Is this acceptable sharpness for a 70-300 IS lens?

Is this acceptable sharpness for a Canon 70-300 mm IS USM lens? Taken at 1600 ISO, F 6.3, and and 1/400th of a sec. shutter speed on Program mode. Had the lens cranked out to 300 mm.

oh yes, it was a hand held shot not on a pod.

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IrishKing wrote in post #3485395
Is this acceptable sharpness for a Canon 70-300 mm IS USM lens? Taken at 1600 ISO, F 6.3, and and 1/400th of a sec. shutter speed on Program mode. Had the lens cranked out to 300 mm.

oh yes, it was a hand held shot not on a pod.

probably acceptable. first off you aren't going to get the sharpest shots in low light and secondly the weak point of this lens is at the long end.

plus it's really hard to tell from just one picture.

ed rader

thanks Ed. I need all the experienced advice I can get to improve sharpness of pics.

when I took a shot using an F 7.1 aperture, the sharpness seemed to improve a tad.

working here in Indiana on a cloudy and overcast morning.

IrishKing wrote in post #3485496
thanks Ed. I need all the experienced advice I can get to improve sharpness of pics.

when I took a shot using an F 7.1 aperture, the sharpness seemed to improve a tad.
working here in Indiana on a cloudy and overcast morning.

Hi IrishKing
nice shot
the eye of the little fellow is lovely and sharp alright

while taking a shot (testing the lens ) make sure to get the composition ok too
might as well as sharpness won't be the main thing to hit when looking at a picture if it is slightly slanted or too much going on around the main subject you wanted to capture. a closer crop would make a big difference
the picture has blueish tones...not sure you did this already but make sure the white balance on the camera is set to 'cloudy' on a day like you mention