Canon 350d / Rebel XT...can't get any decent pictures.

Hi all. Recently bought an old, very used second hand 350d camera. It was really reasonable and I bought it as a back up to my 550d. Anyway the 550 broke and is off being repaired. I have been using the 350 and can't seem to get any decent pictures. I shoot almost exclusively birds and with my 550d I do O.K and am able to get shots I am happy with. However with the 350d I can't get any good ones. I have tried all the settings , ISO, apertures etc but nothing comes out well. Is it just possible because I bought an old very cheap camera that it is knackered and not capable of getting good shots. I have been using with the 300 L F.4 so I know it's not the lens! Any thoughts would be appreciated? I have been taking quite distant shots which with the 550d are fine as with the 18mp one can crop without huge loss in quality, but with the 350d my shots look like a blurry mess. Is there a big difference in quality between these 2 cameras? Thank you!

I have a 350D and i use the 18-55mm kit lens and i'm impressed with the sharpness i get with it...

Op,

How much are you cropping your photos? The RebelXT is an 8 megapixels camera. Over cropping can be a problem. Can you post examples?

Yah, I don't know if it's the off balance between the lens and the body that makes it so difficult to get good shots. I usually had to use a tripod even with my battery grip on using my heavy 80 - 400mm lens. And even that was kind of sketchy because back then I had a POS tripod. Now I have a decent one.

Im not actually cropping any photos at the moment because I am binning them all. I look at them and think they are no good and then bin them. Close up shots with the kit zoom are O.K but still not great. I have used Tripod and non tripod. The LCD screen resolution is also pretty bad so everything looks bad on the actual camera. When I get home its still bad. I think maybe the camera is broken or dirty inside or something!

Hard to help without a sample, with EXIF intact

If you could post some samples of the bad ones then maybe that would help.

We believe you that the photos are bad, but what exactly does "bad" mean? If you want intelligent replies, you will have to supply intelligent info, IOW images.

With an L lens you should get decent quaility, though 300mm is a bit short for birds, so I suspect you are cropping or expecting too much. I used my 350D with a Sigma 150-500 and got some decent bird shots, OK so BIF wasn't so good as the AF doesn't compare to the 7D, but within it's limitations it should be OK.

A moderate crop on the 350D and Sigma 150-500

Have you tried some test shots with a clear, close target in good light? It could be you're expecting too much from the 350D/XT's focusing system.

You need to post up some examples. While the XT is only 8mp, it's still capable of producing good pics.

If you are using a protection filter, take it off. But I'd put money on the sensor requiring a good clean. I did this myself on my old 350D and it was transformed. Visible Dust Green in my case. Expensive but miraculous.

I was going to suggest getting a cleaning myself.