Good for you! I apologize, I made some assumptions based on what you were writing in the forum, I thought you were totally new to SLR.... great that you already have this knowledge (and use it) under your belt...
Everything you just told me I already know. I don't ever use automatic settings, only manual. Occasionally I will use Aperture or Shutter Priority. Been shooting like this for quite a while now. I just noticed I wrote the wrong ISO down. I'm pretty sure I was on 200 or 400 at the highest.
Yes, being a non-paying member here, you are limited to one photo per day. Four if you pay the $25 annual fee.
Looking at your exposure information, I seriously doubt that the problems you were concerned about was due to the lens you purchased.
First off, if I remember correctly, you were concerned about focus for this particular shot. What you have here, in my opinion, is not a focus problem but a short depth of field. With short depth of field, your focus area is very limited. Portions of the photo that may only be inches from your focus point will appear blurry.
If that was or is your goal, then so be it. If you wanted everything in the frame to appear crisp and clear, then you need to understand DOF and how to control it. Using a smaller aperture than f2.8 would have given you a greater (longer) DOF.
Secondly, shooting with a high ISO of 800 introduces grain into your photograph, which I think you have here. That will also increase your "out of focus" appearance.
And third, shooting at 1/60 is right at the threshold of whether or not camera movement during exposure might cause motion blur. You certainly don't want to go below that without a tripod.
These are just some thoughts about your camera work on this photo... then there is, of course, the post processing. Finishing the photo using unsharp mask would bring some of the crispness back.
It is a nice shot, not saying it isn't. And for a new camera and SLR user, quite well exposed, actually.
I sense that you are a former point-and-pray photographer who is used to having the camera make all your decisions for you. So the answer now is to learn your camera, learn to operate it manually and understand photographic technique (such as DOF, exposures, etc.).
I think you are barking up the wrong tree in being dissatisfied with your lens.
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{K:2610} 11/8/2008
