soft focus problems with 70-200 2.8 lens

[anguslincoln]

I am wondering if I am expecting too much image clarity and focus from my 70-200 mm 2.8 lens. I have been shooting a lot of birds with it from as close as 2 meters out to 50 meters.I have some fantastic results, but focusing seems to be inconsistant . I use it hand held mostly with good support at fairly high shutter speed when the natural light supports it. I was hoping to have less soft focus at the longer distances of 20+ meters. Is this lense capable of sharp focus at those distances if propper exposures are used ?

[ScottyP]

I don't think the tripod will help with these images. Even without IS the minimum reciprocal shutter speed on 200mm's is 1/320 second on a crop body. Counting IS you are probably able to handhold reliably at considerably slower speed.

The OP already stated he knows shutter speed is important and offers 1/600th as a starting shutter speed. Since tripods only address camera shake, not subject motion blur, if he is shooting a shutter that fast then camera shake is irrelevant. Birds are fidgety even on foot, so slow shutter tripod work is out of the question due to subject motion blur.