Tweety Bird

Hi guys,

This post is in two parts :-
1- Can someone identify the bird in these pictures please.
He was singing his little heart out on top of a hawthorn hedge in my nextdoor neighbours garden.
[IMG]http://i1236.photobucket.com/albums/ff444/Frogherder/IMGP6067a.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i1236.photobucket.com/albums/ff444/Frogherder/IMGP6066a.jpg[/IMG]


2- I used a Tamron SP 55BB 500mm mirror lens on my K10D sat on a monopod to get the pics which have then been cropped in Photoshop.
I feel they are a little blurred and would like to solve this problem before I go further afield with it. I set the cameras antishake to off. The metering and focus were set to spot. Focus is manual and there was a slight breeze shaking the branches. The lens is fixed at f8 and I used 1/180sec ISO 200. so queries
Should I have left the Anti shake set to ON ?
I thought the bird was in focus so do I have a problem?
I appreciate a proper tripod would have been better but he was flitting about a bit and I didn't want to miss him whilst I screwed the camera onto the tripod mount (my camera had a Manfrotto quick mount already fitted and this would need to be removed first)

Your thoughts etc would be welcomed

regards
Bernard

No pic

Thanks I forgot - must be tired Hi

regards
Bernard

A lot of people say no to this question, I believe they are wrong. Unless you use mirror lock up and a remote release there will always be some slight movement when you release the shutter, this is what sr is for.
Your image is soft.
Your shutter speed was a bit low for 500mm, perhaps a higher iso?
Was it shot in raw or jpeg, in either case did you sharpen it?
Have you checked the diopre adjustment on the viewfinder?

Hope this helps, or at least gives a few ideas.
I shall now retire to a bunker re my comment on SR and tripods/monopods.

My preference would have been a proper tripod and cable release but time was against me, so I grabbed the monpod.
Shots take just after 19:30 (GMT - I haven't got around to setting my camera to BST yet)so 8:30pm
ISO was as previously used - same reason as above.
Green setting chose the speed for me, I didn't question it as I was using a support.

I actually shot Raw + Jpeg and apart from cropping and then reducing the size to suit the forum no other treatment has been done.

Dioptre setting is roughly in the middle and appears to be good - ie even when way out there is an optimum focus which only gets clearer as the adjustment is corrected - the lens doesn't change its focus point.


regards
Bernard

Hi Bernard, the bird looks like a Male Chaffinch to me, with regards to the anti shake I tend to leave mine on unless I'm using a tripod, it might be worth trying a few test shots on a static object with and with out the anti shake and look at the results

It certainly is a chaffinch. It looks like a combination of too low a shutter speed for the lens and too extreme of a crop have caused this softness. How much of the original image are we looking at? Less than 25 percent?

Wonderful, many thanks, I knew someone would know. Its been such a long while since I've seen these birds I'd quite forgotten about them.

original pic follows :-
[IMG]http://i1236.photobucket.com/albums/ff444/Frogherder/IMGP6067.jpg[/IMG]
It is cropped quite a bit

I plan on testing further but time and th weather tend to supper me. I've spent today with my grand daughter making shavings so that she can shred them into the carpet .

regards
Bernard