This might be a duh question.

[Snapper123]

But if something looks crystal clear, entirely in focus, and "real life" in the viewfinder, doesn't that mean there's something wrong with the way your camera processes the image if the picture then comes out blurry, out of focus, lacking detail, having unrealistic colors, ect ect? Because I've never encountered a lens in my life that doesn't look 'real life' in the viewfinder, yet snap a picture, and things look horrible. I'm not sure why that is.

P.S. There's no reason a picture should turn out unrealistic looking if you shoot at around 125th shutter, the settings as flat as you can get them, the aperture high enough to sharpen the picture (which not surprisingly, aperture doesn't effect the viewfinder's quality in the slightest.). I've entertained that my lenses my have "back focus" issues (?) but with how my photographs and videos usually turn out when you inspect the photo at 1:1, or even if it's severe enough to see the negative effect just with the normal view on the LCD, I at least know that something is wrong and it's not the "quality" of my glass.

 

[Samuel H]

the camera's LCD is, best case, 720x480 or something like that: it's not easy to spot any defects on a small screen and with such low resolution!!

on the colors side, maybe you should check the calibration in your monitor... using my spider2express as a guide, I managed to make my monitors look very close to what I see on the camera's LCD

edit: in any case, yes, backfocus issues are very common... I know I can beat my camera at setting focus on a resolution chart most of the time, using the 10x function

 

[draven4]

What are you using for focus when shooting? Zacuto? Marshall Monitor? That's why I started using both, I found it really does help with focus.

As for the looking different issue, yeah that happens.

WHen you use a tiny LCD things will sometimes look like they are in focus but might be slightly off. I've been fooled like that before with my 85mm 1.8. I thought something was wrong with my lens or camera but after I bought the Zacuto I realized it was just my slight poor judgement with the tiny LCD.

Also keep in mind something might be in focus but if you are shooting super shallow such as 1.8 or 1.8 the actor might slightly move a split second after you have pulled focus and you might not notice with the LCD.