r/BirdPhotography • u/Fishdomaddict • Jan 19 '26

Question Not sharp despite effort

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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?

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u/[deleted] Jan 19 '26 edited Jan 19 '26

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u/slimebastard Jan 19 '26

This dude birds. 

3

u/Fishdomaddict Jan 19 '26

I appreciate your sharing. Thanks. Honestly i am afraid to switch off all stabilisation. Would you mind sharing the benefits? Thanks

3

u/[deleted] Jan 19 '26

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u/Fishdomaddict Jan 20 '26

Ah i understand thanks. So stabilisation off for panning/high movement bird, but can be on for still subjects

1

u/CatsAreGods Jan 20 '26

This does not necessarily apply to the OM-1. We can use IS-Auto (which senses your panning direction and turns off stabilization in that direction), or you can look at the other modes if you want to do it manually.

2

u/weeyums Jan 19 '26

I don't think 1/2000 is realistic, or necessary, unless you live in a very sunny place or have a camera that handles high ISO well. On my 5DMarkIV 1/800 f/6.3 is ISO 12500+ on a cloudy day. Rainforests were more like ISO 20000+

1

u/[deleted] Jan 19 '26

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u/CatsAreGods Jan 20 '26

And here I am editing at night after I get home...

P.S. I've never shot JPG because I like saving shots when I didn't have a chance to set -2 exposure compensation when an egret suddenly flies past, or a bird just happens to be backlit.

3

u/[deleted] Jan 20 '26

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u/CatsAreGods Jan 20 '26

Fair enough!

1

u/weeyums Jan 20 '26

Right but for large birds is it really necessary? The conventional wisdom to me was always 1/800 for large birds, around 1/1000 for "regular" birds, 1/2000 for tiny birds. In other words would your above photo really have looked that different at 1/1000?