is this the best my 75-300IS can be?

[robvonk]

This is a 100% unaltered crop of a picture i've just made with my EOS 10D. It was shot using a tripod (Manfrotto Junior) with the following settings: F8, 1/125 sec, IS off.

it's a bit dissapointing to me :( is this really the best my 75-300 IS can do?

http://www.robvonk.com/files/koolmees.jpg

This is the complete picture that doesn't look so bad:

http://www.robvonk.com/files/koolmees_overall.jpg

Was the shuttertime not enough? Or should i've used a larger F-number?

Any ideas?

[Scottes]

Yep, probably. Focus looks good, DoF looks good. The truly bothersome thing is the purple fringing on the branch.

Now don't feel too bad - 100% crops on my 100-400 don't always look so great. And you're looking at a minimum $1100 upgrade if you want a (noticably) better photo at 300mm.

And you are right - the full photo doesn't look too bad at all.

[JZaun]

The photo doesn't look bad in full frame, but that is a lot of crop. What was the distance? I have found that 1/125 is not fast enough at times to stop the movement of these little guys so a crop looks fuzzy. Even at 1/250 I have some that show movement..I just sold my 100-300 for a 100-400(L) IS and as Scottes said its a $1100 upgrade. The upgrade wasn't for better quality,, it was for IS and another 100mm :D Try shooting faster and you can eleminate a lot of the fine movements these little guys make that even your eye won't see :D the below was with the 100-300 4.5-5.6

http://gallery.bytephoto.com/data/3099/51CRW_1022_RT161.JPG

JZaun

[evilenglishman]

Ignore me, i completely mis-read this post :oops:

[robvonk]

A faster shutterspeed (1/350) at F6.7 seems to help. Moving closer to the subject too :D

http://www.robvonk.com/files/koolmees_2.jpg

This looks a lot better. Lets hope the model is willing to pose some more.. :)

[sjprg]

These are from a 75-100 NON IS
http://www.pbase.com/image/22587237
http://www.pbase.com/image/21594328

[JZaun]

That did help!!!,, now a little better light and it would be perfect :D :D

JZaun

[midnightvue]

Newbie here and have had similar results with a 75-300mm USM IS lens I picked up a couple weeks back.

Here's what I got:
http://www.xtremesaturn.com/patrick/butterfly3.jpg

http://www.xtremesaturn.com/patrick/butterfly-crop.jpg
100% Crop

[robertwgross]

I find many birds are quivvering around a lot. A shutter of 1/125 coupled with I.S. is fast enough to overcome camera shake, but the 1/350 will be better for overcoming bird shake.

Come to think of it, I bet they are good to eat, regardless of shutter speed.

---Bob Gross---

[DAMphyne]

This one is with a 75-300 IS

http://www.damphyne.com/gallery/albums/butterfliesandflowers/IMG_1748b1.jpg

A 100% crop

http://www.damphyne.com/gallery/albums/butterfliesandflowers/IMG_1748b1_100_crop.jpg

[Haifidelity]

Are you sure if locked focus on the bird? There appears to be alot going in your composition, and the AF Sensors in the 10D and 300D are larger than the boxes indicated in the viewfinder.

-hza

[robvonk]

Yes, it's locked on the bird. I only use the center focus point and make sure the green led is not flashing (ie it's in focus).

It's probably a combination of things:
a) The bird is really small (8cm) so you must either 1) use a bigger lens 2) move closer to the subject
b) Use a faster shutterspeed to remove effect of birdshake (tm)

The posted butterflies are pretty good but i expect that it's easier to come close to a butterfly than this 'koolmees'.

The first posted picture was taken from 6 meters and the second from about 3-4 meters. Closing in to the subject made it much better. I managed to make a better one than the one i posted last.

[Haifidelity]

At F/8, it would bet that the lens should be considerably sharp, as well as an enough DOF to have your subject (i.e. the bird) in sharp focus as well. Have you tried some outdoors shots on stationary objects w/tripod? How did those turn out?

-hza

[ShutteringFocus]

I am really interested in this post because I was thinking about getting this lens...

But I dont know if its the computer or what...but those photos don't look good...

I mean I can see them and all...but its almost like everything has a halo around it...and they are fairly pixely...

Is that just because they are small files? or is that my computer?

I would love to compare the lenses but I can't...the photos look pretty bad.

(Not bad as in they are bad photos...bad as in they are almost not downloaded all the way or something)

[ShutteringFocus]

Also...what is meant by 100% crop? Does that mean you zoom in 100%?

pardon my ingnorance :roll:

[midnightvue]

100% crop was where I left the image at 100% (3072x2048) and crop it so it's at the 800x533 for my image.

Some of the grain/noise you see is partly a result of the jpg compression. Granted this lens isn't the best out there and you're bound to get some softness past 200mm but it's good enough for my budget :)

If you aren't sure about the lens, take your camera to the local store and do some test shots and see if you have that halo on the images you took after you download.

[ron chappel]

Yes,as the last poster says,the 'halo' should be the silly jpeg compression.Oddly it's not showing on my computer-usually it does.

The results from this lens look identical to what i get from the normal 75-300 .They say they are near identical optically so no surprise there.

I find them abit soft and fuzzy looking with strong purple fringing.
Another characteristic i noticed was the great inconsistancy.
I got lots of very nice looking photo's but threw HEAPS away too.Alot of this is due to the fuzzy look it gives.Sometimes you get one sharp enough it really works,most times not

When i had the EF100-300,it was SO easy getting good shots even at lowish handheld speeds.There were so many more keepers

I still think though that a great pic from the 75-300 has a nicer look than a good one from the 100-300,but that really is a personal preference(that could easily change in future...LOL)