focusing difficulties

[hayley.price]

i tried both and never worked, i did some in view finder some in live view and it was still doing this

 

[FourRingCircus]

its a black bird has a hit of white n bit of orange on its face is a carnivor or is diving under the water to get fish at times don't know the species first time I have seen one here

It's a cormorant.

 

[seriousrikk]

These look like a pretty heavy crop to me, the image quality is defiantly below what I would expect from the camera, even the last one of the Heron.

That aside, you also have some issues there. The second shot of the cormorant, when viewed at 100%, is I believe in focus. The complete lack of clarity is something else, be it heat haze from the water, lens flare, camera shake - combined with using a lens wide open that is not really that sharp and cropping a bit.

 

[beyond the blue]

Total long shot here from a novice, could it be due to some sort of haze coming off the water similar to trying to focus through a heat haze in summer? If this is a stupid answer fire away. :bonk:

 

[hayley.price]

These photos are straight of the camera no crop editing or what so ever the only one edited is the one I said had been sharpend

 

[DannyDMR]

looking at the larger images in flickr i cant help think it is motion blur i.e. your very slightly moving the camera

 

[Nod]

The photograph in this thread is nothing to do with the OP or the problem, so it's confusing people.......

Mea Culpa again! Sorry to have confused you (possibly), Hailey, I thought the heron pic was an example of the problem you're having.

Still worth checking the AF settings, it does sound like the camera's focussing on something other than what you want it to. Do you have any examples to post?

 

[Nod]

Oops! Seen the poted examples now! It looks to me like you're running up against the limitations of your lesn, I'm afraid. Few lenses (especially at the budget end of the market) are at their best wide open at longer focal lengths. 230mm is a fair way from its longest length but f/5 is very close to it's widest opening at that length (reported by Flickr's EXIF as being f/4.9). The cormorant shot has sharpened up reasonably - not perfect but I'm afraid that may be as good as your lens can do. IMO, camera shake is a bit unlikely at 1/1000th of a second - next time, maybe knock the speed back to 1/500th and stop down a stop - might just give you an extra stroke of the sharpening steel!

Don't be too disheartenned - by the look of the pics, the birds regularly roost in those spots, so should be reshootable. If you have a tripod, take it next time - a drop to 1/250th or slower may then be possible, allowing you to use f/8 - probably closer to your lens's sweet spot than f/5!

Good luck,

Nod.

 

[hayley.price]

okay thanks nod will try that next time thanks for all your help guys