The swan at the bottom, second picture, where you in manual focus. It seems that your camera focuesed on the grass in the background

Yep. The Optomax lens is one of the ones for the old AE-1 that needs the ring adapter fit fit the new EF based Canon bodies. Everything has to be done manually and, as a result, there's no way the camera can tell you when something is properly in focus. The old manual focus cameras has a focusing screen with microprisms. When the image was in focus, it appeared perfectly in the viewfinder, when it was out you could tell because certain areas would be in darkness, misaligned, etc. The new cameras don't have that so it's a bit difficult to judge when focus is just right when you're using a lens that isn't directly compatible with the camera.

The other problem is, as I say, I didn't have a tripod at the time so I was using my camera bag as a rest. The photos in the last set were taken using the 80-200mm lens at it's full focal length with a 2x extender so things were a little shaky!

My 18 to 55 lens works great in auto focus. Now my 70 to 300, once I go over 100 to 150, I go straight manual. Matter of fact I leave my 70-300 in manual now.

General rule of thumb, if you can not get your shutter speed < than the focal length of the lens, then use a tripod (another invaluable tool, I forgot to mention). So if you have a 200mm lens, then you need to be shooting at 1/250 tv. or greater. If your going to be doing lots of low light photos with long lenses, you will need a tripod. I would recommend going a bit heavier than you think is necessary (especially for the big long lenses). Bogen (think its 'Manfrotto' now) Tiltall, or Gitzo are the brands I would suggest, one of those will last a life time, and retain their value quite well. The main thing to stay away from are tripods with square legs or legs that are opened on one side. Round, solid telescoping legs will offer the most stable support.

When I purchaed my Tripod, I purchased the one that looked the strongest yet it was aluminum.

NT50 wrote:

When I purchaed my Tripod, I purchased the one that looked the strongest yet it was aluminum.

Aluminum is quite strong, most of mine are completely aluminum. I do have a large one that has quite a big of steel on it, but the legs are all aluminum.

I do have a tripod now, I didn't at the time the photographs on the other page were taken. It's a lightweight one with solid, round legs. I'm also going to get myself a more heavyweight tripod as the lightweight isn't too good if you're outside (it tends to shake in the wind!)

I also have both the Canon remote shutter release devices for the camera so I can completely remove the problem of vibration (except for when the shutter fires) when taking shots with the long range zooms as I don't have to touch the camera at all to fire the shutter.

The main issue I have, at the moment, is the fact that there is absolutely no feedback, whatsoever, from the lens to the camera due to them being the older, mechanical type lenses with the FD fitting. Even when the modern lenses are switched to manual, they still communicate back to the camera whether the shot is in focus, exposure information, etc. These old lenses don't do that, hence why it's pretty difficult to get a good shot ,you don't even have the old focusing screen to tell you you've got the focus right!

As I said, it does give you a greater understanding of how exposure "works" because you, literally, have to do everything manually, there's no automatic metering, focusing, aperture or anything. You have to set the whole lot by hand before you can take the shot. As I explained originally, that's fine when you're taking landscapes but gets a bit tiresome when you're trying to do nature photography as things tend to move around and it makes tracking them and keeping the shot parameters right somewhat difficult!

The advantage is that, being digital, you get to play around with the lenses and practice without spending a fortune on film and developing!

Here is a picture I took with my tripod and zoomed to about 150 to 175, I can remember that far back. The picture was taken through a fence also. Manual focus but cameral was set on sports/automatic. I decreased the size of the picture and file for easier access here plus imageshack does not like files over 3 gig. Anyway, just to give you and idea....................



Edit: BTW that is a pic of my son. He is 15 yrs old and can throw an 83 mph fast ball.

Whats your budget?
First thing to do is find a buyer for the 2x TC. Its ruins a perfectly good image. Better to crop. The 1.4 isnt bad if you have a tack sharp lens but still adds barrel distortion and kncoks you back 2 stops.

If you do sports image stabilazation is preferable once you pass about 100mm.
really need to know your needs and budget before good advice can be given.
In the realm of lenses you get what you pay for. The good thing is the high end canon lenses retain a high resale value for many years.

Just a quick update on this. Just managed to bag myself a Canon EF 70-200mm f/4.0L USM, an L Series "pro" lens, for a pretty reasonable £250!