Pintails.. too picky?

I shot these with my 100-400 at 400mm, 1/400, f10.0, ISO 400 using autofocus. They just don't look crisp as I'd like. The AF view in the Canon software shows the focus point right on the bird's body. Am I being too picky on the softness of the focus?

#1

These are very soft, even for the 100-400. How big of a crop are these?

What auto focus setting where these on? If you didn't have it on continuous focus (like AI servo) then the bird would move out of the plane of focus and you would be stuck with a soft bird.

I don't own that lens, but at those settings I would expect the shots to be sharper.

Were they shot in RAW and converted straight to JPEG, with no sharpening?

BirdBoy wrote in post #15606438
These are very soft, even for the 100-400. How big of a crop are these?

I just cropped the original image to the largest 8X10 sizing.... does that make sense?

LV Moose wrote in post #15606441
I don't own that lens, but at those settings I would expect the shots to be sharper.

Were they shot in RAW and converted straight to JPEG, with no sharpening?

Shot in RAW and converted straight to JPEG although I did some sharpening in #1 but not much.

I edited my original post.

BirdBoy wrote in post #15606438
What auto focus setting where these on? If you didn't have it on continuous focus (like AI servo) then the bird would move out of the plane of focus and you would be stuck with a soft bird.

Hmmmm... maybe that's it. I was in OneShot AF

That would be why

Even for being in One Shot, those are some terrible results for that lens. I would try switching to Servo, as mentioned above, but I'd also MFA that sucker at 400, then try again.

This lens is my most heavily used lens, by a LONG shot, and it should be producing *much* better results on the 7D.

Snydremark wrote in post #15606664
Even for being in One Shot, those are some terrible results for that lens. I would try switching to Servo, as mentioned above, but I'd also MFA that sucker at 400, then try again.

This lens is my most heavily used lens, by a LONG shot, and it should be producing *much* better results on the 7D.

MFA? sorry... newbie..

Duckdog wrote in post #15606752
MFA? sorry... newbie..

No need to apologize, we all started somewhere

Micro Focus Adjustment; it's one of the custom settings on that camera. It allows you to make small adjustments to the AF system to correct for some level of mismatch in calibration between the camera body and the lens.

Although, the more I think about it, the more I'd recommend that be a "step 2" for you.

Step 1 should be, if you have a tripod, or access to one, set up some controlled shots where you manually focus on something using Live View @ 10x magnification and see how they come out (being sure to turn off the IS). If they don't come out much better that way, then you should send that lens in for a checkup. If they DO come out notably sharper and clearer, then you should look into doing the MFA.

Snydremark wrote in post #15606774
No need to apologize, we all started somewhere

Micro Focus Adjustment; it's one of the custom settings on that camera. It allows you to make small adjustments to the AF system to correct for some level of mismatch in calibration between the camera body and the lens.

Although, the more I think about it, the more I'd recommend that be a "step 2" for you.

Step 1 should be, if you have a tripod, or access to one, set up some controlled shots where you manually focus on something using Live View @ 10x magnification and see how they come out (being sure to turn off the IS). If they don't come out much better that way, then you should send that lens in for a checkup. If they DO come out notably sharper and clearer, then you should look into doing the MFA.

Thanks.. this helps a bunch.. as I've already tried that and was severely disappointed in the IQ. I've actually already sent the lens off to be checked... and was going through these picture checks to feel better about my decision.

Thanks very much for the advice!

Duckdog wrote in post #15606428
I shot these with my 100-400 at 400mm, 1/400, f10.0, ISO 400 using autofocus. They just don't look crisp as I'd like. The AF view in the Canon software shows the focus point right on the bird's body. Am I being too picky on the softness of the focus?

You are not being too picky at all, as the images are extremely soft.

I think perhaps you were not using a very sturdy tripod? Camera stability is extremely important, and surprisingly underrated, when shooting long focal lengths. Even if shooting at 1/2000 of a second, camera movement will often cause the images to be unacceptably soft if you are not mounted to a proper tripod and head.

This is what these should look like without sharpening. First the full image, then a deep crop of that image:

Tom Reichner wrote in post #15606824
You are not being too picky at all, as the images are extremely soft.

I think perhaps you were not using a very sturdy tripod? Camera stability is extremely important, and surprisingly underrated, when shooting long focal lengths. Even if shooting at 1/2000 of a second, camera movement will often cause the images to be unacceptably soft if you are not mounted to a proper tripod and head.

This is what these should look like without sharpening. First the full image, then a deep crop of that image:

Dang... yes... that's what I was hoping for...

I was using a monopod to shoot these, but I do have a Manfrotto tripod and ball head... not the best but still pretty sturdy.

I used a monopod the first couple years I did this, then was blown away at the difference in sharp detail when I finally started using a tripod for every shot with a big lens. It's a nuisance to set up, and you will miss plenty of shots because of the time it takes to get set up - but it is well worth while when you start to consistently produce images with sharp, finely resolved feather detail. It really is worth the extra effort and the missed opportunities.