Olympus 300 mm f4, Funny behaviour or is it me.

Last weekend I had the opportunity to shoot some waders by the seaside.

The conditions were ideal, with the sun behind me, slightly cloudy so no harsh light.

Yesterday when I started processing images, I was horrified at how unsharp and out of focus the images were.

I had not made any changes to the camera and before going to the beach, I shot a Sunbird with which came out sharp enough.

I have used the 300 with the mc14 and gotten sharp images (different day)

So I have been wondering and musing, as to what went wrong on that day.

1)

2)

3)

4)

5)

Images 1, 2, 3(crop of 2) and 4, I know that at this distance I can get very very sharp images ( read feather detail). Since I have got the 300, I have been using it handheld.

I was sitting on a tiny chair, waiting for the birds to come closer, so I could shoot them. The chair did introduce a vertical angle to the shots, as much as I tried to eliminate it.

The conditions, as I said were perfect. So what's wrong. I tried IS on and off, no improvement.

MC14 on and off was no improvement either.

I always use SAF, with central small square for focus. Spot metering.

Image 5 is when I processed and underexposed the birds, that I started getting some details.

So here are my thoughts..

1) on the beach with the wet mud etc.. lots of glare, is it confusing the focusing pixel?

2) Maybe I should deliberately underexpose to get more accurate focusing?

3) Maybe I should lie down so the background dose not confuse the camera? so that I have the horizon/sky as background!

4) Maybe I need a totally different set of settings for the beach.

5) maybe a totally different set of skills for the beach

I am pretty sure its user error.

Image 6 is the one i shot before the beach or in between (forgot which)

and I know from the image no 7(much much earlier) that I can get really sharp images with the tc attached.

6)

7)

So I would appreciate your thoughts.

Let the games begin.

Cheers

Rahul