Is This To Be Expected?

I shot a Cardinal early yesterday evening using my Canon zoom lens 'IS' (70-300 mm) at 1/500th shutter speed, f stop F8.0 aperture, and 1250 ISO speed. The Cardinal turned out okay but it wasn't very sharp and lacked good detail.

tell me what I did wrong? what do I need to do in order to get excellent sharpness and good detail taking pics of wild birds with my zoom lens?
[FONT=Arial]

HOSTED PHOTO
please log in to view hosted photos in full size.

your not close enough to the bird it is tiny conpared to the frame your showing.
also iso 100/ 200 will give more detail
Rob.

It looks to me as though the camera has locked focus on the vertical pattern of the chair back, rendering the bird slightly out of focus.

I think f/8 allowed enough DOF for the bird to be in focus, but it's quite underexposed You need to provide a background that's not bright white. Were you that far away that the bird was that small even at 300mm? It'd be nice if you'd fill out your signature so we know what you're shooting.

A good 'pod,shutter release and lens for birding perhaps.

Also AV/TV mode saw mostly white and metered accordingly. No detail is because it's underexposed for the bird.

Not close enough to the bird, focused on the wrong place and maybe some camera shake involved as well...

What to do different...

1)Try and get closer...300mm is not that long when it comes to birding....
2)lower your ISO if possible to get more detail
3)use a tripod
4)use spot metering if you have it...
5)practice, practice, practice...


Not bad for first attempts, you will get better fast, especially if you keep posting and asking questions...

also dark bird on dark background.

lens looks fine.

Were you using center point focus or all focus points? Which camera? Focus is obtained by differences in contrast. I think that maybe your camera meter was fooled by the white chair and the dark background. If you have zoombrowser you can check your focus point.

Vetkrazy
First I have a new Canon 30D and I used only the center auto focus affair in Program mode. Is there a way to manually focus while in Program (P) mode?

Gyrob and Superdiver
I would estimate that I was approimately 30 feet away from that bird when I shot that pic. Cardinals are very hard to get close to. Maybe a Canon 70-300 mm lens with 'IS' isn't the right tool.

do birding photographers use camo and netting to move in close to birds?

Maybe I would be better off just turning off the auto focus feature on my lens and going manual mode.

Maybe the bird was moving its head very quickly?
The chair seem to be in focus.
Any chance you misfired due to some shake?

If the bird wasn't moving, the IS should have actually helped you...well maybe not too much, but it definitely wouldn't have harmed you!

superdiver wrote in post #3474566
Not close enough to the bird, focused on the wrong place and maybe some camera shake involved as well...

What to do different...

1)Try and get closer...300mm is not that long when it comes to birding....
2)lower your ISO if possible to get more detail
3)use a tripod
4)use spot metering if you have it...
5)practice, practice, practice...

Not bad for first attempts, you will get better fast, especially if you keep posting and asking questions...

Great advice right here. Alone, spot metering and 100mm more of FL, or just being closer would have made a world of difference.

Nicksan
yes, there's always the possibility that I moved and not the bird.

Using a POD to keep the camera steady seems like a rather cumbersome process and also a pain to drag around and set up.

I think I will experiment with a monopod to see if that produces clearer and crisper shots.

Thanks all for the great advice. Much appreciated.