what am I doing wrong?

[manaheim]

Odds are your issues are related to...

- Camera shake from not selecting a high enough shutter speed
- Pushing the lens too far
- Missing the focus

Shooting birds is TOUGH. I've found this out from stalking this local Leucistic Hawk that lives near my workplace (very rare bird). You tend to have a lot of other things in the shot that can get in the way of AF (like sticks), and if you're focusing manually it's just going to be a bear anyway, especially where most new cameras do not have the focusing guides in them.

For shutter times you have to have it set fast... at LEAST 1.5x your focal length, especially if the bird is in motion.

Be aware, too, that most lenses tend to have the bulk of their problems at the extreme ends of their zoom ranges... so at maxiumum width and zoom. I find a lot of lenses can be a bit soft at full zoom, so you have to watch that.

I am not a birder, so I'm no pro here... I am merely sharing what little I've learned stalking that stupid hawk.

 

[lvcrtrs]

Benhasajeep, hope you stay on this site. Seems like when I see a great in-depth with lots of helpful things to try answer put in easy to understand teminology I'm likely to see it's from you.