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

[DhandaNot]

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.

[jrhoffman75]

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.

[Waddizzle]

“ 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. 

[DhandaNot]

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.

[DhandaNot]

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

[jrhoffman75]

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@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

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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.

[jrhoffman75]

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

[DhandaNot]

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

[DhandaNot]

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.

[DhandaNot]

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%2FEgM75vNHkVhDjag20G...

[pcs1]

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).