I can't seem to get a sharp picture.

[Terry]

I went to the zoo and took some photographs with my new 75-300 zoom lens. I have a Canon EOS Elan IIe camera and used 400 speed film. When I got my pictures back after being developed, there were a bunch of blurry pictures. I took some other pictures of other subjects and got the same result, blurry pictures! What am I doing wrong? How can I get a sharp picture?

[Rick Baker]

Long lenses don't just magnify an image, they magnify movement too. If you're shooting at a long focal length like 300mm+, you should use something to hold your camera steady, like a tripod. If you can't afford a tripod you can try bracing yourself against something steady. If your camera is steady, you should get sharper pictures.

[theblindsquirrel_old]

I assume that you were fucusing through a fence. If your camera supports auto focus it may have focused on the fence instead of the intended subject. If this is the case, go to a manual focus mode or lens. If the problem was created, as Rick said by the telephoto length try matching the shutter spped to the focal length i.e. @ 300mm shoot at a speed of 1/500 or faster, at 200mm use 1/250 an so on. These speeds should allow you to carefully hand hold your camera without the resultant camera shake.

[Georgews]

Are you photographing through glass? You may be focussing on that. Also, with a 300 mm lens I would make every attempt to get some sort of rest for it, a post if you haven't got a tripod or monopod.
Try manual focus as has been suggested.

[Terry]

I was focusing directly at the subjects, not thru a fence or glass. I did zoom in to the max though. I think maybe I'll get a tripod and vary the shutter speed and see if I can get better results. thanks

[Terry]

How should I photograph thru glass?

[Richard Knight_old]

How should I photograph thru glass?
If possible place lens (preferably with rubber lens hood to avoid scratching glass) directly against the glass. Turn off auto focus (sometimes the autofocus will focus on defects and dirt in glass) and focus manually. If you can't get next to the glass, use a polarizing filter to eliminate glare and reflections from glass. Remember though, to adjust exposure for polarizer (usually aprox 2 stops).

[Georgews]

Also, dont forget to rotate the polariser to see where the reflections are minimised! Don't just bung it on the front of your lens and expect miracles.