Help! What to buy next?

Chrisfrorobinson

Chrisfrorobinson

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Hi everyone,

I have a Nikon D3200 with Nikorr 18-55mm kit lens, Tamron 70-300mm telephoto and a Manfrotto Befree travel tripod (tripod is yet to be used). I am looking to buy new kit be it a lens or camera body as my photos are often blurry, too soft or out of focus when viewed at full resolution. Any advice would be great. Of course the type of kit depends on the type of photography I like doing. It's mainly UK nature such as birds, large animals, landscapes and trees. I also enjoy travel photography e.g wildlife on safari, cityscapes (both day and night), natural landscapes such as lakes and mountains. Thanks Chris
 
There's nothing wrong with your kit if you want sharp photos. It could be too slow shutter speed or high Iso or the way you are holding your camera

Put a picture on here that is not how you want it to be and include the exif . Someone will be able to tell you where you should look.
 
35mm 1.8g DX would be a good addition. Will provide better subject isolation and better for low light work. Cheap as well!

Although I would suggest analysing your images to see why it's OOF or blurry as new kit won't fix these fundamental issues.
 
Chrisfrorobinson said:
my photos are often blurry, too soft or out of focus when viewed at full resolution
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There are two strategies possible here:
Have your body and lenses "fine tuned" by a competent workshop or
get a body that allows for AF Fine Tune. It is not automatic that new
gear will perform perfectly.

When I acquire a new lens or body, I have to see that it is perfectly works
with all the tools in my arsenal. AF Fine Tune is a critical adjustment.
 
You don't know why your photos are blurry. So a new lens or camera may not make them sharper. It might even make them worse. But your current camera and lenses are capable of very sharp shots. You may have to use manual focus to get it. You may have to use your tripod. You will have to learn at what apertures and focal lengths reach of your lenses is at its sharpest. You will have to learn when you can trust AF and when you can't.

Once you've learned how to get the sharpest shots you can with your current gear you will also have learnt what are the specific faults in each lens and in your camera which stop you getting sharp shots more easily in a wider variety of conditions. Then you will know exactly how best to spend your money to improve your images.
 
chris malcolm said:
You don't know why your photos are blurry. So a new lens or camera may not make them sharper
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+1
…if it does, this is luck but does not solve your problem with the other lenses.
 
Don't buy anymore hardware, spend some time learning your camera and lenses.
Spend some time on Google (This was the first hit searching "basics of photography" http://improvephotography.com/photography-basics/ )
Maybe buy a book or two (a decent readable guide to your camera maybe, and something on imporving pictures).

If you think that it's a hardware fault, take your camera and lenses to a proper camera shop (not dixons / jessops) and ask one of their experts to have a quick look. Most decent shops will do this for goodwill (if they help you'll likely return to buy stuff, if there is a fault you might use them to repair it).

Oh and post up an example or two of the images you're having issues with, including the exif (I would suggest flickr). You might want to use the beginners sub-forum though rather than the equipment one.
 
I would be practising using the gear you have already. A suggestion is to use the tripod and set it up and take some photos of still object with your camera and prove to yourself that it can take sharp pictures. By using the tripod you will be removing the chance of camera shake, you can take the same picture at different F No's and see the way depth of field works.

I am guessing but are the soft blurry shots may be taken with the 300mm end of the Tamron zoom. If so I wonder if your shutter speed is too slow and you are getting camera shake. A old rule of thumb is the shutter speed should be 1/focal length of lens. i.e 1/300 sec if the lens is at 300mm or 1/70 sec if the lens is at 70mm . With a crop sensor you may want to go a bit faster and use a minimum of 1/500 for 300mm
 
Kodiak Qc said:
•
There are two strategies possible here:
Have your body and lenses "fine tuned" by a competent workshop or
get a body that allows for AF Fine Tune. It is not automatic that new
gear will perform perfectly.

When I acquire a new lens or body, I have to see that it is perfectly works
with all the tools in my arsenal. AF Fine Tune is a critical adjustment.
Click to expand...

AN alternative avenue that I may try before sending the body and lenses off would be to put the body on the tripod and use live view to focus at daytime. if the camera doesn't focus correctly and the shots are still soft there is likely a problem. Personally I would put it down to either camera holding technique, or slow shutter speeds, or not acquiring focus / focussing on the wrong object
 
If you want to spend money buy a photography course and learn how to use what you have now. Don't buy more equipment until you know how to use what you have.
 
As above, don't spend more money until you figure out why your photos are blurry. If you are absolutely 100% sure that your technique is right, then it could be that your camera and/or lens is not calibrated properly. Some higher end cameras have micro adjustments to allow you to calibrate the lens to the body, but before you decide on this you need to carry out proper controlled tests to check for front/back focussing (plenty of info on't web). Unfortunately tolerances in lenses seems to be pretty poor these days, all my lenses bar one need micro adjusting, one as much as +18 :(
 
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