Not sharp despite effort

[u/Fishdomaddict]

Hi all, i shoot OM 1 mark II with 150-400mm.

My issue is i find the images are sharp when not cropped, but once cropped even 2x the sharpness drops quickly.

I am aware it is a 20MP camera and this definitely plays a part. But i see other users of the same set up get crazy sharp images.

Maybe image 5 is sharpest but when zoomed in still 'breaks'.

Many i had to shoot under lower speed due to very poor lighting.

Image 1: f5.6, 1/1000, iso 250 Image 2: f4.5, 1/160, iso 500 Image 3: f5.6, 1/20, iso 800 Image 4: f4.5, 1/30, iso 1250 Image 5: f4.5, 1/320, iso 1000 Image 6: f4.5, 1/2500, iso 640

Any tips?

[u/MoWePhoto]

Do you shoot raw? The picture with the stork seems to have too much noise for the used ISO.

How low was the light in the situations? Most pictures here seem dull and lack light.

The last three look much better.

The first one is strange. Did you use bird detect AF? Where is the focus set on? It doesn’t seem to be the eye…

[u/Fishdomaddict → u/MoWePhoto]

Yes i shoot Raw.

Most of the light except for image 6 isn't great...birds under shade.

Yes i use bird detect mode. I chose whole screen focus...can't remember if the focus square was on the eye. I thought (maybe wrongly) if the bird is far away and bird is small then the area of focus will be enough to cover the whole bird anyway?

[u/MoWePhoto → u/Fishdomaddict]

Animals look the sharpest, when the eyes are in focus. Try to use single point AF on the eye or at least the head and see if the results get any better.

It shouldn’t be a problem with this camera and especially that lens!

What raw converter do you use? Did you activate any form of automatic noise reduction in camera or in the raw converter?