I tried changing my settings for Ospreys....

[coastalconn]

These do seem pretty sharp...motion seems stopped, focus seems good. I do not have other days' worth of photos to go through and compare against, but these look good for shots made in "good light".

http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/nature-wildlife/322961-2013-osprey-quest-begins.html These were from 2 days ago...

@ Chad Tamron 200-500 SP AF F5-6.3

 

[coastalconn]

That lens is pretty good wide open, which is usually the poorest.

Were these hand held ?

Yes sir

 

[matthewo]

sounds about like what I do. anywhere from 1250-1600 or 2000th if lighting is good. 6.3 or f8 usually. 700mm using 1.4x converter. I like 9 point dynamic area for BIF, but I use single point for most stationary things, just because small birds up close or birds up close with small heads a dynamic point may pick a focus point other then the head when DOF might be too shallow and focus point needs to be dead on.

I thought AF-C mode was continuous focus and would fire without being in focus, my AF-s or single servo mode will only fire when its locked on, but that's just my settings probably. so basically I only use AF-Single servo mode when shooting portraits or landscape or stationary things that never move. and of coarse AF-ON, button only for focus.

 

[Mully]

Loved #3 ...great shot...and imagine all this from a D300 ...way to go!

 

[coastalconn]

One other thing I forgot to mention is that I used no noise reduction in these shots. I also added a touch of vibrancy, saturation and contrast in LR4. I left sharpening at default. I used a high pass sharpen in photoscape with radius 1 at 60% and then resized to 1600 on the long side...

I thought AF-C mode was continuous focus and would fire without being in focus, my AF-s or single servo mode will only fire when its locked on, but that's just my settings probably. so basically I only use AF-Single servo mode when shooting portraits or landscape or stationary things that never move. and of coarse AF-ON, button only for focus.

I only use AF-ON and I would probably not buy a camera without it. Sometimes I use AE-L at the same time. AF-C(so does af-s) has 3 settings (at least in the D300) release, release and focus or just focus. The beauty of setting AF-C to focus priority and using the back button is you have AF-S at the same time...

Loved #3 ...great shot...and imagine all this from a D300 ...way to go!

The D300 is still a great camera. So it doesn't have the resolution, high iso or dynamic range of the newer cameras but it is just a joy to shoot. Still faster than any other Nikon DX camera (with a grip) and a bigger buffer The AF has finally been surpassed (maybe?) with the D7100 with the center point to F8. I'm in no rush to upgrade. For $500 it is one hell of a camera...