I had a brain wave

Ye belive it or not I do have one sometimes.

This one was about getting a sharp shot at a distance with a long zoom lens. wow

The problem I have been having is that every where I have read says the longer (mm) lens you have the further away a target has to be to correct any lens focus issue.

So there was me stumped until this evening then the old brain cogs kicked into gear.

All I needed was a monitor with an HDMI socket, an old monitor not used had one so got that out , the other thing was an HDMI cable to tether to the camera, got one of those as well.

The other lenses I used the TV set for but Sue is watching something on that

Now all I wanted was a target far enough away to focus on, and there it was, well 4 of them actually, oak trees the other end of the garden, Ideal ,the bark can be the target.

So tripod -camera -lens - clamp for lens to tripod- monitor and HDMI cable all ready to go, so opened the window and after calibrating the camera and lens managed this



Nikon D810 camera and an AF-s 80-400mm f4.5-5.6 G ED lens .
yes a bit dark easily fixed in PP but this is direct from the camera, but the object of the exercise was sharpness and nothing else, may have got it a bit better still but this will
suit me.

I really should have added a remote shutter release to stop any camera shake but didn't

This is a vast improvement on the original uncalibrated lens.

Might have another try on another day as I notice the camera was on F9 at the time and need the remote attached as well

Re: I had a brain wave

Above 200 speed to avoid shake ?

Re: I had a brain wave

Dobra

This was on a tripod with vibration reduction turned off. Even then one can get what is called "shutter slap" which can have an affect on the camera movement

To stop this one really should use the Mirror up setting and a wireless remote which is what I didn't do. I also didn't take a light meter reading by the tree which i could have done

Also it is recommended to use the widest aperture, in this case can vary with this particular lens. So shutter speed also depends on the other factors such as ISO weather conditions etc. So the rule doesn't really apply of faster shutter speed v lens mm. which you are hinting at

The absolute ideal is a room big enough for the range required and a controlled light source, but this is not possible for me