My EX3 is not as sharp as it should be.

Gary, I would suggest you also provide the following information so the experienced guys can help you.

1/ What settings are you shooting with?
2/ What NLE are you using?
 
GaryOldman said:
I'm shooting 1080 30p.

Editing in Final Cut Pro, but the blurriness appears before I ever even open FCP. XDCAM Transfer sends my footage to the drive I edit off of, and just watching it in Quicktime, without opening FCP, it's already got the soft look.

It definitely doesn't look like this in the viewfinder when I'm shooting.

So confused!
Click to expand...

Try playing a clip from the memory card in the EX to a big flat screen by HDMI. This will show how sharp your shots are on the memory card.

If the video still seems soft this way, look for things you can change in your shooting settings or camera handling.
 
Just a thought:

What was your F stop setting on that footage? I found that much past f5.6, softening due to diffraction through the iris occurs. I was discussing this with a fellow shooter that I am training. We shot some locomotive footage at an antique rail show. We observed how a soft image became sharp when the ND filter was engaged, thus allowing the iris aperture to open to a reasonable number.
 
Some days ago I was shooting a documentary and I found my ex1 focus to be soft at wide angle shot, yesterday I made a backfocus adjustment, and the problem was solve. Also I dicover the EX1 produce a soft difussion when shooting at F16 without nd filters. I gess the ex3 with fujinon stok lens may have similar behaviour.
 
erikcubano said:
Also I dicover the EX1 produce a soft difussion when shooting at F16 without nd filters. I gess the ex3 with fujinon stok lens may have similar behaviour.
Click to expand...
Yep, that's "diffraction". Stay away from f/16. Not just on an EX1, but on any 1/2" or 1/3" (or smaller) HD camera.
 
Barry
Glad that you are checking EX posts....very comforting in someone of your stature. I have an EX1r and see some references above to checking back focus. I can't find anything in either the Sony manual or Doug Jensen's guide about adjusting back focus in the EX1? Fixed lens....back focus? How
SR
 
Also it seems the back focus regularly starts to drift with use (as was noted above)...so one might get into the Maintenance Menu and do a FB Adjust every once in awhile. How to do that has been discussed on previous threads here, and there is a step-by-step video on YouTube. It's fairly easy. First time I did it was a "Wow"...I hadn't noticed the drift, and then the lens was razor sharp again.
 
Every lens has a "sweet F stop" depending on how well the manufacture designed the lens, it many very. It is always advised to stay away from the lowest and highest settings such as F2.8 and F16. On the EX-1, I never go over F11 if I can help it. Basspig seems to be right about the F5.6 iris setting, but it would be interesting to see if someone here would do a lab Rez Test on this lens to actually see what F stops are the sharpest and which one is the absolute best! Also, I mention in one of my articles to be very careful not to bump the barrel not even slightly or the CMOS surface focal point will move causing sharpness to be dulled. The back focus adjustment can sometime clear that up. -- Grommet say's hello!
 
I believe Doug Jensen says in his Vortex Media DVD that it's sharpest somewhere around F2. I could be mistaken, but he has thrown it out there if you want to search him and ask. He may be in DVXuser. I know he frequents DVinfo.
 
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