LFingar Loc: Claverack, NY

Well, if the lousy weather ever decides to cooperate I'd be happy to. In the meantime, here's one at 400mm and about 800' that I shot with my 5DIV. No microadjustment.

(Download)

Notorious T.O.D. Loc: Harrisburg, North Carolina

[quote=agillot]i have in some way a similar issue [ nikon D300 ].going to the numeral menus , found that the camera was set at 6 mp , so went to full size [ 12 mp , set at jpeg fine , and cancel any kind of compression .will see , that should help . the problem comes up on cropping , the pic fall apart too quickly . raining today , so maybe tomorrow .ton of various birds in winter in san diego . ospreys now are making nests , and blue herons in pine trees next to bay .[/quote]

I assume that you know that the JPEG is a lossy file format and will compress the sensor data I assume when your Nikon outputs it. I'm having the same issue with the file I posted above. The only way it would let me store the file was as a 8 bit JPEG which is much smaller than 14 bit Canon RAW file. Maybe I am missing something about posting on this site as I have only done it a couple of times.

Best,
Todd Ferguson

PGHphoto Loc: Pittsburgh, PA

I agree with cmc65 - I would start by making sure the camera is stable - place it on a tripod and set up to shoot something that is stationary and well lit. Using autofocus, making sure the focus is set to a single point and not continuous (or servo) focus as well. Turn off any on-lens stabilization. Make sure to use the 2 second timer or a remote shutter release and try to shoot as small an aperture as possible. Take the shot. I would then switch to manual focus and try to get as sharp a focus manually as possible on the same spot. (if your camera has a live view function, use it and magnify the lcd display to get the best possible manual focus. Take the shot without changing the camera position or any camera settings. Compare those 2 shots. If neither is clear, I would say the lens is just not capable of a good clean focus - haze on the inner elements or fungus perhaps. If the manual focus is clear, you may need to adjust the autofocus. I suspect this is NOT the issue because the entire photo is out of focus in your example.

I would also try shooting a lens that doesn't have the problem just to be sure the lens is the problem and not the camera body. It could be that the camera has the issue but is just less obvious due to the smaller lens. Good luck

Rongnongno Loc: FL

What surprises me is that you are capable of taking sharp images but not when it comes to shooting birds.

The reason is probably that you raise the camera and shoot at the same time w/o taking the time to stabilize your arm/hand. When you shoot something else like you did (link) you controlled your stability and were not concerned about the thing to fly away*...

Other comments:
- This seems to be under exposed.
- Learn to fill the frame.


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* I just finished reading your answers to some of the suggestions. You confirm your fear to have the bird fly away. This appears to be your main concern. (That was in as an answer to 'come closer to fill the frame').

Haydon

Seems like camera shake to me. Assuming you had image stabilization maybe you need to work on technique. I would have figured, judging by EXIF, you should have obtained a sharp shot with 300 mm at 1/640 second.

jeep_daddy Loc: Prescott AZ

You guessed right. Taking pictures is like shooting a gun. You must hold it still if you are to be accurate.

scottwright Loc: Wichita, KS

I noticed that the camera is set to IA servo AF. I'd recommend that you put it in one shot while you are trouble shooting your focus issue. That will help isolate just what is causing your problems. As others have said, it looks more like camera shake than out of focus. (recommend you search on YouTube for video instructions on using the various focus options on Canon Camera's.) Hope you get the issue resolved.

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

1. The Canon EF 75-300mm III lens is their cheapest telezoom, without fast/accurate USM autofocus, lacking image stabilization, and simply not their sharpest lens, especially at 300mm and especially when used wide open (f5.6, as in this example). Still, it should be better than what's shown.

2. Higher shutter speed can help with hand-holding at long focal lengths, but isn't a 100% guarantee of sharp shots. I agree with other responses that it appears to be overall image blur, such as can be caused by "camera shake". 1/640 is "pretty good" when using 300mm, but there's still some risk of shake blur if moving and shooting fast, "stabbing" at the shutter release, etc. Some sort of camera support, careful technique, and/or a bit faster shutter speed all might have helped a bit.

