Getting fustrated

[billy320]

We got a new bird at the feeders and my camera decides to have a bad day, I just could not get it focused, and the AF kept beeping which means it's in focus. What am I doing wrong.



Exposure: 0.008 sec (1/125)
Aperture: f/5.6
Focal Length: 300 mm
ISO Speed: 1600

[OldClicker]

Was this cropped? How much? How far away was it? - TF

[Singletracklovr]

I will guess camera shake or the bird moved.
With a 300mm lens you need at least 1/300 minimum unless you are on a tripod.
When I use my 300mm I select shutter priority set to 1/500 for hand held shots.

[A.M.D.A.]

I know what you mean. I often have the same problem, since my area sits under gloomy weather way too much time.
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For starters, as Bob suggested, try increasing the shutter-speed. Unless a tripod or 100% stable support is being used, select a shutter-speed at least which equals the 35mm equivalent focal length of the lens in use.

300mm on an Oly DSLR is equivalent to 600mm. So, 1/600 second at least, optimum would be 1/1200 second or more. However, the E-30 has built-in Image Stabilization, so one can shoot at up 5 stops of slower shutter-speed (as claimed by Olympus). Technically, relatively sharp hand-held shots are obtainable at 300mm at 1/200 second with IS activated. 1/400 second and faster is best, though.
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To Auto-Focus accurately the AF-point must be precisely placed over the subject. The subject has to fill up all of the AF-point area. Low lighting conditions can also cause some lenses to mess up their AF accurancy, for example, instead of focusing on the clear subject, it will focus a little in front or behind. (Front-focus/Back-Focus). Manual focusing may be a better choice.
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What lens was used for this shot, and how much cropping was applied?

Assuming the ZUIKO 70-300mm in your signature was used, then definitely consider stopping the aperture down a bit. I have a SIGMA 70-300mm, which is essentially a clone of the ZUIKO, except for a few cosmetic differences, pricing and branding. This lens is not great at 300mm aperture F5.6, particularly when heavy cropping is involved. Also, the AF likes to back-focus or front-focus in low light.

In order to get good results when cropping you have to be careful avoiding camera-shake, stop down the aperture a bit, and lower the ISO number. ISO 1600 isn't going to give stellar results on most current APS-C/Four-Thirds camera bodies, unless cropping is sparsely applied.

For low-light wildlife situations I like to use the 300mm F4 MF-only, that extra stop of light makes a huge difference, and ISO can sometimes be lowered to reduce noise/graininess. I would advise to use your 50-200mm F2.8-3.5, 35mm equivalent is 100-400mm which is plenty for most backyard birds. The optics should be quite a lot sharper as well.

P.S. How about getting down to the bird's eye-level for a better shooting angle?

Hope this helps.

[Sushigaijin]

I agree with AMDA. You can tell it's a mixture of camera shake, aperture and ISO because nothing looks really crisp, sharp and clean.

[SmartWombat]

From the high angle (nearly 45 degrees) and the long focal length, I'm guessing this was taken from indoors, through a window.
The biggest problem to me is that nothing is sharp, that looks like blur from camera shake.
Unless you were using a tripod (and even then if it wasn't really stable) that 1/125 shutter speed is about 4 stops too slow. Hand held at an effective 600mm is rather too slow, even with an IS lens.
If you're not using a tripod, then all you'd need to do is lean forward, or back, a bit and the plane of focus will move enough to put that bird out of focus.

[billy320]

Thanks everyone