600mm Lens Bluring

[Beauty Through a Lens]

I just got a 150-600mm lens. I love it but...my photographs for some reason are blurring when I get up or near the 600mm mark. At times they don't appear blurry until you look closely. Now these photos are wildlife but the subject isn't moving that much. I am using a Nikon D5100 I am in aperture priority mode and ISO at 400 which I've used with my 70-200mm lens. I am not using a tripod but I have a steady hand to support my lens or I have it squeezed between my legs if not wresting on my bag yet the image still blurs a bit.

[dasmith232]

... blurring when I get up or near the 600mm mark ... I am not using a tripod

Uh, sorry, but yup. That's going to be the case.

There's a rule about the shutter speed needing to be at least 1/focal length. That's 1/600 second minimum. And if you print (on paper, not just on the computer screen) then the requirement pretty quickly switches to twice as fast, or 1/1200 sec minimum.

...but I have a steady hand to support my lens or I have it squeezed between my legs if not wresting on my bag yet the image still blurs a bit.

With all the kindness and sympathy possible, I'd have to say, "sorry, but not steady enough." It's really not anything against you or your skill, but these are the laws of physics that we're talking about.

In a more relaxed situation (not chasing wildlife), go into your yard or nearby park where you can carry a tripod. Shoot the same shots handheld and with the tripod. I assume that you'll see a big difference.

[Shadowman]

You'll slowly get used to the lens and how to use it to the best of its abilities. I only used one similar (150-500mm) for a few hours and was quite pleased with the results. I noticed that there were very few images taken at maximum focal length.

[dem]

First, 600 mm on a crop body is 900 mm ff eq and it is 900 not 600 that should be used to work out the minimum shutter speed: 1/900s.

Second, if you have IS on the lens, you can safety go much slower than 1/900s, e.g. 8/900 = 1/125s with a 3-stop IS. Experiment to check what shutter speed you are comfortable with. A tripod or at least a monopod will take a lot of weight of your hands.

Third, your real problem is likely to be the too shallow depth of field. If you are photographing a bird from 6 meters away, DoF will be less than 2 cm. Birds are usually bigger than that. Need to stop down to f/11...f/16 to get the whole bird sharp. If you are photographing deers from a mile away, you have to get closer.

Hope this helps.

[Manfred M]

Adrian - my first guess would be the same as Dave's; but you haven't shown us any images nor have given us the most important piece of information; the shutter speed you are shooting at. Hand holding a 600mm lens = 900mm FF equivalent is going to be really difficult and you'll have to be using the upper end of shutter speed to minimize blur.

Two or three other things could be happening as well.

1. You are shooting through a lot of atmosphere if you are shooting at the long end of that lens. Air temperature differential means the air density changes between the lens and the subject. This is the phenomenon when we see the shimmering just above a hot asphalt road in the summer. This can be an issue with any super long lens.

2. Focus miss - Long lenses have an extremely narrow depth of field and if the camera selects the wrong place to focus, even by a bit, softness will often result. I find long lenses are more prone to focus errors than shorter ones.

3. Inherent softness of zoom lenses that have a long zoom range. Unfortunately the design tradeoffs that lens designers have to make to create a 150 - 600mm lens means that there will be some softness in the range, and this is usually seen at the far end and the near end of the focal length ranges. Serious wildlife photographers know this any buy those extremely expensive ($10K and up) lenses to avoid this issue.


All four of these factors are additive so the softening effects will tend to compound.

[Polar01]

Adrian sorry to agree with Dave, hand held at 600mm and getting tack sharp images not going to happen. Think of this you are looking at something out at 600mm you depress the shutter button that simple action will cause the camera and lens to move you will not see it, but zoom in and you will. At a long distance a heartbeat can cause movement and you are trying to hand hold or squeezed between your legs (interesting to see that), what can help somewhat attach a cable release at least then you are not pushing the shutter button down and causing movement. The best thing is to mount it on a tripod and still use a cable or remote release, remember not to cheap out with a $1,000.00 lens and then camera mounted on a $100.00 tripod equals insurance claim.

Cheers: Allan

[John 2]

Got to agree with all the above. I have the Tamron 150 - 600mm. I had to rethink my whole approach in order to get sharp images. I have a good quality pro tripod but it is not good enough at 600mm. I found that shutter button pressure, auto focus movement and mirror slap were enough to cause a problem at marginal shutter speeds. I don't want to afford/can't carry a heavier tripod and so my solution has been a remote release and a bean bag. Works most of the time.

