It's not razor sharp but looks quite acceptable to me. I use a 100 - 400 hand-held most of the time and that's about what I get a good bit of the time as I don't use it often nowadays and that makes it a lot harder to hold it steady. I do shoot a lot from the vehicle and propping on the window opening helps. Also distance makes a big difference in sharpness especially hand held. I'm attaching one I made last week from the vehicle. First time I'd used the lens since January. The bird was probably 80 ft away so it was cropped a fair amount. Good image processing makes a lot of difference too. Not just for sharpness, but for "punch" i.e. appearing to have more mid-tone contrast mostly and saturating the colors a bit from the original Raw capture. I used Lightroom 4 (highly recommended!) and Photoshop CS5. I do capture sharpening of 25 amount on the Raw image and then after I size it for the web/print in Photoshop I use Smart Sharpen or Nk Dfine Ps plugin which is excellent. Photoshop Elements has the same smart sharpen available. Lightroom can also add output sharpening to your jpg or other format images when you export them after conversion. As for tips for razor sharp images, of course using a tripod with stabilization turned OFF and using a wired or wireless remote shutter release (or 2 second timer) to reduce shake is the optimal way and you should at least try that to determine if the lens is sharp or not. When hand-holding I find that if I grasp the tripod collar foot with my left hand instead of just supporting the lens I get much sharper images. Other tips are to place one foot ahead of the other to get better balance and holding your breath when you press the shutter helps. I also discovered that if I sort of roll the flat part of the end of my finger across the button instead of just pressing the end down on it it shakes the camera a lot less. I did a search at birdphotographers.net photography forum and found this info for you: I have the 100 - 400 lens as my main workhorse and it is plenty sharp. Although there are reports of soft copies out there, most problems are user error or tweakable adjustments. Check the following: - Have you checked for the need of micro adjustments? [on cameras that have micro adjustments - he was replying to someone with a 7D] - Do you have a filter on...if so, I know this lens isn't very happy with one on (especially cheap generic ones) [I never use a filter on mine other than a polarizer when needed] - When handholding with IS on, are you using proper handholding techniques? - Are you using a tripod, and if so is IS turned off? (it should be) - If used on a tripod with IS off, are the images sharp or sharper? - Are the images sharp when stopped down (say, f/7.1 or f/8)? Some copies are reputed to be soft wide open, but sharp stopped down... [mine is softer wide open] Another guy said: I also believe there are variations in quality of the 100-400. Mine is softer than a friend's at 400 and tested identically (on tripod with mirror lock up, daylight fast exposure). Be sure to remove any filter, even expensive ones. The large aperture combined with the long focal length will magnify any imperfection, which means even the best filter will likely cause some distortion. A moderator said: Yes, distance to subject can be another factor. When cropping, if I end up with anything less than 75% of full-frame I just won't post it or put it on my website (I could crop more in many cases, but that is just a personal thing that I have). If you do crop heavily, yes, your images may appear soft if they aren't critically sharp to begin with. Two guys sent theirs in to Canon and they were fixed. One was lens alignment, cost $350 but now tack sharp. He said: I sent the lens to Canon, explaining what seemed to be happening, and $350 and 2 weeks later (it was out of warranty, of course) I received what works like a brand new lens. Now my 100-400 is sharper at 300mm that my 300mm f4L. It is also sharper than my 70-200. Another sent his in and they found it was back-focusing. Hope this helps! Judy Howle Southern Exposures http://southernexposure.zenfolio.com Digital Photography Class; Resources for Photographers http://digitalphotographyclass.net From: missbirdphotos-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:missbirdphotos-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Larry Pace Sent: Wednesday, March 07, 2012 6:48 PM To: missbirdphotos@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [missbirdphotos] intro Hi guys This Mid-Delta (Cleveland and surrounds)photographer needs some really good advice on bird photography. I thought that I was progressing fairly well over the last couple of years, but looking at really good bird photos on several online galleries (Ronnie Gaubert, now deceased, from Prairieville, La being one) quickly proved that to be WRONG. I shoot with a Canon 50D and a Canon 100-400 zoom . The biggest problem I have is sharpness and the shots never seem to have that punch I see in other photos. From all the experience that you all have had, I need suggestions. What works for you? I am looking forward to sharing photos and info about places to photograph, etc. with everyone. Help me with this photo--advice anyone. Larry Pace
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