D7000 Focus Issue

I continue to have trouble getting clear shots of birds with my D7000 and 300MM lens. I have already sent the body into Nikon and they checked and fixed its issues which helped some but did not fix to my liking. I also tried all of the back and front focus charts and AF Fine Tune adjustments to no avail. My wife tells me the attached image is clear but I do not think so. I did post work to sharpen it up and it still lacks to me and it is the best of the 40-50 I took of the subject. I used F/4.5, 1/200 sec, ISO-800 Due to light conditions, 85MM, spot metering. What do you think? Is it clear?

That shot, to my eye, looks a bit over-sharpened but it's hard to tell based on a small JPG image like the one you've posted. Can you upload the file directly, instead of attaching it?

Also, when you shoot, do you shoot in RAW or JPG? If it's the latter, have you adjusted the in-camera Sharpness setting in the Picture Control menu? Also, if you're shooting at 300mm I would tell you to keep your shutter speed at 1/300 or faster. Personally, I'd want it around 1/500 or thereabouts when shooting that long on a DX body.
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I inserted the original of the one that I changed in post.

I use both cards to shoot JPG and RAW at the same time and always use a shutter speed 1.5 + due to it being DX. I have not used the Manage Picture Control setting.

I still think it did not add the data. How do I upload it so it adds the data?

80Gritt said:

I use both cards to shoot JPG and RAW at the same time and always use a shutter speed 1.5 + due to it being DX.

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Okay, good... Because that will help a LOT.

80Gritt said:

I have not used the Manage Picture Control setting.

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If you shoot JPG's you really should look into this; making this one in-camera adjustment will have a big impact on the overall sharpness of your JPG photos. Here's what you do...


Almost forgot too mention that each Picture Control (Standard, Landscape, Vivid, etc.) will have its own set of sub-menus and Controls, and each one will need to have the Sharpness setting adjusted individually, assuming you use them.

As for RAW image files, those need to be sharpened during post-processing. There are many ways to sharpen a shot and how you go about it will depend on what software you have to do your post processing and what the final output will be (a print, for instance, versus being viewed online). Searching Google for tutorials on how to sharpen a RAW file should give you no end of results.
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Thank you. I made the changes to SD as that is where I leave it. I used the Nikon View NX 2 program to sharpen it. I do not have another program to do real post yet. I just tried sharpening because it was all I could do to get the picture less blurry.

This has frustrated me for a long time. I am thinking about getting another model as my D60 (older ver) takes clearer pictures of birds at distance. The D7000 takes great pictures of up close subjects but when I try small objects at distance it is always blurry whether I use my 55-20mm and 55-300mm.

I just bought a Sigma 150-600 too and the wife put it up for XMAS and if that does not take clearer pictures then I definitely will be investing in another model.

It is not the camera or lens. You stated that you shot the first photo a 1/200 second at 300mm. That is way to slow for that distance. I have a D7000 with a 18-200 xoom on it that my wife shoots. I have it set with auto ISO set with a minimum of 1/300 second no matter what she shoots. That handles all the slow shutter speed issues. When we are shooting something out of the ordinary I will set her camera up differently but with all sorts of red flags to warn her about slow shutter speeds. Mainly to use the tripod and remote shutter release. The older cameras are not as sensitive or as high a resolution as the camera you are shooting so you really need to shoot better and with better glass. I had the same problem moving from the D7000 to the D7100. I had to step up my game and skills to get better photos. Once you figure it out and learn it your results will be much better with the D7000 than they ever were with the D60

I mentioned above I shot 1/200 sec at 85mm.

80Gritt said:

I mentioned above I shot 1/200 sec at 85mm.

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Sorry, did not see the 85mm part. just the 300mm length of the lens.

A little post processing can help. Just adjusting the color balance and the contrast helps

Thanks. It does indeed. I still think it is not in focus as I would like it to be. And again it was the best of the bunch.

80Gritt said:

Thanks. It does indeed. I still think it is not in focus as I would like it to be. And again it was the best of the bunch.

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I agree your shots look a little "iffy" as it is. Removing the blue-green color cast helps balance the color but the shot is still soft; no doubt about that It's possible you have some front/back focus going on but I'll be curious to see how your shots look once you've adjusted the Sharpness setting.
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Going to play devils advocate here,i had a D7000 and liked it but at 800 ISO your at the highest ISO i was happy using,at that ISO you could do without cropping much especially on things like birds with fine feather detail, your lenses will limit you on subject size a lot of the time,if you just bide your time until your allowed to play with the 150-600 you are going to notice a improvement.
When you get the new lens give yourself time to get used to it and try to get the subjects as large as you can in the frame at what ever ISO you use,cropping is a last resort as you always tend to lose IQ to some extent,you should be well set up with that outfit.

Thank you all for the replies. I am also glad to know it is just not me seeing the softness. I cannot wait until I get to open and use the 150-600 and see the hoped for improvement.

This will give you an idea,it was taken on a D7000 using the Sigma 120-400 which didnt have a great reputation,try to get as large a image as you can and keep the ISO below 800 and you will be ok.

Very nice shot. Thanks for the suggestion.

You noted fine tuning your lens with charts. Did you also try the dot-tune method (search for a post on it) for comparison? Also, even if you do fine tuning, the ultimate determination is made by your actual photos. I did a chart method once that looked very good but when I took some actual photos, the result was a front focus situation; getting a chart set correctly can be a challenge.

I never had any success with any of the Fine Tuning methods till I got FoCal Pro from Reikan[FONT=Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif] My eyes and monitors just could nor see the fine differences in the charts.[/FONT]

I go through this with my D7000 from time to time. My Tokina 11-16, for example, is great at 11mm but turns into a soft mess at 16mm...but only on my D7000. On another body, the lens is fine at both ends.

First, though, are you certain it focused on the bird? That's critical. If it focused on the needles behind the bird, the bird probably will be a touch soft.

Also, keep in mind as you crop that the D7000 has a filter that intentionally makes things blurry at a very small level, to prevent moire patterns (some newer cameras don't have this filter, but it was standard for years). I don't think that's the problem in this example, but keep in mind if you zoom in too much it's definitely going to be a touch blurry. If you start pixel peeping, nothing will be clear.

Which reminds me, I think there's a psychological aspect to this - once it starts looking soft to you, you can't unsee the softness and everything looks soft unless it's absolutely tack sharp.

(This isn't to disagree with any of the advice given above - it's all good advice, too. I'm just throwing out some other pointers about the D7000.)

All good advice. Yes I checked the focus point in the Nikon software.

Horoscope Fish said:

I agree your shots look a little "iffy" as it is. Removing the blue-green color cast helps balance the color but the shot is still soft; no doubt about that It's possible you have some front/back focus going on but I'll be curious to see how your shots look once you've adjusted the Sharpness setting.
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I was able to get out and take some shots this past weekend. As you suggested I adjusted the in camera Sharpness on the JPEGs. It seems to have helped a lot.