus on the edge of a leaf a hundred feet away using the viewfinder is sort of hit or miss and asking auto focus to do its job in all that clutter is kind of foolish. Reducing my 6000x4000 image to 1500x1000 before posting compounded the problem for you as a viewer. (i won't make that mistake again)
However, none of that matters. None of the original shows the contrast or saturation i expected and there is nothing at any distance in the image that looks as though it is in focus. Our time was not wasted; i've learned more from submitting this poor image than i would have from a dozen good ones and in my opinion that is what this forum is all about.

oldtigger Loc: Roanoke Virginia-USA

Finally determined and corrected the problem with the lens. here are three shots of my monitor showing the problem before and after corrective action. I used a cinder block on the camera to prevent movement during the exposure.
The kit lens is capable of capturing adequate images if the slop in the front element is not too great. Compare before you buy if possible as selection of shim thickness is very touchy and will change as the plastic shrinks.

JohninRockville Loc: Rockville, Indiana

I'm not familiar with Nikon - but with my Canon the setting for landscape is generally excellent in this kind of shot. That said, f8 seems a bit wide for getting a larger area in focus. With most lenses the "sweet spot" is around f11, although there's nothing wrong with going even smaller, like f16? You had a tripod so shutter speed isn't a great worry unless it's windy.

oldtigger Loc: Roanoke Virginia-USA

initially johninrockville i thought my lens was failing to yield sharp edges when focused properly. Turns out the reduction process masked the real problem; front lens element barrel wobble. Increasing the barrel diameter so that the zoom ring could act as a restraining guide cleared up the problem and made the lens useable.

Howard5252 Loc: New York / Florida (now)

I too have a D7100 and the 18-300 3.5/5.6 lens. Before looking at your equipment, I would take more pictures of a similar nature. In a picture of this nature I would question EXACTLY where the focus was. It has been my experience that problems I ran into were mine ... not my equipment.

jethro779 Loc: Tucson, AZ

Yes, in quick reply you don't get the emoticons or the tags to adjust the color or italicize or underline.

Lenf Loc: Strasburg,PA

very interesting test Old Tigger, I have a D7000 and various lens and have not had any issues, i believe i will give this test a try when i have some spare time.. Its Q&A replays from your initial question , that makes this group interesting and helpful!

Blurryeyed Loc: NC Mountains.

Actually your picture looks pretty good to me, when you consider that the leaves on the left edge of the pic seem to be very well focused, I am not sure what you are expecting from the camera. DOF will only go so far and you have a pretty tough exposure there as it is a relatively dark subject in the shade... I am not so sure that your lens did not do a really good job with this picture, I don't think that a more expensive lens would have necessarily delivered the results you are looking for.

oldtigger Loc: Roanoke Virginia-USA

Be very careful when following this particular thread lenf. Several different things/problems are touched on.
This was one of the first images i shot with the intention of actually wanting a usable image. i had never used a digital camera for anything but setting up shots for my F4 film cameras. I knew nothing about plastic lenses and was learning on the fly as the thread grew.

Originally i thought the problem was optical quality, others felt it was focus or technic, etc. etc. We bounced around quite a bit.

In the end the problem was simply mechanical. I was blessed with a lens whose manufacturing tolerances left me with a lens which was particularly sensitive to mirror slap. Leaving AF engaged dampened some of the image shift and shimming the barrel cured the floppy barrel. The lens now works as well as any other $200 zoom.

i now have several cheap plastic lenses because people give them to me as body caps when i buy digital bodies. One of my favorites is a 35mm f1.8. Takes great pictures, i would recommend it to anyone wanting a fast, sharp, inexpensive, "normal" DX lens. i often carry it when i don't want to risk my good glass 50mm's or deal with the bulk of a fat zoom.

Its worthless though for shooting focus stacks or focus dependant HDR sets on a tripod because as you rotate the focus ring through a 90 degree arc, the image as seen in unmagnified live-view shifts laterally half the width of a cigarette filter.

There was a time you could buy a nikon lens and know it wold be just as good as the one your competition bought last week. Now days its a good idea to check a lens before you leave the store.

Old Veteran Loc: Georgia

Hi "Old"; I use to make the f stop as small as possible to get more sharpness throughout the photo. If the air was "still", doing this wouldn't be a problem.