Camera Movement / Focus

[trigeek]

Hello All,
Need some advice from some experienced photographers out there. After a day's shooting I come back and notice a number of my photos show some sign of camera shake or not spot on focus. Many are very good in this regard, but enough are not that makes me wonder how I could improve my technique.

As background, I shoot on a tripod (carbon fiber - Feios) w/ ballhead, I use a remote release with the camera on mirror lock-up. The camera is a Canon 5D and I use the 24-105, 17-40 and 100-400mm lenses. When on the tripod I experiment with image stabilization on and off, without a significant difference in outcome. Exposures range from 1 sec thru 1/250 typically since I keep the ISO at around 100 and the lens around f/8.0.

The shooting I do is landscapes and nature. A favorite of mine is to shoot in a swamp near my home since it contains a lot of critters that are interesting to me. The ground is somewhat soft, so I suspect that although on a tripod, the platform may not be the definition of stability. But then again, I also see this on more stable ground as well. Rarely do I shoot on hard surfaces such as concrete or hard packed dirt.

So my question is if there is anything I can do to improve on any micro-movements of the camera, or improve the ability of the camera to focus?
Thanks in advance,
Jim

[djgarcia]

A possibility when doing longer exposures is wind movement of branches and such. It's the unfortunate nature of the beast, so to speak. If you run across a solution for that short of magic let us know :-).

[clawery]

Carbon fiber tripods are great because of their weight, but I have heard of some minor vibrations that may travel through the legs.  Do you have a standard steel tripod you can try?  If not, try a weight back to secure it.

Chris Lawery
Sales Manager
Capture Integration
www.captureintegration.com

[redneckphoto]

Is anything really sharp or is the whole image slightly blurry?
I had a similar issue but it was caused by the AF focusing just in front of the subject even though I was sure it was bang on my subject matter. I practised my technique in a parking lot and focused on  fixed objects at a variety of distances until I mastered the camera and the technique.

[Wayne Fox]

A lot of difference between camera shake and not spot on focus.

Regarding shake, just do what you can.  Make sure you are waiting a few seconds after you lock up the mirror.  Mushy ground is a problem.  Make sure you take several frames.  There are many kinds of ball heads, some aren't that great.

The IS in the 100-400 may be an earlier version, which should not be used on a tripod.  Definite problem.  I dont know if Canon ever updated the IS in that lens, but you may want to do some research.  The 24-105 has a newer version of the IS I believe and should work on a tripod.

Understanding autofocus is important ... the spot chosen is often not the "center" spot of your depth of field, so you may have to tweak the focus once and a while.

Last, have you ever dropped the body?  I had a problem once after dropping the camera. Was a pretty nasty fall, but the body had no damage and worked fine, but everything was slightly soft. I thought it was a lens issue, but the lens worked fine on a friends camera.  Sent it in to be checked, and Canon confirmed the sensor had beed jarred out of position.