Zoom lens acting funky

[Hillary Torrey]

I have a 70-300mm lens and normally it takes beautiful shots when far away,then recently less then 8ft away is my bird feeder in-which I have been trying to capture all the birds and if you look(you can just trust me too) my last bird shots are really blah and not detailed. I am not sure if its lack of color in my back yard....or the lens...or something I am doing wrong. But I have little experience with this lens so anyones opinions would be great. TIA

[Adam Kelly]

Have you taken shots at that distance before? Are they different, where they in a different place?

Just trying to figure out if something's changed with the lens or if it's environmental...

[Melissa Pike]

In the photography class I took a few years back, our instructor said that as a good rule of thumb, in order to get a crisp shot without camera shake, the shutter speed should be faster than the focal length of the lens. For example, if you're shooting at 300mm, your shutter speed should be faster than 1/300. I noticed that on your most recent bird shot, your shutter speed was only 1/60, and that's definitely enough for it to make a difference.

[Bob G]

@melissapike I think if the lens is VR that rule of thumb is not entirely correct.

[Melissa Pike]

@bobg That's true, and I'm operating under the assumption that she's not using a VR/IS lens.

[Rachael]

@melissapike - that's a really useful rule. Thanks. :-)

[Hillary Torrey]

@killerjackalope Yes and yes. A lot of my shots have been up in the air shots this is a dead straight on 8 ft away from me,maybe even less.

[Hillary Torrey]

@melissapike What a great tip! Thank you

[Adam Kelly]

Ah right, it may well be the shutter speed then, 300mm at that distance can be hairy, if it's a relatively still shot at least 1/125 but higher would be better...

[Joshua Post]

@melissapike @ididntdoit87 I've read the same thing about wanting the shutter speed to be faster than the focal length. On the Canon side I've also read that the Image Stabilization adds 2 stops, so you should be able to figure out what you would need even if you have IS/VR for your lens.

[Trond Lindholm]

@ididntdoit87 - I don't know what kind of lense you use - (model that is but guess it is a Canon lens without IS) many people have already mentioned that the shutter speed should be minimum same or faster than the focal lenght, and thats a good rule to have in mind. You should also check minimum focal distance for your lens - if I'm not mistaken the minimum focal distance of Canon 70 - 300 mm is aprox 5 feet, so maybe you are just a little bit to close to your subject ??