Resident Crane

It's been a while since I've had the chance to post, but I always sneak a peek to see what others have been posting :) Almost done with school, just one more week!

One of the Sandhill Cranes that calls Gainesville its home year round. The rest left earlier this year back to their Spring/Summer lands up north. This image was captured this morning at LaChua Trail, Gainesville, FL. I got down on my belly to help isolate him a bit from the background and to add some sky into the mix.

Shooting Info:
Nikon D800 | 500 f/4 + 1.4 | on tripod with legs flat on the ground
1/1600" | f/7.1 | ISO 640

On a side note, I noticed that my D800 w/ 500 + 1.4 just isn't as sharp I would expect it to be. I'm attaching images after this post to show some 100% crops at the location of focus.

And here are three screenshots from ViewNX (Nikon NEF viewer). I found that all of my images from today lacked critical sharpness. I was on a tripod with shutter speeds 1/1250" or faster, stopped down from f/5.6, and at a reasonably low ISO 640. The first one is a shot of the original post. While I think it makes a nice web sized image, it's not what I would want if I were looking to print.

I'm just not sure why these came out this way, but it's not even close to being acceptable. I haven't used my gear in a month (it's been in the closet the whole time) because I've been focusing on finishing up my dissertation.

I'm going to try to re-calibrate (I've used Lens Align in the past), but at this distance I would have thought the the dof would be large enough to cover any minor focusing errors. Any tests you guys recommend me trying out?

Thanks for taking the time to look!

Miguel:

I like the colors, comp and bg in the original post. The blue/purple flowers add a lot.

I agree, the sharpness is no where near what I would expect with this combo. I have found the 500 and TC14 to be very sharp by f/6.3, and you had plenty of shutter speed. Could there have been any heat distortion going on?

I would retest it with lens align, it clearly should show if you are front or back focusing. Could you find any sharp area on the bird or background? Was it sharp before you put it away last month?

The micro adjust is a little sensitive to temp changes. What distance did you do your alignment check at? I use a min of 40 ft, and longer if possible to do my tests.

Cheers

Randy

Randy, thanks for the quick reply. To answer some of the questions that you brought up:

- I have also gotten some VERY sharp results with this combo, which is why I was so surprised by the results. The combo was sharp before I put it away.
- I couldn't find a sharp area on the bird at all, which also alarmed me a bit. I don't think heat distortion was a problem, it was in the low 70's this morning.
- When I first did my adjustment check, I was at the recommended distance via the LensAlign website. Can't remember what that was.

Some added notes:
- VR was off. I had it on initially bc I was shooting handheld, but for these two shots it was turned off.
- I was laying down, and it may be possible that I was shooting though some thin weeds. Could this be a cause of the problem? I wouldn't think so since it didn't seem to slow focus down at all, but it may be. Ideas on this?

Miguel

I like the setting, composition, flowers, HA and BG. I would blend the OOF green area in the tall grasses in front of the crane (beak points to it). Hope you get to the source of your problem. Nice image Miguel.

Miguel, I had a similar (maybe even worse) problem with a Canon 7D, 500 mm f/4L IS, and a 1.4x TC, which normally gives me super-sharp images.

In my case, I concluded the temporary fuzzies were caused by a very light condensation of dew on the front element which I didn't notice. There may have been some condensation inside the lens or camera too. I had driven to Merritt Island NWR early in the morning, and I had taken my lens and camera out of an air-conditioned car and started shooting with it too soon after getting out of the car. The humidity was very high, and I was shooting over water. I ruined an otherwise great series of photos of a dancing reddish egret that way. Oddly, the subject looked sharp through the viewfinder, but when blown up on the computer, the lack of sharpness was obvious. This is kind of an insidious problem, and I have been careful not to repeat since, by turning off the air in the car long before I arrive at my shooting destination. Of course, this may not have been your problem, but it happened to me and was frustrating at the time.

Dennis, yes - I've had that happen before as well. Especially here in FL. Unfortunately, that wasn't the problem this time. It was toward the end of the trip and the lens had a couple of hours to get acclimated. I wish I had photos from earlier in the day to compare it to, but there just wasn't anything worth photographing until I saw these guys. I'm going to head back out tomorrow and see if I get any different results.

Miguel, you captured the crane in beautiful settings...Love those flowers...The image in first pane looks sharp...The problems you mentioned in second post could be due to many reasons...What time of day were you shooting? was it a hot day?
if it was a hot day and not the early morning light I am sure it is heat shimmer that is causing issue and no issue with your gear.

Nice crane photo, I would take some off the bottom.
I would never take VR off even with a tripod.
Unless you are taking landscape photos with a timer you get motion just pushing the button.
Since most all of the photos you post are sharp, I would assume this may be the reason here.

OK guys, I've had the same problem on a couple of occasions (and not some others in between) with the new 600 "II" and 1.4 III, 5D Mk III. No obvious explanation -- no condensation in the conditions I was in -- need to check every spec -- I've quit using all points and gone to single point with helper points (can't remember the proper terminology) -- but got absolute junk, just like you showed above, on a couple of shoots. Need to find out what's going on. Plenty of SS and DOF. Happened on a lot of images -- maybe all -- need to try to reproduce it. I do wait a split second for IS to stabilize. Using rear button but what difference could that make? Nothing was in focus -- not a missed focus plane. Didn't look like motion blur -- on a Wimberley II with everything stable -- I even use silent shutter to minimize any vibration, although tests show it isn't necessary. I normally hold torque on the lens to minimize vibration. Did I get sloppy a couple of times?

I normally leave IS on, even on the Wimberley, with a long lens like that. But maybe it shouldn't be on if I'm locked down -- I don't remember if that was the case when I saw this, but don't think so. (I deleted them in disgust so need to try to reproduce it.)

Hope someone follows up on this.

Miguel:

I like the colors, comp and bg in the original post. The blue/purple flowers add a lot.The image in first pane looks sharp.

Diane, I'll let you know if I figure anything out. I just hope that it was that I was shooting through some light brush. I just noticed that there is a "line" that goes from the top left to the bottom middle. That could be a possible branch!

The original post is very nice, Miguel. I lke the layered for-and background and the bird looks sharp on the post size.
About your problem.
Since you were shooting very close to the ground, there might have been some air turbulance as a result of air rising, due to the warming effect of the sunshine.
I would check the rig shooting from a tripod, using a target whatever you like to use as a target.
If it is still giving you a problem then I would check the fine adjustment again. I had mixed results with the LensAlign. Now I use Reican FoCal with more repeteable test results.

Thanks for the suggestions Carl. I'll take a look at the focal as I no longer own lens align.