Since I've been having concerns about sharpness/focus, I went practicing at our local duck pond a week ago, using the 100-400mm without any extender. The goal was not a great comp or anything, just an assessment of lens sharpness....looks to me like my focus point was on the breast where the water drops are, instead of on the head/eye; nevertheless, what do you think of the sharpness? This was NOT sharpened at all; except for slight crop and slight curves adj., is as converted from RAW.
1DMkIII
100-400 IS on, FL 360
f/9, 1/1600, ISO 500
Winter midafternoon, sunny
AF, handheld
Hi Anita I'm sure that is a good lens If you want to test for sharpness get a newspaper and tape flat to a wall Not only can you test for sharpness but for your ability to handhold Very useful to see the shutter speed you actually need
Also remember that RAW images are not sharp from the camera you will have to do some work to them For the newspaper try set the USM to the same level for all to make it even Another way is to actually shoot jpeg (yes) there is actually a use for it Do set the level of sharpness (probably medium or high) then all should look the same sharpness wise
That lens is a sharp lens It had a bad reputation at the start The two that I've had were very sharp Don't like using with a converter Would only do so from a tripod and only on special occasions The magnification of that set up with a MK3 is 680 and with a 1.6 crop factor camera is 800 mm Not easy hand holding that focal length j
I ran smart sharpen at 200% 0.1 pixels and it looks pretty good.
All is right though that live subjects are not the best for testing. The printed text on a wall test and a test chart (two different tests) are much better and more controlled methods.
Graylag - Lens Sharpness Eval.
