Soft wildlife with 70-200ISL

[chauncey]

You guys talked me out of upgrading my xti so please help me with my 70-200 ISL lens.

I used this lens, at all ranges, with IS on, all summer at high altitudes (no haze) in CO. and I got some really good landscapes, handheld panoramas and handheld HDR. But...

When I got the occasional shot at wildlife, the images came out softer that what I like. I thought at first it was nothing more than "buck fever" and I started paying more attention and using "sniper" tactics in locking the camera to my body. Helped only a little. This occured throughout the range of f-stops and magnification. I shoot mostly in A-V or T-V modes.

Could it be that I wasn't waiting long enough for the IS and AF to "kick in"? How long does it take? Failing that, what else could it be?

[Mark_Cohran]

The IS and AF kick in on this lens in under a second (usually and in good light), so unless you were really quickly snapping away, I doubt that's a problem. However, if the wildlife is moving and you're trying to shoot with a low shutter speed (using the IS to hold the lens optics steady), you can still get soft photos. IS helps with camera/lens movement (shake), not subject movement.

Mark

[viperx27]

an example pic would really help. mine works great for wildlife, though a longer len is always nice too

[Tom Reichner]

Chauncey, Did you ever resolve this issue?

[chauncey]

Tom, you got me to thinking.
As hindsight, I don't believe the problem was in the lens, I think it was a body/user based problem.

That was about the time that I started to upgrade cameras, to the 5D>Ds2>Ds3.
I never took a quality image with the xti when extreme AF ability was necessary.
There were lots of decent landscapes, but none for that crispy critter shot.

[Tom Reichner]

Chauncey,

I'm glad you've figured this out. I just can't believe that people on this forum talked you out of upgrading your digitatl Rebel. Bad advice. I't great to see that you now have a body with a sensor as good as the 5D. You should see dramatic improvements in your wildlife images.

I'd love to see some of your recent attempts with the 5D.

Tom

[chauncey]

You misunderstood my response, I use a Ds3 now. 'Tis a superlative body.
See my signature.