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**wigz** · 17-04-2021, 06:38 PM

Nice collection John. I particularly like the Wattlebirds on the banksia. With #4,you might be able to copy the tail from the other image. All of these look just a little soft to me, with #2 probably the best. I don't know if the forum software has resized these. Does stopping the lens down to f/4 improve the sharpness, I know it does on some lenses.

**Ozzie_Traveller** · 18-04-2021, 08:32 AM

G'day John

Like Alan - I also am a bit bothered by the softness of these images ... I feel that you 'should' be getting better sharpness~ esp as you are not using max zoom and cropping heavily to get a result.

To my eye they are soft from focus, not soft from camera shake .... so Q:- what focus mode are you using??

With my birding I use

then use the rotary dial to drop the focus point from a 3x3-point mode thru 2x2 points down to a single point into the centre of the frame
ps- this works better than the + mode which also uses one focus point plus a magnifyier lens, but it makes it very slow

My 2 pics of the butcherbird on the clothes line will show you how close the focus point can miss other distractions ~ as well as the sort of sharpness I think you should be getting

Phil

**HansE** · 18-04-2021, 10:06 PM

I like #3 the Banksia's set the picture off. the softness lets it down a bit.

**Isac** · 19-04-2021, 04:41 PM

You're out and about with your new toy John! How's the shutter count going? These shots (I'm sure you know) are a bit soft. Are you able to set the aperture to between 5.6 and 8? You may get more keepers. Most of my bird shots are at the max 400mm and at f/6.3 or more. Just a thought.

**Grumpy John** · 19-04-2021, 08:07 PM

Originally posted by Isac View Post

You're out and about with your new toy John! How's the shutter count going? These shots (I'm sure you know) are a bit soft. Are you able to set the aperture to between 5.6 and 8? You may get more keepers. Most of my bird shots are at the max 400mm and at f/6.3 or more. Just a thought.

The answer to your first question:

After following the complicated steps I found on YouTube
How to check shutter count in FZ300:
1. Insert a formatting memory card into the card slot;
2. Turn the camera ON and take a picture (SD card must have some taken pictures); EDIT: procedures working even in empty SD card
3. Select P, A, S, or M mode;
4. Turn the camera OFF;
5. Press and hold simultaneously the AF/AE LOCK, DISPLAY and RIGHT ARROW (WB) buttons, while turning the camera ON. Order does not matter;
6. Now press and hold the AF/AE LOCK button, next press and hold MENU/SET and finally press LEFT ARROW buttons. You will show error table.
7. Repeat the last step with AF/AE LOCK, MENU/SET and LEFT ARROW buttons.
You will show CAMERA INFO. screen with three counters: -
First is PWRCNT. This is how many times the camera has been powered up; -
Second is SHTCNT. This is the shutter activation count; -
And last is STBCNT. This is the number of times the flash has fired; -
Now you can press DISPLAY to toggle to the CAMERA INFO.2 screen. You can show date and time of first camera run and changing data set
8. Switch the camera off to revert back to normal operating mode. That's all.

the counts on my camera are:
PWRCNT: 145
SHTCNT: 455
STBCNT: 27

The FZ300 has a very narrow aperture range F2,8 - F8.0 through all focal lengths.

I have been playing the balancing game trying for the optimal settings for my bird shots.
As most of the birds that I have been photographing are at the small end of the scale and not exactly close the focal length has been typically in the 400-600 mm range (35mm equiv.). I am using a shutter speed of 1/1000 to avoid camera shake (inverse rule) and leaving the ISO set on Auto.

I will try aperture settings in the F5.0 - F6.3 range and see if the IQ improves. My main worry is that the ISO may creep up and the small sensor does not handle the high ISO numbers very well. Plenty of trial and error coming up

.

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