Opening a can of worms here......

[USM IS]

I would if I left that lens on ALL the time. I use only the center AF point, and the sensitivity on the AI is cranked. Did the five dollar bill on the wall check and looks the same to F 8.0 and then gets worse after that. And with the extender it is just mush, period.......Below is the sharpest shot I ever got with the extender, this is off a gimbal on the heaviest Induri tripod...And this is sharpened.....I believe you can see my frustration, very soft feathers......Mike

 

[gsgary]

I would if I left that lens on ALL the time. I use only the center AF point, and the sensitivity on the AI is cranked. Did the five dollar bill on the wall check and looks the same to F 8.0 and then gets worse after that. And with the extender it is just mush, period.......Below is the sharpest shot I ever got with the extender, this is off a gimbal on the heaviest Induri tripod...And this is sharpened.....I believe you can see my frustration, very soft feathers......Mike

How long have you had the MK3 and 300F2.8 ? when i changed from the 300F4L to the F2.8L i wondered what the hell i had done because i couldn't get them as sharp but after a few weeks i was back on track
This shot is hand held with Canon 1.4x on the 300F2.8L and i have the servo focus set on moderately slow ( it dosn't make it focus slow but if you have something move past the focus point it will stay on focus better like when shooting rugby or football)
Shot at 420mm 1/160 F9
John McGuiness Isle of Man lap record holder

 

[USM IS]

Didn't realize how bad it was till I saw you folks fantastic work. Long enough to have sent the Mark III back twice.....Mike

 

[manaheim]

Sharpness is about 2 parts equipment and 98 parts technique.

I can get ridiculously sharp images out of a piece of garbage 28-100 3.5/5.6 I have lying around here when my friend is struggling to get a sharp picture out of a 50mm 1.8 (which is about the sharpest glass I have seen to date).

There's also some level of understanding involved... (you may know this, but...) digital cameras, by the pure physics of the beast, are naturally not that sharp. They all have an anti-aliasing filter that is over the sensor to help transition an analog world to digital pictures. (different cameras have different strength filters) Anyway, this means that pretty much every digital image needs a slight bit of sharpening (well, unless you want a softer look)

All this said, your images look pretty sharp. Hard to tell at this size, but...

 

[gsgary]

Didn't realize how bad it was till I saw you folks fantastic work. Long enough to have sent the Mark III back twice.....Mike

I'm sure you are missing something on the camera settings, have you ever tried back button focus ? that is all i use even for studio work
I will check what my settings are on my MK2 you could give them a try

 

[USM IS]

Didn't realize how bad it was till I saw you folks fantastic work. Long enough to have sent the Mark III back twice.....Mike

I'm sure you are missing something on the camera settings, have you ever tried back button focus ? that is all i use even for studio work
I will check what my settings are on my MK2 you could give them a try

I easily could be doing something wrong, just looking for hints. I will have to give back button a try, noticed it in the manual. My big head scratcher is with 300mm or 180mm lens on either the 50d or Mark III the results are pretty equal sharpness wise, there are obvious vibrancy differences, it was like going from a 20d to the Mark III....Mike

 

[Hardrock]

Didn't realize how bad it was till I saw you folks fantastic work. Long enough to have sent the Mark III back twice.....Mike

I'm sure you are missing something on the camera settings, have you ever tried back button focus ? that is all i use even for studio work
I will check what my settings are on my MK2 you could give them a try

Sorry to highjack thread but gsgary please elaborate on back button focusing! I have never used it and dont really understand why it is better?? Thanks.

 

[gsgary]

Didn't realize how bad it was till I saw you folks fantastic work. Long enough to have sent the Mark III back twice.....Mike

I'm sure you are missing something on the camera settings, have you ever tried back button focus ? that is all i use even for studio work
I will check what my settings are on my MK2 you could give them a try

I easily could be doing something wrong, just looking for hints. I will have to give back button a try, noticed it in the manual. My big head scratcher is with 300mm or 180mm lens on either the 50d or Mark III the results are pretty equal sharpness wise, there are obvious vibrancy differences, it was like going from a 20d to the Mark III....Mike

I love my 300 on my 5d here's one at ISO3200 F3.2 1/640

 

[Dykstra]

The sharpness has nothing to do with the camera's sensors and everything to do with your technique and the lenses themselves. Although Nikon does tend to outrank Canon when it comes to the quality of raw data from the image sensor (compare cameras on DXOmark.com), there's really no reason why Nikon should be sharper than Canon, or vice-versa. It's all up to you and your technique.

 

[c.cloudwalker]

Have you tried micro adjusting your camera to your lens ?

I was waiting for gsgary to elaborate on this but he didn't. Few people seem to know about this but it is often the reason for the problem you have.

Here is an article about it. There are quite a lot of them if you google it.

AF microadjustment for the 1Ds mark III, 1D Mk3, 5D Mk2, 7D

 

[gsgary]

Didn't realize how bad it was till I saw you folks fantastic work. Long enough to have sent the Mark III back twice.....Mike

I'm sure you are missing something on the camera settings, have you ever tried back button focus ? that is all i use even for studio work
I will check what my settings are on my MK2 you could give them a try

Sorry to highjack thread but gsgary please elaborate on back button focusing! I have never used it and dont really understand why it is better?? Thanks.

I used back button focus in my 10D days and still use the 10D today, I found it focused a bit quicker, instead of half pressing the shutter button to focus you use the star button on the back with your thumb it's a well known technique with sports photographers
Custom function 04/3 AE/AF no AE lock

 

[gsgary]

Didn't realize how bad it was till I saw you folks fantastic work. Long enough to have sent the Mark III back twice.....Mike

I'm sure you are missing something on the camera settings, have you ever tried back button focus ? that is all i use even for studio work
I will check what my settings are on my MK2 you could give them a try

I easily could be doing something wrong, just looking for hints. I will have to give back button a try, noticed it in the manual. My big head scratcher is with 300mm or 180mm lens on either the 50d or Mark III the results are pretty equal sharpness wise, there are obvious vibrancy differences, it was like going from a 20d to the Mark III....Mike

The custom funtions on my MK2's are set to
CF4 3
CF11 1
cf17 1
CF20 3
cf21 0

 

[USM IS]

I'm sure you are missing something on the camera settings, have you ever tried back button focus ? that is all i use even for studio work
I will check what my settings are on my MK2 you could give them a try

I easily could be doing something wrong, just looking for hints. I will have to give back button a try, noticed it in the manual. My big head scratcher is with 300mm or 180mm lens on either the 50d or Mark III the results are pretty equal sharpness wise, there are obvious vibrancy differences, it was like going from a 20d to the Mark III....Mike

The custom funtions on my MK2's are set to
CF4 3
CF11 1
cf17 1
CF20 3
cf21 0

Most of mine top out at 17.....Mike