Everyone is different in their ability to hand-hold a steady shot. Plus most will improve with practice.

Notice that your "sharp" shot examples were shot at 1/1250 and 1/2000 shutter speeds. Also, both are shot at much shorter focal lengths (155mm and 100mm, if memory serves), where the lens likely performs better.

3. Stop the lens down a bit. Most lenses are not at their best wide open. One stop smaller... f8 in this case... might be a lot sharper. Every example you've shown appears to have been shot with the lens at it's max aperture... which seems okay at the shorter focal lengths.

4. The first sample image is a good stop or more under-exposed (the others are also under-exposed, though not as much). This sometimes tends to make images look softer too. It appears you had 0 Exposure Compensation... dialing in + 2/3 or +1 stop would have improved things a lot.

5. In order to get higher exposure, faster shutter speed and use a smaller aperture, ISO 320 may not have been adequate. With the 18MP 60D I wouldn't hesitate to use ISO 800.... maybe even ISO 1000 or higher. For about five years shooting with a pair of 7D, which have essentially the same 18MP sensor as your camera, I often used ISO 1600 and sometimes 3200 or even occasionally 6400 (with extra post-processing noise reduction). I now shooting with 7D Mark II (only slightly higher resolution... 20MP same as 70D), I use much the same high ISOs even more freely, still requiring require some but less post-processing work. You'll have to experiment with your camera's ISOs to see what's acceptable to you for your purposes. Those are just what worked for me and made usable (saleable) images under difficult lighting conditions.

5. If you have a "protection" filter on the lens, you should remove it and try the lens without it. I've seen many "lens issues" that actually were the fault of filters, not the lens.

6. It's difficult to tell from this particular shot, but looks to me as if there may be some front-focusing going on... the zone in front of the subject appears a little sharper to me than the subject and what's behind it. This might be due to focus error or technique on your part... but it also can be that the lens and/or camera are slightly out of calibration. If so, you'd need to have the lens and/or camera professionally calibrated, since the 60D doesn't have Micro Focus Adjustment. MFA can be used to fine tune focus accuracy of lenses on cameras. The "latest and greatest" version (on 7DII, 70D, 80D, 5DIII/IV, etc.) is particularly good because it allows two adjustments with zooms... one at each end of the zoom range. Earlier version of MFA (original 7D, 50D, 5DII) only had a single adjustment per lens, even zooms. So sometimes when adjusting zooms it was necessary to compromise a setting.

7. Finally, yes, as others have said... get closer to your subject. It's only a tiny portion of the image, so there are relatively few "pixels" rendering the subject itself. There's no substitute for "filling the viewfinder" with your subject, regardless what lens, accessories and other skills you're using. This is difficult with birds, especially, because they are relatively small, shy subjects. It can require using some sort of attractant, lots of patience for hours spent sitting in a blind waiting for the subject, more than a little frustration, and even longer lens focal lengths. Birders regularly say there's "no such thing as a 'long enough' lens".

Overall, your other techniques are good... Manual selecting the center AF point and being sure it's right on your subject is the best way to increase your odds of accurate focus.

You probably just need some additional practice and experience... try to be less dependent upon the camera's automation.

Beware using "Sports" mode, as you did in one of your "good" examples. That and the other "Scene Modes" override a lot of your camera settings, not just exposure factors (shutter, aperture and ISO). They also force the AF into possibly undesirable settings.... and they only allow JPEG files to be saved, no RAW files. Not sure if Scene Modes will even allow Exposure Compensation (I absolutely never use any of the Scene modes... they take away my control of the camera).

When it comes to autofocus, I am pretty sure some Scene modes force using AI Focus.... which really isn't a focus mode at all. It's automation... the camera is supposed to detect whether or not the subject is moving and then switch to either One Shot or AI Servo, whichever is appropriate. I experimented with AI Focus in the past and now avoid it like the plague. It causes a slight delay, sometimes chose the wrong mode, and also sometimes didn't change the mode when a subject started or stopped moving.... all in all, it made for a lot more missed focus shots.

