Critique Sharpness

[big soft moose]

so which compact do you reckon I should use for bird photography

I have tried my M4/3 stuff with legacy tele's
My Canon S95 is not much use
My Leica M8 has really poor performance at ISO's over 640 … and the AF is non existent!!
I have tried Fuji bridge but ended up giving it to my son

My M6 with film - well it's just a waste of time for "birds"

maybe there is a compact with a small sensor out there that is good ……… can you advise

Misunderstanding - Use your DSLR ( Compacts do give greater dof and thus fewer errors in focussing, but it is distinctly preferable to get the focus right and use a DSLR)

 

[BillN_33]

Misunderstanding - Use your DSLR ( Compacts do give greater dof and thus fewer errors in focussing, but it is distinctly preferable to get the focus right and use a DSLR)

Thanks …… that's what I thought as even the V1 and FT-1 fall below the DSLR most of the time

 

[wave01]

hi looking at the pictures you have posted the heron is good IMHO its just technique with a long lens you will get a narrow dof which will through out the back ground but could also through out the subject depending where you have focused

 

[BillN_33]

hi looking at the pictures you have posted the heron is good IMHO its just technique with a long lens you will get a narrow dof which will through out the back ground but could also through out the subject depending where you have focused

Thanks wave
If you are referring to the Heron and Little Egret - I think that the mistake I made was focusing on the Egrets head - I assumed that because I had used f8 the Grey Heron's head would be in focus as both birds were almost in the same plane

 

[DizMatt]

right, sharpness, it's nice but not the most important thing about photography

secondly, I love sharpness! I've been sucked in too...but an image that isn't ultimately sharp isn't a loss if you capture something remarkable.

Looking at my 70-200 OS sigma I'm impressed with the sharpness in the studio, same with the 17-55IS canon. however, I don't expect the same sharpness at f2.8 taking photos on in the street etc.

The first thing I would do, is find the environment in which you take photos, setup something in the garden maybe? then lock off everything you can and adjust the aperture. remove camera shake of course, and test different apertures with the same ISO, then start pixel peeking.

For example I know that my 70-200 OS is great at f8 or f11, pretty good at f3.2 and much sharper than it would be at f2.8
When I put thet 2xTC on , I know that f2.8 becomes 5.6, but I need to stop down a little to f8 perhaps to get the most out of it, after that it starts to degrade again.

 

[BillN_33]

Thanks

maybe I should start a thread on "noise" in bird shots - my next "pixel peeping" gripe!!!

Then maybe the view will be move to the Canon D5 Mk lll and sell your Nikon stuff

 

[the black fox]

hmmmm a hard one to quantify ,after spending a few years with nikon a bought a d7100 last year as a upgrade ,the worst camera i have ever owned .had two bodies one after the other both packed in after roughly 4 weeks use each one .i have now switched back to canon and although going for a 10mp 1D3 body ,i'm extremely happy with the results i'm getting now .
the moral of the story is its not always the latest and greatest equipment that does the job ,you have to GEL with the gear you use .

i bought a s/h 400mm f5.6 to use with my canons ,and the best compliment i have had so far is off the previous owner who asked "did you take that with the lens i sold you " i think shocked would be a understatement .nuff said

 

[Nod]

Thanks

maybe I should start a thread on "noise" in bird shots - my next "pixel peeping" gripe!!!

Then maybe the view will be move to the Canon D5 Mk lll and sell your Nikon stuff

Best thing to do is actually something NOT to do, namely pixel peeping! As long as any noise that may creep in isn't obtrusive at the final use size (for me, generally an A3+ print), it's not a problem and in some situations can even add to a shot (think B&W grain).

Looking back at the images posted earlier, I think they're all sharp enough at the posted size, the thing I would probably do though is crop the egret and heron to portrait format but that's my taste and yours is almost certainly different!

I also see your point about preferring an SLR over the V1 - I do too BUT I far prefer having the V1 and 70-300 round my neck (actually, it's usually an 18-200 so I have at least some width available!) than the D700!

 

[BillN_33]

the thing I would probably do though is crop the egret and heron to portrait format but that's my taste and yours is almost certainly different!

well there you go …… ironically it started life as a portrait which was my preferred option ……. but it was suggested that maybe it needed "space"