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d7000 unsharp bird photos

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I attempted to shoot birds today and it seems most of them turns out soft. Seems like I got a high enough shutter speed and apertured was set to f8. These shots were taken with a d7000 and the 70-300 afs. I had set it to AFC, 9 points. Looks like the focus point were on the subject, yet it doesn't look sharp. I did not recompose the shots. Any help/idea would be appreciated.











 
Sante Patate said:
On my monitor they look reasonably sharp - the 70-300 does get softer near 300. One issue might be VR; it is worth reading Thom Hogan's essay http://www.bythom.com/nikon-vr.htm - especially his advice to turn VR off at higher shutter speeds.
Click to expand...
Many of us disagree with that assessment (to turn VR off at high shutter speeds). Thom isn't a VR engineer, he's a photographer, so he's offering his guess/estimate as to what is going on, not actual fact. And I, personally, disagree with his assessment.

But I don't want to get into a firestorm here, so I will leave it at that.

As far as softness, my #1 guess is atmospheric thermal distortion. It looks like it was a sunny day in the OP's photos, so heat shimmer (like on a hot road) could easily degrade the image. It doesn't take much at 300mm to degrade the image.

Here's an extreme example of heat shimmer (click "Original" for the full effect):



 
Interesting, I did try turning off VR for this outing since I did read that on bythom's site. I guess I didn't have any to compare with VR on.
 
Is it just a sunny day that can cause the degradation? It was only 60 degrees so I hoping it won't be much of an affect.
 
those seem reasonably sharp to me. some tests suggest that the 70-300VR gets a bit sharper at f11. given that the birds are static, you can easily drop your shutterspeed to 1/500 nad stop down to f11. just don't forget to turn VR on. you could even go to 1/250 and drop the ISO further. not because of noise, but you'd gain one stop of dynamic range and the white feathers can easily blow out.

but the main thing you need to do, to get sharper images is get in way closer. your frame coverage is simply much too low to get that fine detail.
--
Mario

My Gallery
http://www.mg-photo.ch
 
Tne first 2 are plain soft,3rd one seems more focused on the branchs,definately something wrong with camera or lens or maybe both need calibration.I used to use a 70-300 for birding but if you want to get serious with birding get a longer lens.Im using the Sigma 150-500 and the extra reach makes a hell of a difference.Heres a couple of samples if your interested.Shot with the D90.

500mm f6.3



500mm f9



Then you will appreciate the extra reach for sports ,airshows etc



--
http://s888.photobucket.com/albums/ac89/trumpyman750/
 
Are these SOOC? If so what are your camera settings?

I know that more reach was mentioned above but another route to go is getting a 300mm f/4 prime. You could even go the if-ed af if cost is a concern. That's what I shoot now after birding with a Tamron 70-300 VC. It wasn't that the tammy was bad(by any means), It just produces better results at 300mm. Where it really shined was giving me the ability to crop in tighter.

From the looks of it those birds are small and shot from a distance. I think you may be challenging that lens a little also.
 
I think your settings are fine and I do not think there is an issue with your lens either being too short or too soft at 300mm, I have only gone "birding" one time in my life and basically just got lucky, and I was using the 24-120 F4, not exactly a long telephoto. Based on my experience with BIF photography which obviously is very limited, it really comes down to luck, being in the right place at the right time, and my settings were very similar to yours especially the focus mode.



 
hoof said:
Many of us disagree with that assessment (to turn VR off at high shutter speeds). Thom isn't a VR engineer, he's a photographer, so he's offering his guess/estimate as to what is going on, not actual fact. And I, personally, disagree with his assessment.
Click to expand...
+1. There's nothing wrong with having VR turned on all the time on the 70-300. It's got VR II and it works really well.

When your shutter gets around 1/1000s it's practically impossible to even get blur from camera shake. Here's an example...



 
.. one needs to go shorter. A lot shorter, in fact, a macro lens brings up the detail nicely:



(UK Robin, Sigma 105, D70, SB800)

The trouble is that one cannot always get the whole bird in, so then something a little wider is useful:



(French alps, snow bunting, Nik 50mm, D70)

Better still yet, something in the region of 18 to 35mm is ideal:



(UK, Sussex downs, pheasant, Nik 18-35mm, D70)

I'm sorry I just do not subscribe to the view that long glass is a sine qua non for birding - but knowledge of the subjects is.

David
trumpyman said:
... if you want to get serious with birding get a longer lens.Im using the Sigma 150-500 and the extra reach makes a hell of a difference.
Click to expand...
 
You are too far from the subject. In those shots, the bird doesn't fill the area of the focus point and the camera is focusing as well as it can on that area. it doesn't know it's a bird or that you want the focus on the eye. Just that it needs to maximize contrast somewhere in the area.

Little squares in viewfinders and on images are really just guides.

I find that my D90 focusses better if I put the bottom of the indicated center square in the exact position I want focussed on.

I am of the VR off except when needed school. I shoot a lot in brush areas and the double image bokeh is not acceptable to me when it occurs.

As to the sharpness of the 70-300? I find it very acceptable. Out of habit I usually back off slightly from full zoom. Here is a shot at 280mm, OOC jpeg and a crop. On the crop, I did increase contrast slightly.





Taken from http://birdsnbugs.wordpress.com/2012/01/07/the-nikkor-70-300mm-vr/
--
My photo blog: http://birdsnbugs.wordpress.com
My camera club porfolio: http://www.pacameraclub.com/bgrant.htm
RF Stock Portfolio - http://www.dreamstime.com/resp129611
EXIF is embedded in photos WSSA #51 as bg5700
 
Hi, I think these are as sharp as that lens is capable of that range. The D7000 sensor out resolves the 70-300. Either get closer or get a longer lens.

You can improve the images by selectively sharpening the bird.

Don't be put off. It takes lots of practice to get good bird images and not a little luck.

--
Cheers, BB
FlickR site
http://www.flickr.com/photos/brandon_birder/
 
Hi,

Please forgive the ignorance of a newbie, but how does one "calibrate" their lens to the camera?

I don't even see the word "calibration" nor "calibrate" anywhere in my camera manual (searching the .pdf).

Thanks!
Juggernaut
 
I think you need to fill the frame with more bird. In other words, the bird does not have enough of the pixels. Get closer to the bird...

The 70-300 or the 55-200 stopped down to f8-f11 are reasonably sharp if you fill the frame with the bird.

I think, if I remember, these are 100% crops.

















Stop down, but keep your ISO under 1000.
--
Ryan Ward
http://www.premieratlantarealestate.com
 
Sounds like I might have a lot of issues with these shots, but I think the best situation would be to get closer to the subjects. On another occassion, I did notice that when I got in much closer the details were much better.
 
i'm another one of those who suggest getting closer to your subjects. i have had pretty good success with this lens paired with both d90 and d7000. it just takes lots of patience/practice, and understanding the limitations of your gear.















 
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