ellisn wrote:Sorry David I missed the post regarding file format.
They were all cRAW. Is there a chance it is still user error and not the lens. There are so many settings I could well have messed something up.
Neil
Your final shots at 1/1000th indicate that something probably is amiss with the lens. But, you do need experience in using AF systems to assess problems, and a lot of your tests prove nothing except that it's extremely difficult to get sharp pictures at 300mm, with a slow shutter speed and high ISO, of a small furry animal. I would not have judged on these, but the test of the lettering on white shows (at least to me) that the lens is performing under par - unless you have a big fingerprint on it.
For example with the squirrel shots, if you were shooting through a window, that would be enough to destroy the sharpness of the lens. End of story. You need a filter-quality window to shoot through at 300mm and domestic glass, however clean, can spoil wide aperture shots. Old windows are worst (modern glass is often pretty good). Many people do try to shoot garden birds etc through large plate windows, including double or triple glazing, and they get noticeably unsharp pictures compared to those who shoot from an outdoor position with nothing between the lens and the subject.
David
