White-tailed Kite screaming!

This White-tailed Kite is screaming at a passing Cooper's Hawk! I was shooting him quietly sitting here and all of the sudden he jumped alive screaming and took out after the Coop! The shot was made with a manual focus 400 3.5 lens plus a TC14B and is not sharp:( (I can't seem to get a sharp image with this combo:confused: with my D200, any ideas why?) but the action sort of makes up for the softness.


Camera Model: NIKON D200
Firmware: Adobe Photoshop CS3 Windows
Date/Time: 2009:03:28 09:43:32
Copyright: © Daniel Lee Brown
Shutter speed: 1/2500 sec
Aperture: 4.5
Exposure mode: Manual
Flash: Off
Metering mode: Multi-segment
ISO: 400

Excellent wing pose and action - agree that it's soft - maximal sharpness seems to be behind the bird on the branches but even that doesn't seem quite sharp - no helpful suggestions but I do find modern view finder screens difficult for manual focussing.

I can hear the scream right through my monitor. Outstanding action caught with the intent eye and open mouth. Yes, it is soft, but I like it anyway.

I agree Dan the action is great. Tony is right, the focus is behind the bird. Have a look at the bird's right talon- it is much sharper than the face. I'd test the combo out for back focus and maybe get some adjustments made. The modern Canons allow micro-focus adjustment in the camera, not sure about the modern Nikons. The tc could be causing the focus issue so try with and without. Also, if you think a lens combo is optically-challenged, I'd always use stopped down some and up the ISO to compensate if you need the shutter speed. This will also give you more DoF which will reduce effect of back-focus.

Lovely pose captured here. And the "screaming" makes this special.
Pity about the softness.

Dan nice capture especially for manual focus, I had many problems with my D70 with back focusing ( and front focusing) depending on the lens I was using, so I had to use a higher aperture to ensure sharpness, my D300 now has micro focus adjust....check out this site, it deals mainly with the D70 but try the chart and focus chart test they have, it might help you to see how much your lens is back focusing....assuming its a nikon lens on your D200, if you find there's a real problem, maybe send the lens and camera to Nikon for calibration, it may help

http://focustestchart.com/focus21.pdf


I have used the repair service below, this guy is good and doesn't work for Nikon but is an authorized Nikon repair person...when I was stuck in Texas with a non-working Sigma lens, the owner tried for 3 hours to get my len focus ring to move (I had a dud lens out of the box). After I bought my D300, I sent my D70 for cleaning and adjustments to them.
They may be able to help with focus adjustment....
If the lens is non Nikon, don't rule out the lens is the problem....




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Thanks Paul! I was using my D200 and the lens is a great lens (Nikon 400 f3.5). I will test the stuff and now that I have also acquired a D300, I will look into the micro adjusting.