Pictures not as focused as I thought using New 200-600mm Sony lens! Help?

[gmintram21]

Hi folks, I’m wondering if you could possibly provide some advice. I have a Sony A7ii and I pair this with a recently purchased Sony 200-600mm lens (so it’s new to me). However I’m finding a lot of my images to not be as sharp as I thought (from others images/reviews prior to my purchase) or focused correctly. I’ve done all I know with my settings and playing around with different types of focus, but I’m wondering whether there’s something I’m missing or any tips/advice/settings that people could recommend I try? The amount of phenomenal reviews and images I’ve seen with this lens and I just feel as if I’m doing something wrong

 

[smoke665]

It would help if you posted some images.

 

[gmintram21]

It would help if you posted some images.

Of course apologies - so the pale bird (Wheatear) was 5 meters away and the other two in grass were around 15 meters. These are just a couple I’ve taken over the last few weeks, maybe not the best examples but the clarity is clear to me in many images that it’s not focusing on the face/eyes or proving clarity where I wanted. I use manual mode, have AF-C setting set to wide focus area/tried single spot too and Use back button press to focus before taking the shot. But the focus seem all over the place to me in many of my images. So just some tips or advice with this set up or preferred settings would be super helpful. Thank you

 

[smoke665]

Need your settings also. Couple things come to mind on a longer lens. First the rule of thumb for shutter is it should be equal to focal length as a minimum, but faster is better. The other possibility is csmera shake. A tripod or monopod is helpful

 

[RAZKY]

Hi folks, I’m wondering if you could possibly provide some advice. I have a Sony A7ii and I pair this with a recently purchased Sony 200-600mm lens (so it’s new to me). However I’m finding a lot of my images to not be as sharp as I thought (from others images/reviews prior to my purchase) or focused correctly. I’ve done all I know with my settings and playing around with different types of focus, but I’m wondering whether there’s something I’m missing or any tips/advice/settings that people could recommend I try? The amount of phenomenal reviews and images I’ve seen with this lens and I just feel as if I’m doing something wrong

I studied your young buck image pretty closely, and he looks rather soft overall - can't really tell where the point of focus was. It doesn't look like camera movement to me, and with both in-camera and in- lens stabilization, I doubt that's the issue. Which is surprising to me because, though when I think of Sony I think of radios, televisions and sensors. NOT cameras and lenses, I've read nothing but glowing reviews of that 200-600.
I wouldn't expect Sony's auto-focus system to be much different than anyone else's, so if you check tutorials for other systems you're bound to pick up some useful tips applicable to Sony. Good luck and keep us informed.