For the past few months, I've mentioned how my refurbished 1.7x TC coupled with my 300mm f/4 PF was stellar until I removed the TC from my camera before being put back on. Then suddenly my images missed focus - mostly being soft and slightly out of focus. And there was some front focusing going on that never used to happen with this combo.
With all my lenses, I always use the Sport VR option when it is available. After having elbow surgery many years ago, I've found it to be superior to the Normal VR (but that's only due to *my* physical limitations). On every lens, Sport VR has been sharper. When shooting with the lens only (no 1.7x TC), Sport VR is fine. But I've noticed now with the 1.7x TC and Sport VR, most of my images miss focus or simply are soft. And that's been consistent ever since I initially removed the TC then put it back on. However, I don't know if the problem has to do with the TC or the lens. Again, the lens alone with Sport VR is exceptionally sharp.
So here are several images from today. NONE of these have been post processed. All were NEF's opened in Camera RAW. Lens Profile was selected, all only have the default sharpening (40 I think) but no noise reduction. All are Adobe Color for the profile. Then all were taken to PCC where they were resized for the forum. No cropping to any of them.
I'm pretty sure these first two were taken with Sport VR. Both are soft or possibly heavily front focused.
So I switched to Normal VR. Okay - not bad as there is quite a bit of feather detail visible.
This 300mm f/4 PF was purchased as preowned. Since I always use Sport VR, I hadn't tested out the Normal VR. One of the problems with the lens (and it happens without any TC), is the image jumps to a new position within my viewfinder - but ONLY with Normal VR. Take a look at these 3 successive images and note how the subject isn't in the same place. But that is a lens issue and has nothing to do with the TC. It drives me nuts! :beguiled: But overall, the feather detail is still very nice. :encouragement: I stuck with Normal VR for the remainder of my images.
But I still wind up with one every once in a while being slightly soft even with Normal VR.
But for the most part I can get some great detail such as these two.
But then this one wound up being soft - and that was with a shutter speed of 1/2000". Possibly the camera hadn't achieved focus since the subject is dark. Keep in mind wide open with the 1.7x TC, my aperture is f/6.7. So possibly that might have caused this focus glitch. I'm looking for any suggestions to try to help isolate the focus problems vs. VR problem. I also want to test out this 1.7x TC with my 70-200mm f/4 VR lens to isolate any problems that might be related specifically to the TC or determine if some problems are related to the 300mm f/4 PF lens. Comments and suggestions will be appreciated. Thanks!
With all my lenses, I always use the Sport VR option when it is available. After having elbow surgery many years ago, I've found it to be superior to the Normal VR (but that's only due to *my* physical limitations). On every lens, Sport VR has been sharper. When shooting with the lens only (no 1.7x TC), Sport VR is fine. But I've noticed now with the 1.7x TC and Sport VR, most of my images miss focus or simply are soft. And that's been consistent ever since I initially removed the TC then put it back on. However, I don't know if the problem has to do with the TC or the lens. Again, the lens alone with Sport VR is exceptionally sharp.
So here are several images from today. NONE of these have been post processed. All were NEF's opened in Camera RAW. Lens Profile was selected, all only have the default sharpening (40 I think) but no noise reduction. All are Adobe Color for the profile. Then all were taken to PCC where they were resized for the forum. No cropping to any of them.
I'm pretty sure these first two were taken with Sport VR. Both are soft or possibly heavily front focused.
So I switched to Normal VR. Okay - not bad as there is quite a bit of feather detail visible.
This 300mm f/4 PF was purchased as preowned. Since I always use Sport VR, I hadn't tested out the Normal VR. One of the problems with the lens (and it happens without any TC), is the image jumps to a new position within my viewfinder - but ONLY with Normal VR. Take a look at these 3 successive images and note how the subject isn't in the same place. But that is a lens issue and has nothing to do with the TC. It drives me nuts! :beguiled: But overall, the feather detail is still very nice. :encouragement: I stuck with Normal VR for the remainder of my images.
But I still wind up with one every once in a while being slightly soft even with Normal VR.
But for the most part I can get some great detail such as these two.
But then this one wound up being soft - and that was with a shutter speed of 1/2000". Possibly the camera hadn't achieved focus since the subject is dark. Keep in mind wide open with the 1.7x TC, my aperture is f/6.7. So possibly that might have caused this focus glitch. I'm looking for any suggestions to try to help isolate the focus problems vs. VR problem. I also want to test out this 1.7x TC with my 70-200mm f/4 VR lens to isolate any problems that might be related specifically to the TC or determine if some problems are related to the 300mm f/4 PF lens. Comments and suggestions will be appreciated. Thanks!
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