Jim Bob

You're being sarcastic, right?

ELNikkor

The "tack sharp" squirrel fur should answer your question about the lens sharpness. I have a D5100, 55-200 zoom, and I never shoot with more than one focusing point. I could never figure out how multiple focusing points was supposed to be a virtue, except when using follow focus during sports photography.

Jerry G Loc: Waterford, Michigan and Florida

I have the same camera kit and find it very acceptable. It appears that you have cropped these quite a bit. If the subject can fit within the focus point you are too far away. There does appear to be subject motion in some of the pictures. The kit 70-300 does not have vr so your shutter speed should be at least 1/300 to reduce the effect camera movement. When the weather is nicer try too get closer, be patient and I am sure you will get pictures you are happy with.

E.L.. Shapiro Loc: Ottawa, Ontario Canada

Questions like this arise frequently and oftentimes it is difficult to diagnose the exact cause of what your dissatisfaction with the image quality of any image or group of images. I recently answered a similar question and since my reply was rather lengthy, I will repost it here. It outlines a test procedure to see how you lens performs at various apertures and assists you, through the process of elimination, where the cause of you dissatisfaction may lie. In the previous case, the OP was concerned about his lens performance at other than it's ideal (sweet spot) aperture, however this kind of test can help you separate "pilot error" from equipment malfunction, shortcoming, or defect.

General professional advice about TROUBLESHOOTING and some down-to-earth lens and technique talk.

If you have had disappointing results from any camera or lens and are attempting to track down the cause some testing if the gear is in order. You basic goal in such tests is to try to separate equipment failure, defect or deficiency from "operator error" or environmental and/or other issues. Images made in the field during a routine or casual shoot may involve variables that others have alluded such as a lack of sharpness may be due to any number of external causes such as atmospheric haze, vibration othere that from internal mirror slap etc., camera shake due to wind resistance, subject movement and even more possibilities.

In any test or experiment you need a control model. So...mount you camera with the lens in question on a solid tripod, and shoot a detailed stationary subject at a typical distance, such as your bird, wildlife, etc. examples. Make exposure at a progression of f/stops from wide open to the smallest aperture, compensating for exposure with your shutter speeds. Examine the results at significant degrees of enlargement for sharpness, indication of diffraction, color fringing, color quality etc.

Of course, it is good to determine your lenses best performance at a given aperture and understand it's limitations and strengths. You may discover, and it is very likely, that your lens does not become totally useless as you stop down from it's specified or observed ideal aperture and will not be plagued with completely unacceptable levels of diffraction even at its smallest f/stop.

If you are a dedicated or professional ornithological, wildlife or nature photographer shooting for the likes of Audubon Society's publications or National Geographic, and can afford a $10,000+. super telephoto lens or outrageously expensive zooms and a top-of-the-line full frame body that would be great but most of us, even professionals in other fields, need to make due with the equipment that we already own or can afford for the occasional odd assignment of for our own casual purposes. I have seen some outstanding bird, wildlife, and landscape photographs made with comparatively modest equipment where the photographer used solid technique within the capabilities of his or her gear. If you are not required to make very large prints or screen images, many lens aberrations or deficits may not become too problematic at moderate deresse of enlargement and norma viewing distances. Some can be easily minimized in post processing.

If of course, after careful testing, you fined that you present lens is seriously under performing under controlled conditions, it may be time for an upgrade. If there is a defect such as chronic front or back focus, it may be prudent to have it checked and adjusted by an authorized repair shop.

If the results of your test show reasonable performance, then it is wise to review your technique as to steadying the camera, making certain that the auto-focus is set for the correct parameters and that you are operating within your autofocus system's speed of operation. If you find, under high degrees of image enlargement there is a kind double image, the lack of sharpness may be due to camera shake- even common errors like "poking" the shutter release rather that "squeezing" it can jar the camera enough to cause shake. blur and focus issues. Telephoto shots at wide apertures are great for selective focus and good "bokeh" but do require critical focus on the main subject and being able to anticipate the action and movements of a moving or fleeting subject. Adequate shutter speed to accommodate both the possibility of camera movement and/or subject movement is important as well. You may need to boost your ISO setting to arrive at a practica aperture and shutter speed for the existing lighting conditions, and the subject at hand. Again, don't worry too much about extremely critical theory, a reasonable increase in the ISO setting will not bring about completely unacceptable levels of noise. You can also determine this in your tests.

My camera repair guy tells me that about 25% of the complaints he gets are caused by folks are not using their gear correctly and within its limitations. Good thing he's an honest person and just sends them home with a few tips.

I hope this helps.

swartfort Loc: Evansville, IN

Thank you so much to all of your for your replies so far. As per usual, any time one asks for input you get a wide variety of opinion. In this case from "go auto and forget the rest" to "totally inept and start from scratch". I consider both of those outliers as they really offer no constructive advice as to how to use my camera to the best of my and its abilities.