[jprzybyla]

I shoot at 600mm handheld all the time with tack sharp images. You must use a high shutter speed, like 1000 and above (the higher the better if the available light allows). Use manual mode set the shutter speed as I noted ( 1000 or above if enough light), set the aperture (most time I am using F/5.6 unless I need more depth of field) and use Auto ISO (choose the shutter speed and aperture, let the camera decide what ISO is necessary). Use continuous autofocus (Nikon AF-C, Canon A1 Servo) and a single autofocus point unless shooting birds in flight where I use the nine central autofocus points. The key to tack sharp images handheld is high shutter speed, continuous autofocus, and using a single autofocus point to control where you want the camera to focus. There are bird photographers who are using a 600mm plus a 1.4 converter handheld and capturing tack sharp images of birds in flight. The key is high shutter speed and continuous autofocus. Hope this helps, works for me and the bird photographers I learned from.

P.S. I just read your post again and stand corrected. Your D5100 is a crop sensor like my D7000. Your lens is 150-600mm making the long end effectively a 900mm. I think that is what is causing the problems. I would say with the high definition sensor in the D5100 most likely you would be looking at needing a shutter speed of 2000 or above.

[William W]

What is the Shutter Speed of the images with Blur?

Thanks in advance for answering this question.

WW

[rpcrowe]

Different reasons for different problems regarding lack of sharpness..

If only your subject is fuzzy and if that subject is moving - it could likely be that the shutter speed is too slow to stop the subject motion.

If portions of your image at one distance are sharp while portions of your image at other distances are not sharp, focus could be the problem. That is either the camera or photographer have selected the wrong focus point or the auto focus is either off or too slow to nail the focus...

If there is nothing sharp anywhere, most likely the culprit is camera movement. Best remedy is to support the camera steady - using a tripod or sometimes even a monopod...

If one side of your image is sharp while another side is OOF, the problem may lie with your camera or your lens.

If the image is just slightly unsharp all over and you have done no PP sharpening, that could be the problem.

If you are greatly cropping your image, that could also be a reason for the image not being crisply sharp...

Some less expensive lenses, especially those with a wide focal range, are inherently not sharp, especially at the longer focal lengths and when shot wide open...

Dirty lenses can account for some lack of sharpness.

Very dull days or days with atmospheric haze can result in images "looking" less than sharp - also flare can reduce sharpness...

Auto focus lenses have an annoying tendency not to focus automatically when manual focus is selected instead of auto focus

The above problems are not mutually exclusive. By that I mean that there could be two or more of the above reasons contributing to lack of sharpness...

[Krawuntzel]

Hello Adrian
I also own a 150-600mm and had/still have the same "problems" as you. I use it handheld on a FF-camera and never without tripod on a "crop-body". Even with ISO 400 you have to have a very sunny day to get a decent shutter speed at 500-600mm. The reasons have all been listed.
That is the limitation of the lens; so there is nothing else, than to adapt to this feature.
Erwin

[Beauty Through a Lens]

Adrian - my first guess would be the same as Dave's; but you haven't shown us any images nor have given us the most important piece of information; the shutter speed you are shooting at. .

It's completely unedited.

ISO 1000 600mm f/6.3 1/4000 sec
[IMG][/IMG]

[John 2]

Adrian, it's difficult to see what is going on here because this is a very low resolution image but from what I can see it looks like the plane of focus is in front of the bird. Given the limited DOF at 600mm and f6.3, this would be enough to push the bird out of focus. I can't see any evidence of movement (e.g. ghosting). You could probably come down from 1/4000th sec to around 1/1500th -1/2000th sec and drop the aperture to around f8 or f11 to get a greater DOF. The definition of the lens is better at these apertures anyway. Give it a try.

[Beauty Through a Lens]

Adrian, it's difficult to see what is going on here because this is a very low resolution image but from what I can see it looks like the plane of focus is in front of the bird. Given the limited DOF at 600mm and f6.3, this would be enough to push the bird out of focus. I can't see any evidence of movement (e.g. ghosting). You could probably come down from 1/4000th sec to around 1/1500th -1/2000th sec and drop the aperture to around f8 or f11 to get a greater DOF. The definition of the lens is better at these apertures anyway. Give it a try.

I don't think I can get my f stop to anything but 5 or 6?

[PhotomanJohn]

I don't think I can get my f stop to anything but 5 or 6?

I'm not sure what lens you have but if it is the Tamron it can go all the way down to f/40 at 600mm. So give what John2 suggested a try.

Also the lens may naturally focus in front of the subject with your camera at 600mm. There isn't much you can do about that with the D5100 which I don't believe has micro-focus adjustment. Your best option is to either manually focus the lens and/or try to stop down and get more DOF.

