What's wrong with this picture?

[Dave B]

I am in the process of trying to set myself up with my first DSLR kit. I think I've settled on the D50 for the camera, but need some advice on the lens. Price constraints mean that I will probably have to go for a 300 zoom.

I went out this morning with a friend who is using a D50 and Nikon AF Nikkor 75-300mm f4.5-5.6, and took the attached photos. They were all taken at ISO200. The heron was shot at 1/250, f14; the plover at 1/400, f8; and the eagle at 1/640, f8.

To my eye, all three look a bit soft, even though they are sharp. My question is, does the Sigma 70-300 produce significantly sharper images, or would I need to go for a much more expensive lens? Or is there something else I am missing?

Thanks for any advice you might be able to offer.

[BenBirding]

If you took these in raw format, they will be a bit soft. You can adjust the lighting with raw much better though. You can always sharpen your images with UnSharp Mask in PS or GIMP or whatever image editing software you have. How far away were you from these subjects btw?
The Sigma lens shouldn't really produce much better results. A Nikkor 300 prime lens would result in the biggest change.

[Dave B]

If you took these in raw format, they will be a bit soft. You can adjust the lighting with raw much better though. You can always sharpen your images with UnSharp Mask in PS or GIMP or whatever image editing software you have. How far away were you from these subjects btw?
The Sigma lens shouldn't really produce much better results. A Nikkor 300 prime lens would result in the biggest change.

They were taken as jpegs and I forgot to say, using a tripod. Distances? Very difficult to judge. The heron was the closest, it occupies about a third of the width of the uncropped original. The plover is further away, maybe a sixth of the width of the original, and eagle, about a third of the height (top to bottom) of the original image. Not sure if this helps.

I don't have PS, but will try using USM on GIMP. Does USM work the same way as the 'sharpen' feature on other programmes?

Thanks for the advice btw.

[Adey Baker]

Don't forget that the 1.5 crop-factor of the D50 has already 'stretched' the lens to a certain extent so, if you're then cropping another two thirds of the image away you're bound to start to see the limits of any lens.

Will the D50, perhaps have 'Photoshop Elements' bundled with it where you live? USM is a better, more controlable way of sharpening than a basic 'sharpen' command.

[Tyler Vargo]

I can't directly compare it to the Nikon 70-300s (never used one) but my Sigma 70-300 is quite a nice lens. It produces sharp images as long as I hold the camera steady. I've heard that the Nikon 70-300s were dissapointing and extremely bad by Nikon lens standards, which is why I got the Sigma (plus, the sigma has 1:2 'macro' capabilities).

[Dave B]

Don't forget that the 1.5 crop-factor of the D50 has already 'stretched' the lens to a certain extent so, if you're then cropping another two thirds of the image away you're bound to start to see the limits of any lens.

Will the D50, perhaps have 'Photoshop Elements' bundled with it where you live? USM is a better, more controlable way of sharpening than a basic 'sharpen' command.

Thanks Adey. I downloaded the 30 day trial version of Photoshop Elements this afternoon and already, even with my amateur first efforts, I can see a significant improvement over my previous best efforts with the old software I was using.

[Dave B]

I can't directly compare it to the Nikon 70-300s (never used one) but my Sigma 70-300 is quite a nice lens. It produces sharp images as long as I hold the camera steady. I've heard that the Nikon 70-300s were dissapointing and extremely bad by Nikon lens standards, which is why I got the Sigma (plus, the sigma has 1:2 'macro' capabilities).

Thanks Tyler. I think I will probably end up going for one as well, as all the better alternatives are well beyond my budget at present.

Dave

[Pavel_D]

Dave, the shutter speed that you used at this length is inadequate. The rough rule of thumb for a sharp shot (handheld - or when something in the picture may move) dictates aproximately 1/500th of a second if I'm right in presuming that they were shot at 300 mm.

The lens seems to be focusing close where it is supposed to but not perfectly.It's hard to be sure by the small shots but looking at the second shot - the bird seems to be right on the back plane of focus. Ideally the focus should be 1/3 in front and 2/3 in behind a subject. Perhaps there is a small case of front focusing here?

There are two versions of the 70-300. The "G" lens and the Ed lens which costs aprox double+ more. You don't mention which you have but in my experience with these two lenses there is a notable difference in optical qualities and your pictures would be about what I would expect for an average copy of the "G" version. The Ed glass is considerably more contrasty and a bit sharper.

Then as a last point it never helps to use one of several sharpening methods on any digital file. The moire filter on the D50 is a bit stronger and so the files can use a bit more sharpening that say files out of the D70. Try unsharp mask at about 70, 0.4 and about 4 for sharpening and then at 12, 25, 0 for a quick boost in contrast.