Is this sharp?

[adthevenet]

I have these lens Canon EF 75-300mm f/4-5.6 III USM. And they are considered to be really unsharp, however I still believe I can work my way through this. I took this picture and I would like to know what you think of its' sharpness.

What can I do to increase the sharpness without having to spend huge amounts of $$$$.

Thanks for any help!

300mm, TV 30"/ f/20,/ ISO 100/ Tripod + remote

[ironbelle]

I'm looking at this image on my computer at work(hehe) and it doesn't look sharp to me. I will look at it again when I am at home since I have a nice 19" flat panel display on my computer and I will post again (5pm PST).

[C.Steele]

Doesn't look sharp to me at all. Sorry :(

[Wazza]

Would be better to see a 100% crop version, such as of the ornament, to see the true sharpness of it.

For a sharper result, I bet that lens would be sharpest between F8-F11, like most normal lens, and would also give you a faster shutter speed, for less shake..

[DegasGoneDigital]

If I'm reading this correctly, you had the shutter @ tv 30. Is that 1/30 of a sec?? If it is then thats your problem, 300mm @ 1/30 shutter won't be sharp. Try getting the shutter speed to match or exceed your zoom number. ( 300mm= 1/300 or higher shutter speed) Set it to AV mode, pick a zoom distance, open the lens up as far as possible ( set the F stop number as low as it will go for that zoom ) set ISO to 800. If your shutter speed is greater than your zoom number it should be sharp. If this don't work, then zoom in until you can get the shutter speed to exceed to zoom distance or use a flash.

Sam

[Hellashot]

300mm, TV 30"/ f/20,/ ISO 100/ Tripod + remote

Ugh. 30 seconds at f20? You probably had camera shake if you didn't use mirror lockup to start your exposure adding softness. The shot is very underexposed, maybe 2 stops, and going to f20 very likely made your shot less sharp. Try f8 next time as sharpness descreases faster on cropped dSLRs comapred to FF when you go towards smaller appetures.

Try iso400, f8, and whatever the camera says on centerweighted metering and use mirror lockup too and repost your results.

Try shots at 180mm then at 300mm with getting the same shot in each frame. You should be able to do this as your minimum focus distance with change as you use different focal lengths. This should show you how the lens get softer beyond 200mm