Hey All,
Recently got my Canon eos 450 camera with kit lenses. I used my
70-300 over the weekend at my son’s football game and was quite
disappointed with the quality of images taken. Have any of you got
the same lens?? If so can you post some images so I can see what the
lens is capable of doing. I must admit that I am new to DSLR and my
techniques may be the cause of poor quality images. This is also a
kit lens, so I guess that the images may be representative of the
quality of the lens?? Please advise.
--
Al Dee
first and foremost, and i'm disappointed that nobody has mentioned it yet, do you know how to use a telephoto lens? also, do you know how to use a "cheap" lens? both require a touch of finesse on your part...
in order to use a TELEPHOTO lens, you have to be sure to keep your shutter speeds up. what mode were you using? auto? sports? P? Tv? i typically use Av mode or M mode with a telephoto lens. i set the aperture then watch the shutter speed.
you might be familiar with the "rule" that says you should have a shutter speed of 1/focal length. converted for your crop factor, and adding an factor of safety, you can call that 1/ 2x focal length. so for instance, at 100mm you would want a shutter speed of 1/200s or faster. at 200mm, i like 1/500s, and at 300mm, 1/750s. these are high shutter speeds. did you have your ISO set appropriately?
these are all things to take into account when using a telephoto lens. another thing to keep in mind is that in sports pictures (football), faster shutter speeds are important not only to remove blur caused by camera shake, but to freeze the subjects in time. otherwise, they will come out blurry.
in order to use a CHEAP lens you have to learn its character flaws. my first telephoto lens was a sigma 70-300 APO. this lens could produce some very sharp images, but it suffered from softness at 300mm (max zoom), and also at wide open aperture (f/4-5.6 variable). with this in mind:
300mm, f/5.6 (wide open) - horribly soft
200mm, f/5.0 (wide open) - decent
300mm, f/8.0 (1 stop down) - decent
200mm, f/8.0 (
2 stops down) - sharp
with this in mind, it's important to think about your shot before you take it, and you can sort of predict what your shots would look like. i'm not going to say that i NEVER took a shot at 300mm f/5.6, but when i did, i didn't expect the world from them. on the other hand, when i took shots at 200mm and f/8.0, i could expect them to be sharp.
this all comes from experience with that particular lens. now i say "cheap" lens, because older, cheaper lenses did not produce consistent results. my new telephoto lens, the 70-200 f/4L, is practically perfect at all focal lengths and all apertures. even the new 55-250 IS is consistently sharp. although is improves as you stop the lens down, it is not the same night-and-day difference that some of the older, cheaper lenses displayed.
that's a lot of text, but the nitty of it is that you can't just throw on a telephoto lens and expect good pictures out of it if you don't know how to use it. i am very experienced with 200-300mm lenses, but if i borrowed a 600mm lens i would not expect great results out of it after the first round...
