Landscape/Portrait sharpness

L

Lumpy

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I've noticed something that seems to be happening with my M6 (& Voigtlander Nokton 35mm 1.4) and I'm wondering if anyone of you guys have experienced this, or tell me it's all in my head...!
My portrait shots seem to be a bit sharper than my landscape shots, when I scan and review them. I tend to use hyperfocal focussing and as such, don't tinker too much with the focussing during shots. I could take an image, not adjust anything, turn the camera on it's side, take another and the second one will be inevitably sharper. Is this normal or does the camera need to be adjusted? Is it to do with the lens, perhaps?
 
Do you mean portrait (vertical) orientation or actual portraits? If the latter, then it may be that the lens is accurately focused for portraits; hyperfocal focusing is only an approximation based on your tolerated circle of confusion.
 
mabelsound said:
Maybe you're just holding the camera less steadily in portrait orientation, and getting a bit of motion blur.
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The portrait shots are sharper, I'm pretty sure of it. Perhaps I do hold it steadier in one position over the other, because it seems consistent. I've just looked through a pile of images, and there is definitely a difference. :confused:
 
rogerzilla said:
Do you mean portrait (vertical) orientation or actual portraits? If the latter, then it may be that the lens is accurately focused for portraits; hyperfocal focusing is only an approximation based on your tolerated circle of confusion.
Click to expand...

I mean vertical, and I realise that HF focussing is to an acceptable sharpness, but surely there should not be a difference if I don't adjust either the camera or my position?
I should not have asked initially if it's in my head or not, because I realise that it definitely isn't.
 
If most of the vibration from handholding is in the vertical plane, a slow focal plane shutter will give more distortion in the portrait format, but that's not the same as unsharpness; each bit of film still gets only 1/250 or 1/500. Mabelsound is probably right; put the camera on a tripod to eliminate this possibility.
 
rogerzilla said:
If most of the vibration from handholding is in the vertical plane, a slow focal plane shutter will give more distortion in the portrait format, but that's not the same as unsharpness; each bit of film still gets only 1/250 or 1/500. Mabelsound is probably right; put the camera on a tripod to eliminate this possibility.
Click to expand...

He's probably not getting camera shake at 1/250th and higher though...
 
Use a tripod, and pick something to critically focus on. If it's something to do with the camera or lens, it will likely still be evident. If it goes away, then it's to do with your technique.
 
I think I know what the problem is...
When viewing my images in (any) preview program, the portrait images were showing on screen at 50%, the landscape were showing at 66.67% and therein lies the problem. As we all know, images look sharper on screen when viewed at 25, 50, 75, 100%
That seems to be problem solved. :)
 
The may well be the culprit. Most scanners have different resolutions for horizontal & vertical travel.
Can you flip the negatives? Scan horizontal vertical & vice versa?
Horizontal images are enlarged more. Try 1:1 square crops and see what happens.
 
Is this so with all your lenses? It is possible for your body range-finder
linkage adjustment to be dead on close and a bit out at infinity.
 
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venchka said:
Can you flip the negatives? Scan horizontal vertical & vice versa?
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Yes i can. And after the initial preview I usually rotate the portrait shots so that I can see them properly, then I scan the batch in together. I use a Canoscan 8600F
 
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