topic Re: Soft Image R1 + 500L IS ii + 2X IS iii in EOS DSLR & Mirrorless Cameras

Soft Image R1 + 500L IS ii + 2X IS iii

DhandaNot — Fri, 31 Oct 2025 10:54:56 GMT

Why is this image so soft, it is unusable. The light is perfect and the sight too is good. The Focus Point is exactly on the eye but the image is blurred. What am I doing wrong.

Re: Soft Image R1 + 500L IS ii + 2X IS iii

DhandaNot — Fri, 31 Oct 2025 10:57:12 GMT

Attaching the image now. The focus point and other details:

Re: Soft Image R1 + 500L IS ii + 2X IS iii

p4pictures — Fri, 31 Oct 2025 11:09:36 GMT

I'm guessing you are a long way from the bird to need a 500mm + 2x extender and then use the 1.6x crop mode on the EOS R1, effectively 1600mm focal length. The metadata in the images indicates you are in UAE so even though the time stamp for when the photo was taken is 8:27am, then could it is very likely atmospheric conditions and or heat haze that is causing the softness you are seeing.

I saw that the image is quite flat in tone and contrast as well as sharpening. I don't know what you used to process it, but I did try using the camera RAW filter in Photoshop to add some sharpening with improved results.

Re: Soft Image R1 + 500L IS ii + 2X IS iii

TomRamsey — Fri, 31 Oct 2025 12:50:32 GMT

In a scene like this where there is a lot of bight sky around a dark subject, a spot or center weighted metering might help, it should allow more contrast on the bird and not look so flat.

Re: Soft Image R1 + 500L IS ii + 2X IS iii

jrhoffman75 — Fri, 31 Oct 2025 13:04:38 GMT

@DhandaNot wrote:

Attaching the image now. The focus point and other details:

Can you post the .CR3 file to Dropbox or One Drive?

Re: Soft Image R1 + 500L IS ii + 2X IS iii

Waddizzle — Fri, 31 Oct 2025 15:08:35 GMT

“ Attaching the image now. The focus point and other details: “

How far away was the subject? Did you use a tripod or monopod?

I suspect that the subject is too far away, camera shake, or you missed focus.

At this apparent distance, I would also suggest disabling the advanced AF features like subject and eye detection. Take control of the camera.

Also, you will not always be able to capture the shot when an opportunity presents itself.

Re: Soft Image R1 + 500L IS ii + 2X IS iii

DhandaNot — Fri, 31 Oct 2025 15:56:13 GMT

There was no heat haze at that time. 🙏 I am confused as I have managed to take this kind of shot with R6. I have not proceed it at all. I could bring out the image to some extent with processing. I sent the unprocessed image to show how it was captured.

Actually I was waiting for the Eagle to fly and wanted flight shot where the same bird with the wings spread would have covered good part of the sensor. I did get some shots that I can use. This is an example same camera and same glass. This one is a bit processed in LR Classic. Crop is almost down to 15%

Re: Soft Image R1 + 500L IS ii + 2X IS iii

DhandaNot — Fri, 31 Oct 2025 16:00:32 GMT

I rarely change the metering. The EFV shows the image as how it will be captured. If the subject is too dark I bump up the EV to get the subject bright. The camera captures at a higher ISO. I also try to open the aperture if it can be done and lower the shutter to allow more light to ensure ISO is capped to a decent value.

Please do elaborate how spot of center metering improves the contrast. I do not quite follow it.

Re: Soft Image R1 + 500L IS ii + 2X IS iii

DhandaNot — Fri, 31 Oct 2025 16:05:45 GMT

Here is the CR3 on OneDrive

Eagle Focus

Re: Soft Image R1 + 500L IS ii + 2X IS iii

DhandaNot — Fri, 31 Oct 2025 16:10:42 GMT

I was sitting in the car (switched off) and had a bean bag on the window when I took this shot. The EXIF here shows Zone 1, however I took some shots with single point (locked) focus also to see if that helps. Subject was far for sitting pose and not so far when it would fly. The subject and eye detection already get disabled when the point focus is used.

I noticed quite a few shots were blurred / mushy / soft. Whereas I would not expect them like that.

Re: Soft Image R1 + 500L IS ii + 2X IS iii

jrhoffman75 — Fri, 31 Oct 2025 17:05:20 GMT

Looks like you set crop image mode and shot in CRAW, so your image was only 5.5MP. Given the small size of the bird in the image there weren't many pixels on the bird.

I used Topaz Photo on the image and it improved it.

Re: Soft Image R1 + 500L IS ii + 2X IS iii

Waddizzle — Fri, 31 Oct 2025 17:55:07 GMT

“ I was sitting in the car (switched off) and had a bean bag on the window when I took this shot. The EXIF here shows Zone 1, however I took some shots with single point (locked) focus also to see if that helps. Subject was far for sitting pose and not so far when it would fly. The subject and eye detection already get disabled when the point focus is used. “

Take control of your camera. Tell it what you want it do by changing settings.

