Soft / Blurry zoomed photos on Cannon R8 EF 100-400mm lens

[Samtata2024]

Please help, not sure what changed in my manual photo setting but my photos are turning out soft / blurry when zoomed in. It was not this way before. Here are some pics and settings of the photos 😞 

The birds were not that far from me, it was a cloudy day. 

[Samtata2024]

yes it is cropped and both were from phone to lightroom to computer...but the download to phone was as raw from the cannon app. I did just buy a direct laptop to memory card transfer which should help preserve any resolution changes. I do think a lot of it was the ISO due to me upping the shutter speed on stationary birds as mentioned below. 

This was btw the non cropped pic or edited 

[Samtata2024]

thank you everyone who have responded to help 🙂

[ebiggs1]

All camera gear has its limits. You have pushed your gear top an extreme level. Why manual mode? Believe it or not cameras almost always do what we tell them to. And most of the time the camera is smarter than we are. Manual mode is basically used anymore for situations where nothing else works. Someone said for static birds you could use a SS of 1/1000 or even 1/500. I think that even that is too fast and 1/250 or perhaps 1/100 would work. This will get your ISO under control and in a better range. Think about it, that is 100 clicks per second or 250 clicks per second. That's quick.

Let's try Av mode and select an aperture that works for you. Say f8 on a bright sunny day. Set Auto ISO and also set an upper and lower limit, say ISO 100 to ISO 3200. Now the camera will control SS and exposure. I prefer just the center focus point and Ins Shot. You can always modify these beginning settings as needed.

Always use raw. Avoid cropping more than 100%. I guarantee you these settings will provide great shots with the limits of your gear and personal talent.