Is it me or my lens??

[kimbakaye]

I have a canon T3i with a EF-S 55-250 IS lens. I have been having a terrible time getting clear shots with this lens. Most things are blurry. I don't have the steadiest hand in the world so I tried a test. I took a shot hand held at 250mm. Then I took a shot using a tripod at 250mm, 200mm, 135mm, 100, 70mm, and 55mm. I set it on auto everything for these shots including auto focus. I focused on a subject dead center of the frame. My hand held shot at 250mm was all blurry. My tripod shots at 250mm, 200mm, and 135mm were also blurry. the 100mm,-55mm shots got slightly progressively better with focus.

Is it me? Is it the lens? what am I doing wrong?

[inkista]

Bunch of different factors. Things to check:

1) Did you focus the lens properly?

2) When the camera was on the tripod, did you turn IS off?

3) Was the tripod a good stable one? Or a $10 Walmart special? It takes more than you'd think to make a tripod completely stable.

4) What shutter speeds were you using (the usual culprit)? There's a rule of thumb that you want to use a shutter speed of 1/focal_length or faster (i.e., at 250mm, you'd want to be at 1/250s or faster) to eliminate camera shake. IS can help ease this, but that also assumes you have good handholding technique. Increasing the iso to get the shutter speed you need may help.

5) How are you holding the camera?

6) Are you shooting wide open? Or stopped down to f/8 or smaller? (Most lenses are at their softest wide open).

7) How are you post-processing?

Might also want to give this a once over:
How to Take Sharp Digital Images

[ravncat]

In addition to Inkista's excellent post - the shutter speed also shows up again as problematic on a tripod in the 1/15th second range, this is due to the movement of the mirror introducing some shake. Significantly faster or slower shutter speeds won't have that issue

[ishootRAW]

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^is great stuff,^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

I don't really have anything to add, other then can you post some shots?

[Sloseph]

ye id definatly recomend taking a look at your exif data and veiwing your shutter speed

i have this lens and if you shutter if fast enough it can get some really nice sharp shots

[kimbakaye]

Thanks for the replies. It was a very bright sunny day taken in full sun and the shutter speed was pretty fast, sorry don't remember exactly what it was. Turns out it was my polarizer lens. I tried the 250mm shots again with just my polarizer and just my uv filter. The uv shot was clear, no blur. The polarizer shot was blurry. It wasn't fuzzy like it was dirty, it looked like camera shake. It was cheap lens, $10 from Best Buy. I wonder if that had anything to do with it.

[inkista]

Polarizers often act as neutral density filters (i.e., they're dark, not clear), so it will reduce your exposure, and your camera may have compensated with a slower shutter speed. That would add camera shake blur, if the speed went below your handholding capabilities.

[gturner]

it is very hard to give you a decent answer (only general possible issues)

Post an image with exif and we can tell you straight away where the issue is.

[JeannieK]

I have the same lens and sometimes experience the same problem where photos look blurry. It's not the lightest lens either and sometimes I wonder if the IS works at all?

[veritasimagery]

Same camera, same lens, no issues.

My guess is that it was the cheap polarizer. Why take a $400 lens and throw on a $10 glass filter? Seems counter productive.