The day I received my Canon 300mm f4L lens, the first thing I have done was to run to Elizabeth Park Lake in Fremont to shoot some picture of ducks and pelicans. Using 35mm Camera minimum shutter speed rule of thumb, I set the shutter speed at 320 and kept on hand held shooting merrily.
After returning home I could not believe my eyes, at 1:1 magnification the pictures looked very soft on monitor. I could not see any tell tale camera shake signature but I could not count fibers on the duck feather also.


Close up details of the above image


Next day, before sending the lens back to service, I though why not give it a try with higher shutter speed. It was night and no bird to shoot, so I fitted a Canon EF25 extension tube after my 300mm tele to reduce the minimum focussing distance and shoot the ear ring of my wife from a distance of 5 feet. The picture was shot at full open aperture 4 with built-in flash. Shutter speed was 200 (but this time very short duration of flash acted like a high shutter speed) and hand held the lens. The result was simple astounding. Now I can count each and every microscopic velvety hair on the skin, see the reflected and refracted lights from the tiny ear ring stone and all the folds on the skin. Now that’s what I called sharpness.

This incident taught me the lesson that with D30, the minimum handheld shutter speed for a non IS telephoto lens should be greater than inverse of 1.6 times focal length of the lens. So for 300mm, it should be 1/500. Otherwise, the pictures will be soft due to micro camera shake, which may not be visible at small size print but it will be strong enough to make this tack sharp lens a soft one.



Closeup details of the above image