Focus on distant scenery
 

Hi there. My wife and I have now had a HD7 for about 4 weeks. We did loads of research, read both the good and bad reviews and decided that this is the camera that we wanted to purchase, mainly due to the manual features and size of the camera. It feels so nice to hold something substantial, rather than the tiny light things they seem to be putting into the market these days.

The main thing we have found is the difference between closeup and wide shots. In closeup mode the images are stunning and we have no complaints at all, however when we try to do a wide shot of distant scenery etc, the focus just doesnt seem to be a sharp. I dont know whether its my eyes going in old age or not, but this at the moment seems to be our main concern.

Reason being is that we are heading out for a trip around Western Australia and the western desert regions, including some time in the Northers Territory, where we do plan to take many many hous of footage, hopwfully to put some kind of documentary together about out trip.

Any assistance or ideas about this would be most appreciated.

Example - http://www.vimeo.com/1112128
Another - http://www.vimeo.com/1186127
Closeups (These seem ok) - http://www.vimeo.com/1169881

Regards

Richard

I use a selection of filters. One is for bright outdoors work which is a UV cut filter from B+W and the other is a circular polarisation filter from Hama.

In order to cut the cost of the filters I used a more common size and a stepping up ring and a deep hood. This meant having to get rid of the fancy JVC hood.

Sometimes I find that the backlight mode makes the sensor more senstive to colours and I am also wary of daylight balance. It pays to look at other modes on the camera when facing the lens into strong yellow or blue at various times of the day.

Try a haze filter.

Landscapes are always a problem due to out atmosphere. There is water vapor, dust, soot ... in the air which takes out the sharpness.
The best time to shoot landscapes is after a refreshing summer rain. The rains cleans up the air.

The problem will be is that we will be in the Australian ouback, which the terrain will be mainly desert, so we definitely wont be expecting any rain showers to clear things up. It may just be something that we will have to live with I think. Perhaps the only way to get super crisp images of distant scenary would be to use a professional camera. I dont know, just speculating here. I guess my main point is whether we are doing something wrong or whether it is just a limitation of the camera and the CCD size etc.

Cheers

Richard

You don't do anything wrong.

However, you might check if your editing software has an "unsharp mask" (not sharpening!) built in and play around with this filter a little bit.

Claus

Currently using Vegas 8.0 Pro, which does I believe have an unsharp make filter. Might have a play with that and see how it works out.

Thanks

Richard