Why are my images not sharp?

Looking at the exif... and the general look of the image... Are you sure you used the 70-300mm for that shot? Exif info shows 35mm
 
When shooting a moving target but always at a fixed point, such as the point where the horse jumps the fence, you could try re-focussing on that point then switching the lens to manual focus. It's then just a matter of firing the shutter at the right moment to get perfect focus. Takes some practice to achieve this but a great technique when you've mastered it.
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hammer nail head. CF cannot keep up and trying to follow a horse around the course will result in focussing on jumps that get between you and the horse.........

1600th is high and could be dropped a bit to give u more dof......I get by at 750th to 1000th
 
Nope, just his. Didn't do anything differently apart from taking the photos in AV mode.
 
jwphotos said:
Nope, just his. Didn't do anything differently apart from taking the photos in AV mode.
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Maybe then last time you were just unlucky that the focus point picked up on the background and not the horse? The horses are a bit bigger in the frame this time, bigger target?
 
jwphotos said:
Nope, just his. Didn't do anything differently apart from taking the photos in AV mode.
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The Canon 70-300 isn't particularly great at AF tracking IME (I had the IS version a few years back). The Sigma may well be better. Accuracy is a combination of body and lens, together with some measure of technique.

That said, I got some reasonable results with it in Regent Street when they had F1 cars running up and down it in 2004. This was with a 300D. Lots of obstructions in the way (lamp posts, etc.) that didn't throw the AF off too badly. Most of my misses were the result of poor panning rather than focus - F1 cars accelerate very quickly :)

f/7.1 at 1/200 sec.

CRW_3620.jpg


I'm also wondering if your position had something to do with things working better on the second session. AI Servo does take a moment to engage after you half-depress the shutter button, and it helps if the subject is in motion at a consistent speed relative to the camera. It has to calculate the trajectory that the object you're tracking is on, and to do that it has to sample positions across some time base. A horse heading straight toward you provides a simpler tracking problem for the camera to solve.

Did you have time to allow it to settle in in the first example you posted or had the horse just turned in to take the jump?

Edit: the best way to find out whether the lens is the problem, as mentioned earlier, would be to try your 70-300 and the Sigma side-by-side under the same conditions.
 
Ah. A rather different beast, then. By repute, the 90-300 is supposed to be a lot snappier with focusing.
 
Denyerec said:
In addition to the above:
1/1600 may well not be enough to freeze the rider in that kind of move. It's surprising just how high your shutter really needs to be to truly freeze motion.
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1/1600th is more than enough. I very rarely need to go over 1/1000th and that includes for polo, where the horses are moving much faster.
 
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