ddub

I am fortunate enough to live on the Arkansas River in Colorado, where I take daily nature walks with lots of wildlife to see. A while back on the advice of Steve Perry I went to a prime 300 with the option to add a 1.4 TC. Great combination because of light weight. I have combined that with my D850 and my keeper rate has been great and I have been ecstatic with the combination.

Today I had switched some lenses around and I had the 300 and TC on my D500. I was shooting some of the exact same things I shoot every day with identical settings but when I returned home so many of them were just soft and not near as tack sharp as with my D850. I was very surprised by this.

Just looking for thoughts and advice, I definitely get sharper pictures with the 300 prime with the TC and the D850 than I do with the same lens set up and the D500.

Doc Barry Loc: Huntsville, Alabama USA

Likely you need to tweak the AF fine focus adjustment. For both the lens and the TC.

Keen

Teleconverters effect DOF, which effects image sharpness.

PHRubin Loc: Nashville TN USA

It always helps to post examples, otherwise we just guess.

ddub

Here is with the D850

and here is with the D500

ddub

Hard to do that, it is the keeper rate that is the issue. The majority of the D850 shots are good only a few of the D500. So Hard to show unless you are looking at all of the photos. In other words over 80 percent of the d850 shots are sharp and only 40 percent of the D500 are sharp.

d3200prime

Check if the D500 with that lens setup is front focusing or back focusing.

ddub

Thanks

Strodav Loc: Houston, Tx

Have both a D500 and D850, which I use for wildlife / birding and landscapes. The D850 does show more detail at 1:1 compared to the D500, but at normal viewing distances they are equally sharp with longer lenses (70-200mm f/2.8 with 1.4X teleconverter, 200-500mm f/5.6 with 1.4x teleconverter, Tamron 150-600mm f/5-6.3 G2). Actually the pixel density between the two is similar with the D500 at 20.1 MP and the D850 at 19MP in DX mode. If I had to guess, it's a setting thing. Since the controls between the two are virtually identical, it shouldn't be two bad to check them. Let us know what you find.

Thomas902 Loc: Washington DC

Yep, as others have suggested... Use the Auto Fine Tune feature in the D500 to calibrate the optics...
I use an older version of LensAlign (MkII) to fine tune all my glass to each camera body...
This is critical if shooting wide open...

Please follow the directions for LensAlign religiously otherwise you'll not get the results you need...
The Focus target has to be precisely aligned to the sensor plain... Do the sighting procedure correctly or you are wasting your time/effort... Experience is a brutal teacher... also the D500 is likely no match for the D850, might keep this in mind when evaluating acuity... Full frame glass will most always preform best on FX not on DX... contrary to what Mr. Perry says... This has been my experience albeit others may have differing results... It is sad that Nikon ignores the DX format and refuses to provide pro-grade DX lenses... This is why Sigma and others have stepped up to the plate and provided same... Sigma Art APS-C series lenses are legendary... enough said...

https://www.sigmaphoto.com/lenses/art?sigma_format=7064&sigma_mount=12003

Hope this helps or is at least food for thought...

traderjohn Loc: New York City

I would just use that combination on the D850, that would solve your problem.

gvarner Loc: Central Oregon Coast

The closeup shot is more contrasty so it looks shaper. Otherwise …

billnikon Loc: Pennsylvania/Ohio/Florida/Maui/Oregon/Vermont

I also own the D850 and D500. I too find the D850 makes all of my lenses appear sharper. Then again, your comparing a 40+ megapixel camera with a 20 megapixel camera.
For best results I try to fill the frame with either camera.

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

Which image is which?

The first image looks "soft" to me... But it's much closer and depth of field is very shallow, as if it was done with a very large lens aperture.

The second image appears sharper and looks like a smaller lens aperture was used... DoF is deeper. But it also appears to be "front focused". Look at the sharpness of everything closer to you than the subjects, versus everything behind them. It's as if the "plane of focus" just barely reached the subject, then fell off directly behind them. If your focus point was right on the subjects, then the lens/camera (and TC if it was used) is definitely front-focusing quite dramatically.

Rather than hit or miss testing with fleeting subjects, set up a careful test using a proper, static target, tripod, remote release and/or mirror lockup.... in other words, elimnate everything that might make for a soft shot, so that the only thing you are testing is the AF system's accuracy.

For future reference, if you would "save original" image here, with the EXIF data intact, it would allow us to look at larger versions and to determine for ourselves what camera, lens and settings were used. We could give you much better feedback.

PHRubin Loc: Nashville TN USA

If you check "store original" we can download the photos with the EXIF data associated with each photo. Neither image appears sharp, but that is probably just what has been put on this page rather than the actual photo.