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soft focus problems with 70-200 2.8 lens

anguslincoln
Apprentice

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 ?

20 REPLIES 20

ScottyP
Authority
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.
Scott

Canon 5d mk 4, Canon 6D, EF 70-200mm L f/2.8 IS mk2; EF 16-35 f/2.8 L mk. III; Sigma 35mm f/1.4 "Art" EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro; EF 85mm f/1.8; EF 1.4x extender mk. 3; EF 24-105 f/4 L; EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS; 3x Phottix Mitros+ speedlites

Why do so many people say "FER-tographer"? Do they take "fertographs"?
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