focus and sharpness: Need some help! A week upstate NY trying to get a decent picture of the back yard bird feeder, and still no luck (it should not be luck). I am using a canon Eos...

chris100849

Need some help! A week upstate NY trying to get a decent picture of the back yard bird feeder, and still no luck (it should not be luck). I am using a canon Eos T2i, and have used multiple lens trying for a good photo. Subject is about 30 feet away. Lens is a vintage Canon Reflex 500 (which has an adapter on it that I am told makes it closer to a 800mm)
I am not pleased in so many ways, but mostly with the sharpness) any suggestions/ideas would be appreciated. The third picture shows a subject a good bit further away, so I wonder if it a closeness issue

Thanks ahead of time for the help. The bird pictures that I told with my canon 75-300 were of similar quality, auto and manual focus were tried. On the 500, it is only manual focus

Fotoartist Loc: Detroit, Michigan

The surfer's amazing. Can you crop in on him and see good detail? If so, post it.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

It's important that you store the original when posting images and looking for help. I'd be interested in seeing a result from the 75-300 in autofocus on the T2i. It's your best bet, probably more so than a manual focus lens. See the highlighted check box when attaching an example.

DWU2 Loc: Phoenix Arizona area

I'm afraid the lens and extender are both part of the problem. A reflex lens is never going to be very sharp, and the extender compounds the problem. How do shots with the 75-300 look without the extender?

DaveO Loc: Northeast CT

The surfer is quite a capture!

chris100849

Thanks for the responses so far. I am attaching additional pictures. The backyard feeder using 75-300 on AF. Another heron picture that is better using the 500. And two additional surf pictures using the 500.

Look forward to seeing more ideas. I did think that possibly I could get better images from the 500, if I got rid of the extender mount adapter, and went with a permanent mount (mentioned in Canon Vintage lens post recently, edmika.com). Would it be that big a difference? Perhaps better to save and invest in a better lens? It's a mystery to me.

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

chris100849 wrote:

Need some help! A week upstate NY trying to get a... (show quote)

danoliver Loc: South Central Kentucky

What helped me: I was shooting about 1/500 shutter with 18-300 Nikon lens on my D500 and got lots soft pics. then I read somewhere about trying 1/4000 shutter speed and auto iso. For first time I got sharp pics and had lots more keepers. Of course I paid for it with high ISO and noise. But it made my D500 lots more fun and I realized I have a problem with camera shake.

joer Loc: Colorado/Illinois

chris100849 wrote:

Thanks for the responses so far. I am attaching ... (show quote)

Among other things, its the light. Reflex lenses require bright high contrast light in order to perform to reasonably acceptable levels. That's why the surfer image looks better than the birds, although they are never that good, period. The extender just makes it worse.

I am not familiar with Canon lenses but 75-300 lenses are typically not good performers at the long end. Bird photography is difficult and quires specialize gear if your image standards are high.

An inexpensive powerful flash with a flash extender such as the Better Beamer would improve the image quality significantly. Look for a guide number of about 200 for best results. A manual flash and BB would cost approximately $100.

mgoldfield

Your problem could be camera movement, shake and or vibration.

When the situation permits, I use my canera's 2 second delay whenever I shoot regardless of focal length. Even the most skilled shutter press will cause some camera movement; the 2 second delay allows any movement or vibration to subside.

Alternately, using a wireless shutter release is even better. I own a Powerextra Battery/grip which has an infrared remote. The combination of the stability provided by the grip and the remote can make a big difference.

Photography expert Scott Kelby advises the need for a tripod and a shutter release to achieve what he calls "tack sharp" photographs.

See page 1 "The Digital Photography Book" Part 1 - 2nd edition(2013).

DaveC1 Loc: South East US

Extenders will always soften up the photo. Camera shake is also going to be a problem. Try using a tripod with the bird photos, and raise the mirror before firing the shutter since you know where the birds will be.

On the surfing high shutter speed, VR, and high ISO are a must along with continuous shooting, which will get you a ton of images, but only keep the good ones.

dsmeltz Loc: Philadelphia

chris100849 wrote:

Need some help! A week upstate NY trying to get a... (show quote)

The t2i has live view if I recall correctly. The Canon Reflex 500 is an f8 lens? So AF is not going to be doable. Were you using live view or manually focusing through the view finder?

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

The vast majority of mirror lenses are soft. And with f/8, dSLR autofocus just does not work.

Unless an extender is made by the OEM to MATCH a specific lens, you’re just asking for poor performance.

The 70-300 is just okay out to around 200mm, when closed down a couple of f/stops.

For APS-C sensor cameras, maximum shutter time is 1/(focal length x 1.5). So at 300mm, use 1/500 or shorter (1/1000 is better). ISO will be high in some cases.

gvarner Loc: Central Oregon Coast

danoliver wrote:

What helped me: I was shooting about 1/500 shutter with 18-300 Nikon lens on my D500 and got lots soft pics. then I read somewhere about trying 1/4000 shutter speed and auto iso. For first time I got sharp pics and had lots more keepers. Of course I paid for it with high ISO and noise. But it made my D500 lots more fun and I realized I have a problem with camera shake.

You discovered what I was thinking - camera shake. The rule of thumb is shutter at 1/focal length as a minimum but in most cases this should be doubled. Or use a tripod or at least a monopod when you're over 300mm.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

gvarner wrote:

You discovered what I was thinking - camera shake. The rule of thumb is shutter at 1/focal length as a minimum but in most cases this should be doubled. Or use a tripod or at least a monopod when you're over 300mm.

You have to multiply the focal length times the crop factor with that "rule of thumb." In other words:

1/(focal length) for 35mm film/full frame dSLR or mirrorless

1/(focal length x 1.5) for APS-C/DX

1/(focal length x 2) for Micro 4/3

And yes, I like to go another stop shorter exposure if at all possible.

There does appear to be minor camera shake in the OP's images. But I'd venture to say there's a combination of things happening there... There appears to be some chromatic aberration visible, along with vertical shake and some diffraction. What aperture is used? If f/11 or smaller, diffraction is definitely a contributing factor. Diffraction limiting of sharpness begins at f/6.3 or so on most APS-C Canons.

I looked at the metadata of the white bird (below). There is no aperture value listed, and no lens data recorded. Apparently, the lens isn't talking to the camera. The camera is set for "panning" stabilization, which is usually not a good idea unless you are panning the camera at a relatively slow shutter speed. That setting does nothing for vertical camera shake.

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