Weddingguy Loc: British Columbia - Canada

This is suffering from camera movement blur . . . absolutely no doubt.

TonyBot

I'd go with Jackm1943's response - one of the first - that the lens was fogged internally. (a problem with any zoom that suddenly gets extended to its max and cold(er), damp, air rushes in.) It seems that the most "focused" area IS the subject, looking at the zones that are definitely not focused (i.e. blurry) in the foreground and background. Movement of the camera/lens is also a definite contribution, but not the primary reason, for the softness issue. Too bad, 'cuz otherwise a nice pic.

Sugar'sDaddy Loc: Hannibal, MO

Is there something wrong with that?

Sugar'sDaddy Loc: Hannibal, MO

Thanks Tony. I never thought of internal fog. Makes sense, because later on the problem went away, after the owl was gone.

Blurryeyed Loc: NC Mountains.

Thanks for the advice, I have seen it down here with the naked eye, never through the camera because most of my shots are of flying birds or people or whatever, but I think that it would be an interesting thing to try to purposefully capture in still images, a creative element... I will pay closer attention come summer.

joer Loc: Colorado/Illinois

I like that assessment.

ORpilot Loc: Prineville, Or

A general rule of thum is to use a shutter speed equal to or better yet twice the focal length. Example: 200mm needs 1/200 but 1/400 would be better. The longer the lens, the more vibration is magnified. Think about using binoculars. I had a similar problem of not sharp images. I was shooting the MilkyWay over a lake at near freezing temperatures. At first, I couldn't get the stars sharp because of heat given off by the lens. Then an hour later they were even less sharp. I discovered that lens was now getting fogged from two things. First my breath, then the dew fell and I just gave up trying to clean condensation off the lens. As Forest Gump said, "shit happends" Happy Shooting

jeep_daddy Loc: Prescott AZ

Practice practice practice.

Get to know how your camera functions.

sirlensalot Loc: Arizona

Faster shutter speed and a tripod would have helped.

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

It's difficult for me to really analyze the "owl" image, franky because of the monitor I am presently using on and there is lots of good information in this thread. Thing is, to get to the actual cause of any unacceptably soft image, is to view certain segments or sections of it under greater degrees of enlargement or higher magnification.

Here's what to look for depending on what you suspect.

Camera movement or vibration: If the shutter speed is not sufficient to negate blur do to camera movement, shahe, mirri slap or external sources of jiggle or vibration, as others have pointed out, there will be a secondary image in the fine details. This will be evident in many sections or segments of the image.

Subject movement: If the shutter speed is insufficient to eliminate subject blur due to movement, the stationary elements in the shot may still appear as sharpter. I some instances, only one part of the subject may be blurred such as a bird sitting still in place but flapping its wings or a person sitting still but but their hands. Secondary images of find detail may not be uniform or prevalent throughout the entire image.

Faulty focusing technique or auto-focus malfunction: In most cases, you will detect SOME front or back focus, that is, even if the main subject is out of focus, unless there is extremely shallow depth of field or the entire image is significantly or badly out of focus, there should be a sharper area in front or in back of the main subject. If there is a malfunction or a defect in the AF system, it is likely that this problem will be consistent form one shot to another.

Unwanted diffusion: When there is unwanted diffusion due to atmospheric conditions, condensation, haze, or other interferences,in many cases, theses conditions causes a blending or smearing the highlights in an image into the shadows.This symptom becomes especially apparent in smaller or specular highlights like catch-lights in the eyes of a subject, point light sources in the picture, reflections from highly reflective objects like the "chrome" trim on an automobile or reflections in water. Under close examination, theses highlights may see to have a halo or aura which extends into the darker areas surrounding them. Images suffering form unwanted diffusion may also show a degradation of general contrast.

Back in the film days, it was somewhat easier to closely examine negatives and transparencies in the enlarger or on a light box with an 8X loupe- this would reveal munch of the needed information. Digital files can be "magnified" and analyzed on a computer screen as long as the image does not pixelate before we get to see what we are looking for and the screen resolution is sufficient and properly set.

Of course,knowing the details of the shoot such as the use of a long lens without adequate support at an insufficient shutter speed, also factors into the "diagnosis".

I hope this helps.

Steve Perry Loc: Sylvania, Ohio

Except that's not how fogging / condensation works.

The lens was warm, the air cool. That doesn't cause fogging - cold lenses again warm air do. Ask anyone who has ever gone outside on a cold winter day with glasses. The optics are fine going from warm to cold, but go form cold to warm and they fog.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Combination of possible effects...

600mm lens on APS-C/DX camera. 900mm effective focal length
Slow shutter speed for that focal length (1/125 used; should be 1/1000 or nearest speed to 1/(focal length x crop factor) for this scene. Result was horizontal camera shake
Zoom lens used wide open at maximum magnification (only the very most expensive zooms are sharp under that circumstance)
Relatively cheap lens yields lots of chromatic aberration (note the blue edge on the bird) when used wide open
Image looks like it was cropped/enlarged out of a larger scene. Resolution is a bit low...

Things to do:

Increase shutter speed to 1/(focal length x crop factor) unless you have an image stabilized lens.
Use a tripod.
Stop down two or three stops. Many lenses are NOT sharp wide open (better pro lenses are).
Use a higher ISO to compensate for faster speed and smaller aperture.
Get a better zoom lens.
Use this zoom lens in the first 300mm of its travel from 150mm.
Get closer and fill the frame.
Always record the largest possible file size for scenes you may need to crop.

Dngallagher Loc: Wilmington De.

Exactly, going from a chilly night into the warmer conservatory at Longwood gardens my lens was unusable with fog for quite awhile

Streets Loc: Euless, TX.

Going from warm to cold will affect optics in another way that has nothing to do with moisture. The optics themselves can change shape. Astronomers are very aware of this fact, and will allow cooling off times based on both temperature change(indoor to outdoor) and diameter+thickness of the glass components.

Sugar'sDaddy Loc: Hannibal, MO

This is so true. I learned that on my first trip to a butterfly house on a cold day. It was hot and humid inside, and it took my camera/lens about 30 minutes to acclimate.