How to get the Best Out of New Lens??

I'm a pretty amateur photographer, but I really enjoy animal photography, (horses in particular) and have sold some of my photos from horse shows. I recently upgraded from a Canon 70-200 f/4L non-IS to a f/2.8 IS and I'm having some issues with it.

I went to a horse show earlier today and many of my shots were blurry or not quite as sharp as I'd hoped; others, (though rare), were amazingly crystal clear. The weather was overcast for the most part. I feel like whenever I used my 4L, I was guaranteed to have many great, clear action shots, but I'm having a much harder time getting those results with this new lens. I've never had an IS lens before and I seemed to get much clearer pictures once I turned the IS off. I usually handhold the lens, (though I do have a tripod) and usually never had a clear picture issue doing so with my f/4.

This was the first time I used the lens and I plan on experimenting much more with it, but does anyone have any general advice? When should I be using the IS?

Example Pictures:

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …/themaneimage/8​623910584/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …/themaneimage/8​623911212/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …/themaneimage/8​623910074/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …/themaneimage/8​623892592/

I leave my IS on virtually all the time, some suggest turning it off at high SS and on tripods. Could you post the blurry photos? Could it be possible the IS system is malfunctioning on your lens?

Hard to say without seeing shots or knowing what settings your are shooting at. If you had previously been using higher shutter speeds with smaller apertures and auto ISO and doing something differently now that would explain it. With a subject as large as a horse you will likely need a smaller aperture than you need to get both eyes of a person's face in sharp focus. The difference in 2.8 to 4 could well account for part of your issue. I really doubt that IS is causing your issue.

is there a reason the exif for the three you don't like say 'manual focus mode' and the one you like says 'ai servo'?

Andre,

Thanks for that useful addition. The OP should be using AI Servo for moving subjects so if this was an accident, then it will perhaps teach something. That and a sensible shutter speed should produce good results.

For outdoor shows like this in decent light, I would just turn IS off, at least for jumping classes. For flat classes where the riders travel in more of a straight line, it's fine to keep the IS on the panning mode, but still is not necessary with shutter speeds in the 1/2500 realm as shown here.

For shots at relatively close distances you may want to stop down if you want both horse and rider in focus.

And yeah, the exif shows "Manual Focus" for the bad pics...

Possibly mistaken AF/MF switch for IS?

Whoops! Thanks for pointing that out. I must have somehow hit the switch.

sportmode--no, I did in fact turn the IS off at one point and that is when I got my best shots.

mkp223 wrote in post #15798635
Whoops! Thanks for pointing that out. I must have somehow hit the switch.

sportmode--no, I did in fact turn the IS off at one point and that is when I got my best shots.

Don't learn the wrong lesson here. The trick with moving subjects is IS on, AI Servo on and a fast enough shutter speed to freeze movement. Only once you can do all this can you think about the aperture and DoF.

IS always on unless you are on a tripod!!! REALLY fast shutter speeds. I used to have the same problem as you, but realized that although my shutter speed was fast at 1/200, it still wasn't fast enough for some fast moving action and resulted in slightly blurry photos. It wasn't obvious that it was motion blur, just looked slightly OOF. But yes, it's the shutter speed.

mkp223 wrote in post #15798635
Whoops! Thanks for pointing that out. I must have somehow hit the switch.

sportmode--no, I did in fact turn the IS off at one point and that is when I got my best shots.

I'd give it another shot...if you didn't mean to be in manual focus mode, i think that might've been the slip up...i don't turn IS off on any of my lenses, unless i'm using it on a tripod...even if the shutter is fast enough I like the stability it adds to the viewfinder to help keep the focus point on the subject

Thanks for the responses.

I'm new to using IS so all the advice is a great help! I was playing around with the lens again yesterday, keeping it on AI Servo with the IS on and fast shutter speeds( > 1/1000), and it was working out much better. I am amazed at how little light the lens needs to still take great shots.

Practice practice practice you will soon be blessed with some awesome action horse shots please post em they look so cool.

If your new to IS, the only possible issue re: IS itself that I can imagine contributing could be that you were shooting as IS was still spinning up.

I never have never personally had this issue, as I am almost always using IS with AI-servo and I use the [AF ON] button for focus. ie: by the time I release the shutter, the AF ad IS have been on for some time.

If however AF is tied to the shutter release, and you are punching the shutter release all at once, I think it is possible for the shutter to trigger before IS gets a chance to spin up.

It may take some getting used to, but it's worth the effort.

Don;t feel bad, I'm on the other side of the coin now. Having shot with IS on my longer lenses for over a decade, I now have a 400mm f/5.6L .. 400mm no IS. Wow! is there a learning curve all over again!

^^^ the IS winding up was something I had to get used to. Monopod helps a bit too.