You "got away" with using Sports mode in one case, simply because the settings it forces you to use were pretty much ideal for the subject (the condor in flight with a very distant mountain behind it).

I would normally just make those same settings myself. And I use Back Button Focusing, because that allows me to use AI Servo as my default mode, so I can be ready for almost anything whether it's moving or not. Now the only time I switch to One Shot is when I am certain a subject won't be moving and I'm looking for a very high degree of focus accuracy.

Hope this helps.

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

You are referring to Focus Confirmation.

HOWEVER, there is no Focus Confirmation in AI Servo focus mode, which is what's being used for these images and is the appropriate mode for subjects that are moving or might move any moment.

AI Servo is continuous focusing (Nikon calls it AF-C)... doesn't stop and lock the way One Shot does (for stationary subjects).

Focus Confirmation only works in One Shot mode (Nikon calls it AF-S).

You cannot use One Shot with moving subjects.... if you do they will have moved away from the point of focus before the shutter releases and the shot is taken.

Depending upon the Canon camera, Focus Confirmation is signaled in several ways. In 60D the AF point achieving focus should flash red and a little green LED in the corner of the viewfinder will light up. If it's enabled, many cameras can also emit a "beep" to give an audible confirmation that focus has been achieved. Some people are bothered by the "beep" and turn it off. I don't because it alerts me if I have the camera in the wrong focus mode for moving subjects that I'm often shooting... mostly sporting events. (Where I often hear people's cameras beeping wwile photographing moving subjects.... and can pretty much guarantee that most if not all of their shots will miss focus a little or a lot).

jrb1213 Loc: McDonough GEorgia

I also see camera shake. Are you holding the shutter half way down to see the IS engage? Be careful how you engage the shutter, a stab at the button shakes the camera as the photo is being taken. If you already adddressed these issues I am sorry for the repeat. I mention them because that was my problem when i started doing wildlife photography.

LFingar Loc: Claverack, NY

Try shooting in high speed continuous and run off 3 or 4 shots. I bet you will find at least 1 that is a whole lot sharper.

tgreenhaw

F 5.6 on that lens is wide open at 300mm and you will have a fairly shallow depth of field so you should try to get to f 8 or so. That said, everything in the entire frame looks really soft, so you are probably looking at other issues.

That isn't a stabilized lens so unless you have steady hands, 640th at 300mm is pressing your luck. Go to the same place and take some test shots of the grass and a printout of a micro focus test chart with and without a tripod and at different apertures and shutter speeds. Maybe go to live view and zoom in to try some shots with manual focus.

In addition to focus, everything is way underexposed. Look at your histogram - you are only using half of your camera's dynamic range. That could be another symptom of settings or equipment issues.

When you zoom in on the bird, there is a lot of what looks like chromatic aberration with green and red fringing. Has the lens or body been dropped?

Do all of your lenses look soft? With everything tried, you have to start suspecting equipment so determining whether its lens or body looks like your next step.

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

Unfortunately, the 60D doesn't have MFA (and shame on Canon for that... the 50D before it had the earlier version of MFA, while the 70D that came after has the improved second generation MFA).

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

EF 75-300mm III zoom doesn't have IS.

It also uses micro motor focus drive, which is slower than STM and a lot slower than USM focus drive. So if the first example were shot very quickly, there's a chance the lens simply hadn't achieved focus yet.

But I'm still leaning toward camera shake blur, even at 1/640.... probably in combination with a less than stellar lens at it's weakest settings (300mm and wide open).... made worse by underexposing a small subject from too far away so that it's only made up a few pixels..... possibly all made even worse by sticking a "protection filter" on the lens.

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

Good suggestion!

That's a handy technique when you have no choice but to use marginal shutter speed due to limited light conditions.