John

[William W]

Thanks for posting a sample image

Adrian, it's difficult to see what is going on here because this is a very low resolution image but from what I can see it looks like the plane of focus is in front of the bird. Given the limited DOF at 600mm and f6.3, this would be enough to push the bird out of focus. I can't see any evidence of movement (e.g. ghosting). You could probably come down from 1/4000th sec to around 1/1500th -1/2000th sec and drop the aperture to around f8 or f11 to get a greater DOF. The definition of the lens is better at these apertures anyway. Give it a try.

I also agree on all the points underlined and bolded.
The Plane of Sharp Focus appears to be in front of the bird.
If that is a full frame crop of the image, I calculate the DoF would to be about 4 inches, which would render the bird slightly Out of Focus - which you described as ‘blurred’.

*

I'm not sure what lens you have but if it is the Tamron it can go all the way down to f/40 at 600mm.
Also the lens may naturally focus in front of the subject with your camera at 600mm. There isn't much you can do about that with the D5100 which I don't believe has micro-focus adjustment. Your best option is to either manually focus the lens and/or try to stop down and get more DOF.

I also agree that this is probably the basic issue – the lens is “FRONT FOCUSSING”, and I agree with the methods to fix it.

***

I don't think I can get my f stop to anything but 5 or 6?

EXIF recorded the lens as: “150 to 600 F/5.0~6.3” (i.e. it is NOT a fixed aperture lens).
I think it must be either a Sigma or Tamron model. The aperture must be able to be changed.

In that same lighting and if you wanted to use the Camera in “A Mode”, you would simply set F/11 for the Aperture and bump the ISO to ISO1600 and the camera would select 1/2000s as the Shutter Speed.

Or you could use M Mode and once setting the Aperture to F/11 (or F/8) you could select a suitable Shutter Speed and ISO to match the lighting conditions.

WW

[jcuknz]

It is obviously sharper in front of the bird but what we can see is the front of the bird and I think DoF actually covered the whole of the bird. sharpening it helped quite a bit but the problem is than the lighting is not helping and I was reminded of the saying ' Have the sun behind your back' though preferably not immediately behind you.
The shot also reminds me of my feelings when I changed my reach from 430 to 950mm ... that the little blighters knew this and stayed further away ... basically you are simply not close enough ... that is photographic tough love

edit ... just for fun I did a selection of just the bird and sharpened it. I would suggest you refrain from shooting wide open [ your lens is f/5.6 at wide angle and closes down to f/6.3 as you zoom ] unless you can frame the bird as below.

This is one of the disciplines one needs to cultivate. edit #2 Right ...This illustrates what I can do with the 'fill flash' tool in PSPx6 and I think shows an answer to the lighting problem.
I make no apologizes for beating my favorite drum that camera and editor are of equal importance in producing the goods.

[Glenn NK]

First, 600 mm on a crop body is 900 mm ff eq and it is 900 not 600 that should be used to work out the minimum shutter speed: 1/900s.

This isn't quite correct.

The FL of a lens never changes - it's always the same no matter what the crop factor is. A DSLR body has no control over the lens FL (the FL of a zoom lens is selected by the user).

A smaller sensor doesn't capture all the image that a smaller sensor does. In effect, it "crops" the image, hence making look as though it's been magnified. This is why sensors that are smaller than the "standard" 24 mm x 36 mm are called crop bodies.

Don't feel bad - this is probably the one thing in photography that is most often misunderstood and gotten wrong. And it leads to all sorts of mistaken ideas, statements, and conclusions. Once one understands the concept that smaller sensors simply don't capture the same amount of image as larger sensors, then things fall into place.

You could (but don't) take a FF body, put some masking tape around the edges of the sensor to reduce the 24 x 36 mm image captured to 24 mm x 16 mm and you would have a Nikon sized "crop" sensor.

Glenn

[William W]

First, 600 mm on a crop body is 900 mm ff eq and it is 900 not 600 that should be used to work out the minimum shutter speed: 1/900s.

And:

This isn't quite correct. . . etc . . . [continues explanation of 'crop factor' and a 'Focal Length of Lens']

I note that you two chaps have had similar discussions on this topic before.

However, I’d like change the emphasis and mention I think the more important point to make is that the ‘1/FL Rule’ for hand holding a camera, is merely a guide.

In this regard neither formula 1/FL NOR 1/(FL x 1.5), should be used: “to work out the minimum shutter speed”.

One needs to take into account many factors, to choose the most appropriate Shutter Speed for any particular shot.

WW

[dem]

Sorry Glen, but you need to use the equivalent focal length to apply the 1/mm to different formats:

Is the "1/mm" rule universal?

The 1/mm rule is designed to keep the ratio of the field of view variation due to camera shake to the total field of view recorded by the sensor constant. Then, when you print these identically framed images coming from different formats on the same size paper, they all will have the same amount of visible camera shake.

I've tested this theory probably thousands of times on four different formats with and without image stabilisation. I know it works and I use it all the time.