My not-sharp 28-135 IS

[mlmoody]

Hi. New poster...
Just bought a 40d 2nd hand, in beautiful condition. What a great camera  . Anyway, I have been comparing images with my now retired coolpix 8800. Its images are sharper. I've experimented with manual focus; tree leaves at a medium distance, and stereo controls at medium to close. the nikon lens is sharper. is my 28-135 "bad", or is the nikon real sharp?
can i get the canon lens serviced? is it expensive?
thanks for your advice.
mike

[piyush]

Point and shoot usually oversharpen the images so that could be one of the reason why it looks sharper then the 40D images. Just shoot raw and process it in DPP. That will give you some idea about how is your lense. Also shoot one or two stop slower then fastest available apearture.

[KeithB]

Also, do not confuse sharpness with Depth of field.  The coolpix, because of the small sensor and short-focal length lens will have a much wider depth of field than the 28-135