Struggling with sharpness on X-T5 and fujinon 70-300mm

[ELEMENTFIRE]

Hi all, I was capturing this sunbird with my XT-5 and the fujinon 70-300mm.
Somehow im struggling to get nice and sharp results. Any advice would be appreciated.
Could this be due to the SD card or due to lens not being clean enough? Or is the focus just poor?

Settings used:
Shutter Speed: 1/1000 sec.
Aperture: f/5.6
ISO: 4000

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[DaveC]

Hard to tell without the ability to zoom in on the photo but it seems to me that the pink flower petals look sharpe. Could it be that you have simply focussed on the petals rather than the bird. Do you use a small single focus point or a large one. If you use a large focus point that may explain the problem. f5.6 at 300mm would have quite a narrow depth of field.

If you have any doubts you could try some experiments on a tripod with clearly defined subjects, see if you get sharpe results then.

I have the 70-300mm and find it very sharpe.

Hope you solve it, Dave.

[Nicole D]

I m facing the same problem with the combination  XT-5 and the fujinon 70-300mm. Checked several times the settings, even using a tripod. the problem didnt solve itself.

what is strange is that sometimes the focus does and sometimes it doesn't while the conditions are the same. And seems to be occurring more and more often 

Could someone help me out this it?

[Blue Zurich]

Seriously? This shot is with an X-T5, 70-300 AND the 1.4 TC. 

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[BobD]

On 2/22/2024 at 9:47 PM, Blue Zurich said:

Seriously? This shot is with an X-T5, 70-300 AND the 1.4 TC. 

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[BobD]

I'm personally not a fan of Fujinon lenses in general, zoom lenses in particular although there are a few good (expensive) ones out there and this image does not look sharp to me. .No offence intended - just my opinion. Any teleconverter will also degrade sharpness and your image is a good example of this. I use a Canon EF400 f5.6 (on my X-T4) with the K&F EF-FX adapter at a total combined cost of approximately £600 GBP and obtain results better than this..pse see attached.

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[Blue Zurich]

8 hours ago, BobD said:

I'm personally not a fan of Fujinon lenses in general, zoom lenses in particular although there are a few good (expensive) ones out there and this image does not look sharp to me. .No offence intended - just my opinion. Any teleconverter will also degrade sharpness and your image is a good example of this. I use a Canon EF400 f5.6 (on my X-T4) with the K&F EF-FX adapter at a total combined cost of approximately £600 GBP and obtain results better than this..pse see attached.

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wtf degradation are you talking about? 

[SGinNorcal]

For the OP, I would stop down a stop or two and drop the ISO down quite a bit.  Like Dave C says, use a small focus zone.

[SGinNorcal]

On 3/10/2024 at 7:41 AM, BobD said:

I'm personally not a fan of Fujinon lenses in general, zoom lenses in particular although there are a few good (expensive) ones out there and this image does not look sharp to me. .No offence intended - just my opinion. Any teleconverter will also degrade sharpness and your image is a good example of this. I use a Canon EF400 f5.6 (on my X-T4) with the K&F EF-FX adapter at a total combined cost of approximately £600 GBP and obtain results better than this..pse see attached.

I'm glad you like a 2x heavier, unstabilized lens, it must be challenging to carry and to hold steady.  It does appear sharp but the colors look washed out.  The 70-300 is really good for its size and weight.