[slodave]

I don't know about Canon, but Nikon has different levels of in camera sharpening. If Canon is the same way, it's possible that Sidney's camera has sharpening turned off or at a low level. It's true about soft lenses as well. My kit lens is very sharp compared to some of the more expensive Nikon lenses. So much so, that my dad shelved one of his good lenses and replaced it with another - he had been frustrated with pix from that lens, so he did some tests...

P.S. Digital camera's are not as sharp as film. P&S camera's are usually tweaked by the factory to produce sharp images, as these camera's are designed for the general masses. DSLR's give you the control. Magazine's don't want you to submit a picture that has been sharpened, they want it straight out of the camera. They will manipulate the image as they see fit. I think I have minimal sharpening set on my camera and sharpen (unsharp mask in PS).