Why my photos aren't sharp Canon 600D + Tamron 150-600 G2

[jsegra]

Hello, this is my first post in this forum. I'm fairly new to photography (I started Jun 2023 and Jan 2024 with wildlife).

I bought a Tamron 150-600mm G2 last month after using a Tamron 70-300mm for six months and felt I lacked range. Though I managed to get some "decently sharp" photos (photo 1) in the last three weeks, my problem is more recent.



I just came back from a trip to check that any of the wildlife photos I took weren't sharp. During the trip, I saw it but I thought that it was the LCD tricking me when zooming in on the pictures, so I kept doing them as usual.

With photos 2 and 3 I tried to keep the shutter speed above the x1, shutter speed = 600mm * 1.6 (canon crop sensor) = 960mm = +1/1000s and f/7.1 (what is supposed to be the "sweet spot" of the lens). I use the camera center focus point to get the bird in focus, and I reckon that sometimes I don't use the continuous focus mode for the bird in flight (I don't think this was the case with photo 3) and I also use the lens stabilization with mode 1, shooting handheld. What am I missing to get sharp pictures?



Photo 1 specs: f/6.3 600mm 1/1250s ISO-400 processed with lightroom.
Photo 2 specs: f/7.1 600mm 1/800s ISO-800 exported straight away from lightroom.
Photo 3 specs: f/7.1 600mm 1/1250s ISO-400 exported straight away from lightroom.

Thank you very much,

 

[Cameron T]

Honestly, even the first one doesn't look sharp.

If you test against a static subject and it's still bad, it's a bad lens copy. Mentioning your body might help as well (af fine tune on dslrs for example).

 

[David Berry]

Jsegra …

Welcome to the BCG Forums!

My suggestion is to work towards a solution in the following way:

• Set your camera to M mode—manual (shutter & aperture) with auto ISO.
• Shutter: decrease Tv (time value) : choose 1/2000 s rather than 1/1000 s.
  • This will reduce motion/vibration blur.
• Aperture: decrease Av (aperture value) : choose f/13 rather than f/6.3.
  • This will increase your depth of field — better chance of bird in focus.
  • Whilst practising just accept that bokeh won't be soft.
• Sensor Sensitivity: increased ISO will be set by the camera.
  • Welcome to auto ISO in the thousands, not hundreds.
  • Whilst practising just accept the resultant noise.

In summary:

• Decrease time — manual
• Decrease aperture — manual
• Increase ISO — auto
• Accept the unwanted side effects: let's fix the main problem first.

… David