I shot with this lens for several years and loved it. It was the first sharp non-Canon lens I'd found.

You might have gotten a "soft" copy of the lens. Or maybe it needs to be calibrated to your camera? Have you checked for front- or back-focusing? Are you able to make autofocus micro-adjustments with your camera? I have had to do that on my cameras with most lenses, and it makes a huge difference. I use the Spyder Lens Calibration system.

Another important thing with this lens is to keep the shutter speed high. Shooting hand-held, I never shot with it at less than 1/1000 second. (My normal setting with it was 1/1000 sec, f/7.1.)

I hope something in this is helpful.

Thanks, GrandmaG! I'll definitely think about it. It's an external drive that I'm backing up, too.

Hi. What is it you like better about Backblaze? I've been pretty happy with Carbonite, but I'd be willing to switch if there's a good enough reason.

Thanks!

Which backup provider were you using?

I haven't had that problem with Carbonite. I often shoot two to five hundred photos a week in RAW, at 30 to 50GB per file, and they usually upload within an hour or two. The initial backup, when I first started out, was a couple of terabytes and did take a couple of weeks, but after that it's gone quickly.

I still use an external 8TB local drive as well, but I have had those fail, so I've been very glad of the redundancy.

Did I say I don't have other backup strategies as well? I do, but that wasn't the point. The OP was asking for recommendations for cloud backup services.

Because cloud backup is dynamic and always up-to-date.

How often do you retrieve your backup drives from the storage shed, add the new files, and then return them to the shed? Do you do it every time you create a new file on your computer? If not, then you risk losing those new files if there ever is a fire or some other disaster before you get around to it.

Also, if you live (as I do) in an area that's prone to wildfires and floods, there's a good chance that if your house burns, your shed will be taken out, too. With cloud storage, your files really are off-site.

I've used Carbonite for several years and like it. It backs up anything you tell it to, but if you're backing up from an external hard drive you do need to spend a little more money and get the "Plus" plan.

Their customer service/tech support has been very good. I've mostly used their online chat when I've had a problem.

Thank you for your reply, and for the links to your noise reduction and sharpening topics. Good stuff! And, from them, it sounds like I'm already doing it pretty much the same way as you in LR, which is reassuring.

I'll probably play around with DeNoise a little more, but so far I'm leaning toward sticking with LR.

Thank you for a good, informative post with great examples!

Reading this prompted me to download a trial version of Topaz DeNoise. In the few photos I've compared it on so far, it does seem to do a better job than Lightroom at noise reduction and sharpening. However, in some images, it also changed the color significantly - enough that I've yet to be able to recover them by adjusting the White Balance and Tint.

The subject in question was a yellow tulip. DeNoise turned it orange.

Have you experienced this with DeNoise? Since it doesn't overtly seem to do anything to color or White Balance, I wonder why that happened?

Our third pampered pet: Sir Merlin.

The first day I took him outside into the back yard without a leash, he jumped up on this table and took this pose. "Is this my good side?" He's a funny, sweet dude.

Miniature long-haired dachshund.

I wish I had better pictures of her! She's gorgeous, but very camera-shy. Whenever she sees me holding a camera she either turns away or she runs up to me and ruins the shot. Ah, well.

She's an absolute sweetheart. I don't think she's ever had a mean thought in her life.

Our Lady Rose - 1 year and 5 months old.

When she's good, she's very good,
And when she's bad -- ay, ay, ay!!!

(Download)

Gorgeous!! I'm most drawn to that first one. It's mesmerizing.

Beautiful!

Exactly what I do, too.

I never keep photos on the memory card, or on my computer's internal drive. I put them on an external hard drive, which I can quickly shift to another computer if mine dies (which I've had happen). I back up to a second external drive using Norton and Genie, and to a cloud with Carbonite.