When you are using a tripod, it’s a best practice to disable the Image Stabilization in the lens. This is also true for a monopod. This advice applies to every shooting scenario, except for handheld.

As noted above, the EXIF describes the state of the AF system when the shutter fired to capture the image. It does not indicate whether or not the lens is focused.

As noted, if you are using BBF, then releasing it allows the AF system to idle. I program the BBF button for [AF-OFF]. This almost guarantees that the AF system is active when the shutter is fired.

Re: Soft Image R1 + 500L IS ii + 2X IS iii

DhandaNot — Sat, 01 Nov 2025 04:24:11 GMT

I was actually waiting for the eagle to fly. Hence the settings. The * button was used for point focus which had subject and eye disable (due to focus point) The AF-ON button would be used as and when the bird decided to fly and it had the subject and eye detection on.

Re: Soft Image R1 + 500L IS ii + 2X IS iii

DhandaNot — Sat, 01 Nov 2025 16:11:24 GMT

I have put two CR3 of Osprey from the same day's session. These images have focus points but the images are totally out of focus. I would really appreciate if someone can provide clues on what went wrong here.

https://1drv.ms/f/c/82cbc995baa096fe/EgM75vNHkVhDjag20G2HVxMBYsVNZol-F1_PdiqqqY86gg?e=LBg2Je

Re: Soft Image R1 + 500L IS ii + 2X IS iii

jrhoffman75 — Sat, 01 Nov 2025 18:32:24 GMT

@DhandaNot wrote:

I have put two CR3 of Osprey from the same day's session. These images have focus points but the images are totally out of focus. I would really appreciate if someone can provide clues on what went wrong here.

https://1drv.ms/f/c/82cbc995baa096fe/EgM75vNHkVhDjag20G2HVxMBYsVNZol-F1_PdiqqqY86gg?e=LBg2Je

Did you have a lens hood on? It is an EF les; is the lens hood black? There are discussions on line about heat haze problems associated with lens hoods. Steve Perry and Jan Wegener for two.

Re: Soft Image R1 + 500L IS ii + 2X IS iii

jrhoffman75 — Sat, 01 Nov 2025 19:11:31 GMT

https://bcgforums.com/threads/long-lenses-and-heat-distortion.36456/

Re: Soft Image R1 + 500L IS ii + 2X IS iii

DhandaNot — Sun, 02 Nov 2025 05:19:21 GMT

Lens hood is not black. The temperatures were not high less than 30 degC

Re: Soft Image R1 + 500L IS ii + 2X IS iii

DhandaNot — Sun, 02 Nov 2025 05:21:11 GMT

I have taken tons of photos in similar condition and the results are good. In this case what I felt was that while it seems fine with the focus lock the camera was not on to it. I was wondering if I messed up some settings.

Re: Soft Image R1 + 500L IS ii + 2X IS iii

DhandaNot — Sun, 02 Nov 2025 09:34:53 GMT

Same camera settings gave me good shots like this one. I really want to understand why the gear behaved the way it did that made several of my photos go out of focus. Hoping one of the experts here can have a look at the RAW files I share on the OneDrive.

https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2F1drv.ms%2Ff%2Fc%2F82cbc995baa096fe%2FEgM75vNHkVhDjag20G2HVxMBDV3ku8m49asRXYFITzM_Gg%3Fe%3DFBJfH1%26fbclid%3DIwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTAAYnJpZBExbld4SzlDUWZhbnByczR2aQEeS7lxn4svzH81YADTb0dsWthw4IcjBA7oG4ZmWYwjdlyx_PxW9gJoccnRBRY_aem_MGaLYQKgAxcjkdGTw8C8qA&h=AT2DYTVWJxHiVpcvkd-B7BNyRCAsryIkUBMguMhfli04fHAMBCFrkZ9fzaHcF2DEOnGRJKBjgpjA9ucuTT7zO47xsvNOuCofmbZ2ft_gO0t9hFjNSyY0a7BribGDFNm3wwc

Re: Soft Image R1 + 500L IS ii + 2X IS iii

Anonymous — Thu, 06 Nov 2025 12:52:46 GMT

Even is there was no heat-haze you're still shooting(ff eq. 1600mm!) through a h*#k of a lot of air. All sorts of things are in that air, moisture, pollution etc. If you shoot bursts you can sometimes profit from a clear moment but you've got to be lucky.

And heat-haze is not dependent on the ambient temperature( and your defenintion of not high(ie below 30 Celcius) is different from mine😀).All that's required is a difference between ground/water temp. and the air. You can even get heat-haze just above freezing.

In summary, looking at the light in your photos and the shooting distance, I wouldn't expect many good shots with my equipment(R5II and R1, RF 100-500(often with1.4 extender) and RF 400 2.8(often with 2x extender).