Is it sharp

[slat]

I have a Tamron 100-400 lens and think it's just a little soft. I have the TAP-in console to make adjustments. I shot these handheld. Is it poor form on my part or is it a bit soft?

IMG_0179 by Steven Emmons, on Flickr

IMG_0165 by Steven Emmons, on Flickr

 

[Strodav]

Hard to tell looking at the photos. Certainly 0165 looks sharper than 0179, but it might not be the lens. 0179 might be camera shake, AF issue combined with a shallow DOF.

Here's how I check sharpness. Print out a resolution target or find something with small text like a magazine page or newspaper page. Hang your target on a well lit wall (I use my backyard fence), mount your camera with lens on a tripod, use a remote release, set to base ISO, manual, wide open aperture, adjust shutter speed for good exposure, turn off VR if any, single point focus, matrix metering. Move the tripod in or out so at least the target covers 1/3 or 1/2 of the frame. Take maybe 3 shots in Live View mode using the focus ring to defocus before each shot, which forces the camera to refocus before each shot. Take about 3 shots in AF mode. Download to your PP software and pixel peep. The Live View shots use contrast detection AF and will be the sharpest shots the camera and lens are capable of - if no camera shake (that's why to take 3 shots, use the best). Compare to the best of the AF shots, which use phase detect AF. If they are the same, that's as sharp as you are going to get. If the AF shots are less sharp, you may want to look at tuning. If the AF shots are sharper than the LV shots, something went wrong.

 

[dunfly]

Good information on testing focus. One additional test I would suggest is to lay a yardstick on the ground or table and shoot along it at about a 30 degree angle at about 4.5f, which I believe is the lower limit on this lens. Focus in the middle, at the 18 inch mark. This way you can test point of focus and depth of field. If you see an area of best focus in front of or behind the 18 inch mark, something needs to be tweeked.

 

[Raw photographer]

Hard to tell looking at the photos. Certainly 0165 looks sharper than 0179, but it might not be the lens. 0179 might be camera shake, AF issue combined with a shallow DOF.

Here's how I check sharpness. Print out a resolution target or find something with small text like a magazine page or newspaper page. Hang your target on a well lit wall (I use my backyard fence), mount your camera with lens on a tripod, use a remote release, set to base ISO, manual, wide open aperture, adjust shutter speed for good exposure, turn off VR if any, single point focus, matrix metering. Move the tripod in or out so at least the target covers 1/3 or 1/2 of the frame. Take maybe 3 shots in Live View mode using the focus ring to defocus before each shot, which forces the camera to refocus before each shot. Take about 3 shots in AF mode. Download to your PP software and pixel peep. The Live View shots use contrast detection AF and will be the sharpest shots the camera and lens are capable of - if no camera shake (that's why to take 3 shots, use the best). Compare to the best of the AF shots, which use phase detect AF. If they are the same, that's as sharp as you are going to get. If the AF shots are less sharp, you may want to look at tuning. If the AF shots are sharper than the LV shots, something went wrong.

Yip i second this, i have done this before, it's quite easy.