HELP! -"soft" photos from my 90-300mm lens

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antoh

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Hi All,

I bought a Canon EOS400d with a EF 90-300mm f/4.5-5.6 USM lens for a Safari holiday.

On my return i've noticed that the photos at the 300mm end seem a bit "soft round the edges". see below.

1918475466_a001e3279d.jpg


1917642267_62c5fbc68d.jpg


i think i've set the shutter speed to be fast enough that it's not camera shake (1/400sec).

So what do you think is the problem?

Is it that lens is a cheap one (even so you'd expect better)


ta for any help
 
Look oof to me but are they heavily cropped?
 
Welcome to the forums.

There is no exif in the pictures so I don't know the rest of the settings. You will not get the same image quality from a cheaper lens as you will from a 'L' lens but these 2 do not look too bad to me.

The first one needs sharpening. You have not ticked the box in your profile to allow editing so I'll not post a sharpened version. On the sharpened picture I can see that you have focus on the grass in front of the chimps not on them.

Second one is just out of focus. Again you have nice sharp grass some way in front of the animal.

Do you have just the middle focus point enabled (and manual selection of the others) or are you letting the camera pick what to focus on by having them all enabled?
 
Yes they are cropped.

Exif for the Chimps is:
Camera: Canon EOS 400D Digital
Exposure: 0.003 sec (1/400)
Aperture: f/5.6
Focal Length: 300 mm
ISO Speed: 400

for the Impala
Camera: Canon EOS 400D Digital
Exposure: 0.003 sec (1/400)
Aperture: f/7.1
Focal Length: 300 mm
ISO Speed: 100
 
Thanks RobertP

I've changed my profile to allow sharpening. I would be grateful if you could show me the effect.

You may well be right about the Impala photo. I think I used just the centre AF point but it looks like it got the grass!
 
I can't resist having a little fiddle ......"levels boost" and a touch of "smart sharpen"
There are better people on here than me at it but it should give you an idea

aa.jpg


impa.jpg
 
Cheers Cobra, that looks a lot better.
If only I hadn't already sent them off to get prints!

So basically it looks like a case of a bad workman blaming his tools!

Any hints on getting the autofocus to better focus on my subject? I was only using the centre AF point.
 
I have modified them again ( chimps) slightly as I cocked up as well:D

Single point auto focus "shoot" for the eyes.
Did you buy the camera specifically for your trip and didn,t get much chance to practice perhaps? If you have "come from" a point and shoot then a lot of the "work" is done in camera.
your settings seem pretty much OK though there is a little camera shake ( as already been said) . a tri-pod or mono pod might help
DSLR's do take a bit of getting used to.
I am no expert regularly and "bin" loads.
But thanks to this forum (and other sources) I am getting better.
 
I think using the centre focus point and reframing the shot is the way to go. You could use a smaller aperture to give a wider depth of field, but your shutter speed will decrease and may give you problems if using a longer focal length lens. You could raise the ISO to compensate, but I see you were already using ISO 400 for the chimps.

Just keep experimenting and practicing..I like the shots and the chimps sharpened well.

Regards.
 
ive got that lens with 350, mines fine i never autofocus though so i have no experience of it as its too slow :) try a bit of manual focusing
 
davidbridges said:
ive got that lens with 350, mines fine i never autofocus though so i have no experience of it as its too slow :) try a bit of manual focusing
Click to expand...

Yep good point, it could be the slow nature of the AF and your "targets" moved a fraction? :shrug:
 
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