Help needed for a Tamron 70-300mm Di LD f4-5.6

[Nigel Kibble]

Can anyone give me tips on how to get sharper pictures with this lens , I have a very limited budget and love to take pictures of birds and nature , I am new to photography and willing to try any suggestions to improve my images . Thanks in advance for your time.

[Doug West]

One of the things to look at is how you're holding the lens. Assuming you're right handed, you'll want your left hand
under the lens, near the front. This will give you a little more balance vs holding the lens near the camera body.

Another technique is to make sure the camera body is flush up against your face. There's days when my face is so
tight up against the camera, I literally get a cut above my nose.

I also try to stand with my feet approximately shoulder's length apart for balance.

If I'm getting low, I never squat...I tend to wobble a bit. So I'll get on my knees and rest on my heels. Generally
though I'm usually sitting.

Then there's the obvious...fast shutter speed, ai-servo to catch the smallest of movement.

That's just some of the things I can think of and do myself on a regular basis.

Doug

[PhilCook]

I used to own this lens and it was good within it's limitations. It will never be as sharp as pro grade lenses, but great results can be achieved.

One of the main things to try for is to get very close if birding or the like, the images from this lens will not stand up to large crops. For birds images hide photography may yield best results. It will be sharpest at around f 7.1 so stop down a somewhat and reduce max focal length to around 250mm, not the full 300mm.
to have
Then there are the obvious ways to improve like use a solid tripod, keep shutter speeds to at least 1/300sec.... if hand holding, preferable much higher shutter speeds, which all means use only in good light if hand holding.

[James Shadle]

I use this lens at between F7.1 and F8 for best results.
The VC is outstanding!