As sharp as I can expect from D300 with my lens?

LilyJack

Hi there,

Relatively new to dgrin although I've lurked for a little bit. Just moved from a Nikon N50 film camera (12 years old) to a D300. Big jump and I've been playing around with it for about 2 months. Getting a sharp focus has been challenging and I'm wondering if my lens is causing the issue. But keep in mind, I'm chasing around toddlers and not asking them to sit. Although to test that theroy, I took some flower shots to see if I could get sharper focus. Here are two examples. When I view them at 100%, the aren't that crystal clear sharp that I see in other photos posted here. And the digital world and D300 options are all new to me, so it could very easily be something I'm doing or not doing.


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Nikon D300
Nikon AF Nikkor 70-300mm, 1:4-5.6D
Child Photo: F9, 1/640, ISO 200
Flower: F8, 1/640, ISO 200

To me, the child picture seems to be focused just slightly in front of her face.

I read some previous threads and tested some things out. At first, I thought Dynamic 3D was the focus I wanted to use. But I think the camera "questimation" of where the toddlers are actually going to move to was not as accurate as I wanted. So now I'm using AF-S, Single.

Is the lens to slow for the focus? As I understand, the D lenses don't have a motor in them like the newer ones and therefore may not be able to keep up? This shouldn't matter with the flower though...and there appears to be nothing in sharp, sharp focus.

Is the perfectionist in me being too picky?

Thanks for all your help,
Kate

BPerron

I would say it is the lens...I would try to get a 50mm or 85mm prime that is f1.4 and see how it goes from there...as for the motor not in the lens, that should not make a difference at all...I would suggest talking to ziggy on here, he is the man when it comes to lenses.

SloYerRoll

I would agree about the lens.

I use a D200 but the following should be the same. There should be two seperate buttons on your camera that have small green dots beside them. If you hold these two buttons down at the same time for about two seconds. It will reset the camera to it's factory defaults. Who knows what you changed in the menus while playing

Try taking some shots then and see if they are still soft.

ziggy53

BPerron wrote:

...as for the motor not in the lens, that should not make a difference at all...I would suggest talking to ziggy on here, he is the man when it comes to lenses.

Did I hear ...?

AF-D lenses do appear to use the camera driven motor, as opposed to AF-S lenses which have the motor integral with the lens body.

As to whether it makes a difference in focus speed or accuracy, it can depending upon the particular body and lens combination.

Supposedly not all Nikon cameras use the same in-camera focus motor, better motors being put in the more professional cameras. I don't know if that's true for sure, but it kind of makes sense to put more powerful (torque and speed) motors in the better bodies.

Whether that makes a functional difference would depend upon the mass of glass (and such) being moved and the type of helical threads in the lens (mechanical advantage versus distance to move).

As far as I know, there have been no serious comparisons to show either critical problems or clear advantages in camera to lens focus speed or accuracy. In other words, I haven't seen that the lower tier cameras suffer much if they do have lesser focus motor technology.

The only thing generally assumed is that AF-S is usually a better system for both speed and accuracy.

Tanuki

I think macro photos can be quite challenging for focus. Were you using a tripod? Small camera movements can make a huge change in the focus location on macro photos. Where was your focus point? Parts of the stamens appear to be in focus, but keep in mind that depth of field is very narrow for macro photography.

If you want to do a controlled test, I think a better subject would be a large, generally flat, static object with a detailed surface about 15 feet from the camera. If the focus is off, you can try tweaking the autofocus fine tune setting.

With regards to the toddler photo, keep in mind that telephoto lenses have narrow depth of field even at f9. Plus, it takes a bit of practice to learn how to focus with the D300 on a moving subject, much less one that darts around. You should expect to have to practice a bit before you get the hang of it. The 70-300 f3.5-5.6 may not be a spectacular lens, but you don't need to give up on it yet.

What were your autofocus settings for the toddler photo? I would suggest the following.

- Focus selector switch to dynamic
- CSM a1 set to focus
- CSM a3 dynamic area autofocus set to 9 point or 3D
- CSM a4 focus tracking with lock-on set to OFF

Regards,
Mike

cmason

One thing that got me when moving from an older film camera, and this is especially true of the D300 with its billion focus points: be very very careful that your intended focus point is the one the camera is focused on. Quite often the camere picks a point that you did not want, if you have it doing so.

For Canon's the supplied Zoombrowser software will ID the focus points for each picture, which is a critical learning exercise with thi new camera.

I rely on one single focus point only, and manually choose that focus point. This way I ensure that the focus point is on the intended target, such as an eye.

Your macro, which by the way are the most difficult to get focus right, appears to be mainly on the edge of the leaf, or the stamens. If that was not what you wanted, it will look 'bad' to you. The child I can not tell.

I have older canon lenses, and my newer Tamron and L lenses are easy to see sharpness improvements, especially at tight crops. With film we didnt pixelpeep, so it doesnt take long before you notice sharpness issues that never surfaced with film.

LilyJack

cmason wrote:

One thing that got me when moving from an older film camera, and this is especially true of the D300 with its billion focus points: be very very careful that your intended focus point is the one the camera is focused on. Quite often the camere picks a point that you did not want, if you have it doing so.

For Canon's the supplied Zoombrowser software will ID the focus points for each picture, which is a critical learning exercise with thi new camera.

I rely on one single focus point only, and manually choose that focus point. This way I ensure that the focus point is on the intended target, such as an eye.

Your macro, which by the way are the most difficult to get focus right, appears to be mainly on the edge of the leaf, or the stamens. If that was not what you wanted, it will look 'bad' to you. The child I can not tell.

I have older canon lenses, and my newer Tamron and L lenses are easy to see sharpness improvements, especially at tight crops. With film we didnt pixelpeep, so it doesnt take long before you notice sharpness issues that never surfaced with film.

Thanks for the info everyone.

Focus point: Capture NX does show me where the point was put.
Flower: Stamen, this photo is sharper to me. I was not using a tripod.
Child: Cheek, right where the chin strap goes over it. But nothing seems in complete focus.

I am amazed at the narrow depth of field with the telephoto but I use it mostly with the toddlers because it allows them to do their thing, without me being in their face. Mostly, they always try to grab the camera.

Prior to these two shots, I did a test with a tripod to see if it was hand shake. I took three different boxes, lined them on the counter and took shots with the tripod and without. The lowest speed was 1/80 which (as I understand) mostly avoids hand shake. Macros are different certainly and heavier equipment sometimes changes it for us non-body builders around here:) But I was about 8 feet away and zoomed in. When reviewing the photos at 100%, there was no noticeable difference and they were sharp.

I just must be off on getting the focus point to be where I want it. I'll keep trying. Mike and Cmason, I'll try what you suggest.

Thanks all - from the newbie to dgrin!
Kate

GwagDesigns

Ill just add my 2 cents in here, me and a coworker were playing with lenses at work the past week, D300 being the body, and if your looking for a sharo tak lens, like me wanting to replace my 18-55 finally , read up on the 18-50 made by sigms. Its a fixed 2.8 for starters and from viewing the test shots we took, its a very sharp lens, good range as well.

LilyJack

GwagDesigns wrote:

Ill just add my 2 cents in here, me and a coworker were playing with lenses at work the past week, D300 being the body, and if your looking for a sharo tak lens, like me wanting to replace my 18-55 finally , read up on the 18-50 made by sigms. Its a fixed 2.8 for starters and from viewing the test shots we took, its a very sharp lens, good range as well.

Thanks for the lens recommendation. I'll keep it in mind. I'd love to buy a new lens but I'm trying to hold off for the moment since I splurged on the D300. Anyone find that money tree yet?