A problem has started lately but only with images hence posting on this section. If moving between images the new image loads sharp but immediately turns very slightly out of focus. Anyone experienced this problem and come up with a solution ? Please don't tell me this old iMac from 2009 is past its' sell buy.
You mean pictures in this site? Pictures on your image folder on iPhoto/ aperture? All images? Is the image on your desktop clear? If it's on aperture or iPhoto see on View submenu if you have "quick preview" enabled. If that's the case that could be your problem.
iPhoto, images are sharp for a split second after loading before they move slightly out of focus, most visible on text. Running version 9.6 and no quick view option. Desktop is fine.
OK, but your desktop and internet images are sharp correct? if so it has nothing to do with internal hardware or video card. there is another option. choose a photo and view it at 100% see if then it renders well. sometimes iPhoto smooothes views when not viewing at original size or 100%. I believe then you can choose as preferences to view photo at 100 and then zoom in or out accordingly. Lastly, not sure if iPhoto offers Proofing options. Aperture does. Proofing is normally set to a specific printer so yo can see what the print will look like, if you have Proofing checked but not setup then it may be corrupting your view (the file should not be corrupted, don't worry) Can you check something for me? Choose an image that appears blurry and export it as original to the desktop, then click on it and use the space bar or "preview" option so you can view it full size outside of iPhoto. Let me know if the file is then viewable without defects. If so it is further proof that the issue is iPhoto configuration. I'm researching a bit on my end see if I can find other workarounds.
By the way, the "smoothing" to help work on iPhoto faster as it won't load whole images if too large so you can browse faster. but once selected for editing or viewing it should revert to normal.
Great, that means you can also view it if you open it on a separate editing window. Not sure how to fix the issue permanently but it seems some Mac's do have this tendency.