I do want to thank those who put some thought into it and put some ideas forward that I could use to try to improve. Some thoughts:

Yes, the first one was shot at a "lower" 1/80 shutter speed as part of my afternoon of combinations. The others significantly higher shutter speed, but none upward of 1/1000. I will try that for sure!! I think that is GREAT advice....

As for using a tripod. No I did not use one as the critters move faster than I can move on my tripod, but I will try to figure that out too.

Got a few comments on single focus point vs. area focus point. I used single on all but the first one. When I look thru the eye piece of my d3400 and see the 11 focal points scattered in the viewfinder, I used the center point as my single point (as it is the most advanced), and used BBF. My concern with this focus system, is that the focus point actually covers the whole subject (in this case the bird) so I am unable to focus on "just the eye" or the front shoulder etc. SO, those of you with advanced Nikon Focus systems with either 39 or 51 focus points, DO THEY HELP in this type of shooting?

Thanks for all your input.

roxiemarty Loc: Florida

Go into your camera menu and change focus point to only one focus point. That way you can decide where the focus is going to be. You may have to look in your cameras Manuel or Google how on your camera. Too many focus points don't know exactly where you want it to be, such as the eye.

steve_stoneblossom Loc: Rhode Island, USA

Just out of curiosity, when you use single point focus, are you coupling it with single focus, continuous focus, or auto focus?

If you're in single/single mode with these moving targets, that could be your problem. Single/auto should compensate for change created by the moving focus point, but single/continuous might work best.

As for the tripod suggestion, with the proper head, you can mount your camera on the tripod and still swivel left/right or up/down- or both- without moving the entire tripod.

home brewer Loc: Fort Wayne, Indiana

I find most of the time the fewer focus points the better. The d500 will focus on the closest object. I found this article helpful
https://photographylife.com/dslr-autofocus-modes-explained

imagemeister Loc: mid east Florida

.....most especially, getting closer, more stability in pointing the camera, less cropping, higher shutter speed.

..

Jim Bob

Yep. You nailed it as usual.

Steve DeMott Loc: St. Louis, Missouri (Oakville area)

Steve Perry has two excellent books, Secrets To The Nikon Autofocus System and Secrets to Stunning Wildlife Photography at https://backcountrygallery.com/. They are about $15.00 each. Great books.
I was in the same boat with a D3300 and 70-300 kit lens then moved to a D7100. All 4 of these camera have the same sensor. 24mp, cmos with expeed 4 processor. I found that the 70-300 lens has a soft focus, it's also a lens under $200.00.
As other have said use a tripod and higher shutter speed. I like to use shutter priority and single point focus with BBF and remote trigger setting on a tripod. ISO 400/800 depending on the light.
The only thing I would suggest about GAS Attack. Keep the camera and invest in good glass. I moved to a D7100 for features that the D3300 didn't have or had to use the menu to access selection.
That's my 1/2 penny worth of information.

hope this helps
--Steve

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

swartfort - I downloaded the images and dumped the EXIF. I don't shoot Nikon any longer, so I don't have a tool that easily shows me the AF points in each image. I have a few questions / comments:

For the first squirrel, this one looks good, even at 1/80. I would have had a faster shutter, but at 1/80 this still looks good. The EXIF shows AF-C (Continuous-servo AF). You mentioned in additional comments about single-point and BBF. I wonder two things about this first image.

a) Are you holding / pressing your assigned BBF button through the image capture? That is, are you having the camera / lens in continuous focus or are you acquiring focus, but releasing the BFF? Unless you're specifically doing a focus and recompose, you should by pressing your BBF button at all times when shooting. Otherwise, you're essentially in single-shot AF. I don't see camera movement in any of the images. The other images don't show too slow a shutter, even the final hopping squirrel so I'm wondering about your AF usage.

b) Did you have a single point set to the nearest eye?

For the final three images, I see AF-C and appropriate shutterspeeds for these animals. So, I come back to your selection of AF point / points and use of BBF. One thing more advanced bodies provide is an option to use a "cluster" of AF points. Nikon calls this "9-point dynamic". It's a lot easier to keep a group of nine on a moving subject than a single point.

If you suspect equipment, try placing something static out on the lawn in the same location as these animals. Return to your shooting position and see how sharp an image you can capture through the window using yesterday's parameters and any applicable changes. Say you put a baseball in the position of the first squirrel. If the test subject (e.g., baseball) has the same quality of detail, try shooting without the window. If still not improved, I'd question first the lens as I've used a Nikon 70-300 and it can produce sharper images than the first squirrel.

chaman

My God....this is what is wrong with this site.

Nice job from you in doing absolutely nothing to really help this guy. Is honesty a new concept for you?

Steve DeMott Loc: St. Louis, Missouri (Oakville area)

Jim Bob

Exactly. It happens over and over again. I want to know (and I generally do) when my images suck and what I can do to improve them. Too often people sing undeserved praises rather than offer constructive criticism. Creates a false confidence in the quality of ones images and is a recipe for heartbreak down the road.