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Canon 75-300mm III Lens not sharp

scapilot
Contributor

I've had this lens for many years and tried everything from diffrent bodies (eos Rebel and t5) and still all of my shots (Near or Far) are not clear. I have to photoshop everyone of them to get them clear. Is it the lens or something else?

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION


@scapilot wrote:

I'm using my T5 solely and I have a very slim budget due to to coronavirus issue and no work 😞 .. I'll definitely look into an alternative lens.. thanks 


Ah, sorry.  I had been posting the samples when you made this reply.

 

Well, if the budget is slim and you prefer not to wait, then I would recomment the MkI version of this lens too.  In my post reviewing the Non-L lenses, you will have seen the sample of the seagull taken with that lens.   Not likely to be available new, but you could get a used, or preferably refurbished one for a fairly low price.

 

I just looked at the Canon USA refurb site and there is a Mk II available for $359, if that is of any interest - I would suggest selling your old 75-300 lens.  Otherwise, try a second-hand website...

https://shop.usa.canon.com/shop/en/catalog/lenses-flashes/refurbished-lenses#facet:-8109841011081011...

 

Good luck and my condolances on your trying times.  The world has changed a lot, very quickly, and I fear there will be a new reality afterwards.  I cannot express how luck I feel to live where I do.


cheers, TREVOR

"All the variety, all the charm, all the beauty of life is made up of light and shadow", Leo Tolstoy;
"Skill in photography is acquired by practice and not by purchase" Percy W. Harris

View solution in original post

17 REPLIES 17

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Nice! Smiley Happy

EB
EOS 1DX and 1D Mk IV and less lenses then before!

Right.. so, I went for a walk in the fall sunshine this morning, visiting a local graveyard that has some lovely walks and the Pacifica graves are amazingly colourful and unique, so I thought they might prove interesting subjects.  I have tried to take a selection of images covering focal length, distance, aperture etc.   All images were brought into Photoshop to make them small enough to be able to post here, but I did very little apart from that - one image I cropped quite a bit to make a point.

Sample 01.jpg

Canon EOS 80D, EF-70-300 IS USM 4-5.6 MkII, 278mm, f/5.6, 1/250sec, ISO-100

 

Sample 02.jpg

Canon EOS 80D, EF-70-300 IS USM 4-5.6 MkII, 79mm, f/5, 1/40sec, ISO-100

 

Sample 03.jpg

Canon EOS 80D, EF-70-300 IS USM 4-5.6 MkII, 113mm, f/5, 1/500 sec, ISO-100

 

Sample 04.jpg

Canon EOS 80D, EF-70-300 IS USM 4-5.6 MkII, 300mm, f/5.6, 1/320 sec, ISO-100

 

Sample 07.jpg

Canon EOS 80D, EF-70-300 IS USM 4-5.6 MkII,135mm, f/18, 1/40 sec, ISO-100

 

Sample 08.jpg

Canon EOS 80D, EF-70-300 IS USM 4-5.6 MkII, 300mm, f/11, 1/320 sec, ISO-200

 

Sample 08a.jpg

Canon EOS 80D, EF-70-300 IS USM 4-5.6 MkII, 300mm, f/11, 1/320 sec, ISO-200

(Previous Image Cropped)

 

 

Sample 09.jpg

Canon EOS 80D, EF-70-300 IS USM 4-5.6 MkII, 238mm, f/8, 1/25 sec, ISO-100


cheers, TREVOR

"All the variety, all the charm, all the beauty of life is made up of light and shadow", Leo Tolstoy;
"Skill in photography is acquired by practice and not by purchase" Percy W. Harris

ebiggs1
Legend
Legend

"I have to photoshop everyone of them to get them clear."

 

It is tough to impossible to make a soft picture sharp with PS.   I am curious to exactly what you do to make a soft photo have better IQ.  Can you post with steps you use?  BTW, adding clarity doesn't sharpen a photo. It simply defines edges.

EB
EOS 1DX and 1D Mk IV and less lenses then before!

Sorry it took so long getting back.

 

 

Using Corel After Shot Pro. I select the sharpening option and slide the amount to desired sharping.

 

IMG_4367.jpg

OK, that doesn't actually sharpen or improve the IQ of a lens.  It finds edges and increases contrast between them.  This gives an appearance of a sharper photo.  If used judiciously it can help. I hope it does the job for you. Most post editors have a function like that. And, a lot of people over use, abuse, it.

EB
EOS 1DX and 1D Mk IV and less lenses then before!

scapilot
Contributor
Thank you!

Nice photo scapilot! 

 

Quite often, a lack of contrast is as big of an issue as sharpness with IQ and this often makes the use of teleconverers (especially the 2X) far less desirable.  I have found glass and glass/teleconverter combinations that don't perform well in some lighting situations are decent when the lighting results in good scene contrast.

 

And depending upon you aperture and shooting distance, focus calibration (and also any lens aberrations such as astigmatism) become extremely critical.  I shot these this morning while checking AF calibration of a 5DS R and EF 800 f5.6 lens and at this shooting distance, ~30 feet, with wide open aperture the depth of field is under 2 inches leaving almost no margin for error.  Pushing a lens like this either when desiring shallow DoF or because of lighting constraints will push a lens to its capabilities and choosing a little friendlier shooting setup is often helpful.

 

The little bird building its nest was a bonus, I set the camera and tripod up in a comfortable location and thought the twigs in the old hand pump would make a good calibration target and as I was doing the initial setup the little bird landed and continued her construction work 🙂  I don't think the EF 800 is quite as sharp as its incredible 400, 300, and 200 brothers but with decent lighting its extra reach works very nicely.

 

Rodger

 

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EOS 1DX M3, 1DX M2, 1DX, 5DS R, M6 Mark II, 1D M2, EOS 650 (film), many lenses, XF400 video
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