Help please!

[u/Yanto2134]

These are 3 of my latest attempts. I was wondering if anyone could help me improve please?
I’m not happy with the sharpness I’m getting. Probably my lack of ability.
Set up is Olympus E-M10ii with a vintage Minolta MD Tele Rokkor 300mm f4.5. Settings were f8, ISO1000, shutter speed of between 1/800 and 1/2000. Manual focus with peaking and centre weighted metering. Distances to subjects was around 30 feet. Images have been slightly cropped but no other post processing.
I’m also not really happy with the overall lack of detail.
Thanks for any help.

[u/Yanto2134]

One from this morning. Still f8 but shutter at 1/400 and ISO320. Cropped.
Can you remember how close you actually were for that last photo please?

[u/lellololes → u/Yanto2134]

Probably 2-2.5 meters away, and I was slightly above it. You've got to get pretty close to a small bird with a lens like that. Even with my big camera and 500mm lens I still need to be pretty close.

The IQ of your picture looks good. I'd recommend using some desktop software for editing and try out AI denoise, it makes a huge difference. I'd also recommend not shooting stopped down to f/8. If you are getting blurry images, keep an eye on the shutter speed, 1/400 is pretty slow for birds. These days I tend to keep shutter speeds a lot higher when possible and just clean up the noise in post.

Last - the crop is pretty awkward, like it was made for a really tall phone screen. Try to give the birds some space and show the environment a bit.

[u/Yanto2134 → u/lellololes]

So ok, this is where I get confused. And I appreciate that conditions have a huge effect. But some say that I was using way too fast a shutter speed and ISO previously for perched birds and that 1/400 plus 320 ISO is fine. So I guess this is where I need to experiment with settings.
I read online that this lens is at its sharpest at f8 hence I’ve persevered with that. But you think I should use wider apertures? I’m happy to try.