Can DSLR quality decrease?

rodypolis

rodypolis

New member
I got my Canon 550d a year ago and I've been loving it, but lately it's like the image quality doesn't look as good as it did when I first got it. I'm still using the same lenses, but it's like the image is getting less sharp and 'beautiful.' I've cleaned the lenses, but I just don't feel like it is the same. I want to know if this is all in my head, or if anyone has had this problem before. Can the quality of a DSLR decrease over time?
 
If you've abused the camera in any way that jeopardizes the image sensor... sure, the quality can suffer. But it may just be that you're used to the camera and the amazement of the pictures has worn off. Have you tried playing some of your first shots side-by-side with some of your recent shots? Do that, and see if you notice a difference. (You may also notice that your shooting style has changed over the year.)

I've had my T2i for 2 years, and if anything I've noticed the quality increase... as I learned how to get the most out of this camera through lots of shooting.
 
Yeh i'd guess uv'e gotten used to the camera and ur lenses. Maybe if you slapped a Cooke lens on it you would see the difference :)
 
The 550D has a dust removal system, but that doesn't do anything for stuff that might stick like pollen, oil or chemical vapours etc.

You might want to try cleaning the sensor with a wet solution.

Sometimes, we also get lazy or bad habits, and camera shake becomes a problem.
 
Are you carefull about changing lenses? Do you always point camera mount away from the wind when switching? And do you always face it down at the ground (because there is less dust floating upwards than there is falling downwards)? Do you put a body cap on if your camera is lens-less for anything more than 1 second?

And do you protect the rear elemnt of the lens in the same way?

If not, then it's possible that you have a dirty sensor.
 
When the neighbor's cat knocked my D90 and tripod over, it did have some subtle effects. The 28-70 2.8 lens was about 1/8" shorter and the focus and zoom barrels wouldn't turn... and the camera was unable to focus properly, on auto or manually. Other than that, it was all OK.
 
An idea just came to my head that maybe it's the Cinestyle that is making me think the camera shoots less pretty image. Since the cinestyle makes it flat, maybe I'm just associating that with less quality. I'll see if I can dig up some old files and make sure that this is the case. Thanks for all the replies!
 
That could have a very direct bearing on it. The flat styles tend to have much reduced contrast and contrast is one thing that can contribute to a sharper look. I'm one of the ones who uses a "user defined" picture style based on NEUTRAL. Where many others take Contrast and Saturation all the way down, I only pull those down two "notches" from midpoint.

This gives me a look that gets away from the over "vivid" look of the default STANDARD but still has enough "life" and "snap" to suit my taste. And it also gives a pretty good match to footage shot with my HF100's set to Cine mode with brightness, contrast, and sharpness "tweaked" a bit.

Hope this helps.
 
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