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Hi all,

I took these shots while away last weekend. A friend has a Nikon D400 and was using a very good something to 500mm lens. His shots of the eagle were stunning from a good 30m away. I have a Canon 40D and a Canon 75-300 IS USM and took my shots from only 8m away max. Now, these aren't the raw shots processed (which I always do) they are the jpgs straight off the camera, but as good as raw processing is it can't make a soft shot sharp. My camera settings were f5.6, 1/400sec, iso200. I shot on manual as the sky was blowing out the image pretty badly. As you can see the shots are very soft with lots of fringing and pretty well unusable.
Shot

Head crop

Shot

Head crop


Am I doing something fundamentally wrong, or is the lens (or camera) just not up to it?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Ian

#2 is a stellar background for the subject!!!

It could be back focussed? You can confirm this by putting it on a tripod and stationary subject.

Other option is to try 1/800 for potential camera shake and f8 for CA (maynot improve).

assuming its the very cheap 75-300, its a pretty crappy lens. using it wide open @ 5.6 at the longest focal length is also demanding frustration. there may be a bit of camera shake and or back focussing aswell. the lens is bad, but these samples look particularly bad so there's something else going on there imo.

I agree, I think there is somethign else going on here, please post the full res jpegs, a couple of things come to mind, front/back focusing, in teh first image (which is very hard to tell on the low res version) look at the branch, it look a bit sharper closer to the viewer, ie further down from the foot?

The 1/focal length shutter is not a rule, its a guide, i have found in some cases (on teh 300mm) that you need to push up to 1/750 or 1/1000 even to remove any camera shake.

Suren is on the mark, just do a controlled environment focus test to find what teh story is - check this thread out about fine focus adjustment.

http://www.dslrusers.com/viewtopic.php?f=44&t=41355&start=0&st=0&sk=t&sd=a

Looks like you have missed the focus...so do check your lens for a focus issue as well as your technique.

As for the lens itself....it is never going to give you a Nat Geo cover, but if used to its strengths will still produce a pleasing result.

Can I ask where your friend got a D400 from? What is the spec?

Ah yes, the D400 is in fact an amalgamation of a D300 and a 40D!! He has a D300, but the difference in shot quality was stark.
I've changed the images to the originals straight out of the camera.


and ...


These two shots were part of a good dozen or so that I took and all are pretty much the same, ie very soft and badly fringed. I'm very careful with my focussing always getting the eyes first and then re-framing for the shot. The 75-300 was just over $1000 (before the Aussie dollar skyrocketed) when I got it (about 3 years ago), it's the IS USM model, I have been looking long and hard at the 70-200L series 2.8 non IS plus a 2x converter for rally long stuff, but I want to make very sure that the issue is absolutely my lens and not technique or camera. It was just a shock to see the difference between the two cameras, especially when the Nikon was shooting fully wound out at 500mm and 30m away and I was a mere 8m at 300mm.

300mm at F5.6 @ about 8 meters......this would give you little DOF and no room for focus errors. Remember the 3 elements that determine DOF:
1: Focal length of lens. Longer the focal length less the DOF
2: F/stop. Large lens openings reduce DOF
3: Camera to subject distance. This one is the "gotcha" that often gets the uninitiated.
In your example all 3 elements are present plus 1 extra...75mm to 300mm is an extreme range for a zoom lens and the lens will not be optically excellent.
All of the above leave you no room for error but it appears that the camera has focussed on the body of the bird, redering the feathers reasonably sharp. This placed the birds head into a zone where the DOF was not sufficiant to render a sharp image. I would always recommend shooting at ISO 400 or even 800 when hand holding that lens and using F8 or F11. This would probably have given you a keeper.

Before you blame the lens....

Here is one I prepared earlier....

Click for bigger...


75-300 NON IS 300mm 1/640 5.6 (I struggled to find one at 5.6 - I think I knew subconsciously that one was asking for trouble wide open)
Gerry will have vivid memories of this lens focusing hard way after the action was over....

According to your EXIF
EF70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM

It's NOT the 75-300 which is possibly worse.

surenj wrote:According to your EXIF
EF70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM

It's NOT the 75-300 which is possibly worse.

Yep the 75-300 is a nasty lens...but has shot some winners...the 70-300 IS USM is a pretty decent mid range lens...lots more winners with that one, but it has always been...and I am afraid always will be...a bit pricey for what it offers...it is still just under 900 AUD at some stores.

Thanks so much for all the advice. Before I race out credit card in hand I will try iso 400-800 and f8-11. It's always easy to blame the tools when a little knowledge goes a long way! The discussion on focus testing is really interesting, and that will certainly tell me if I have a real issue with the lens or ont, though I don't think the 40d will allow for adjustment like the Nikon will.

I will do a bunch of test shots and post the results.

Thanks
again
Ian

Ian, I think the comment about ISO speed was more about enabling you to push your shutter speed higher. Ie: shooing at iso800 will most certainly not yield a better image than at iso200.

The first one 'straight out of camera' is focused on the branch in front of the bird - front focusing could be a problem.