My best picture of a woodpecker ever...while watching owls
The pictures of the owls, the woodpecker below, and a few other images I have yet to post were all taken with my Sigma lens 60-600mm, which I often refer to as my 'big birding' lens. The camera and lens were also mounted on my tripod; something which I'd probably prefer to do all the time but hauling all this heavy gear is problematic for me. You will always get your sharpest pictures using a tripod, ALWAYS. The tripod eliminates noise (blur) caused by motion when you are hand-holding a camera/lens. The bigger the lens, the harder it is to hold the setup absolutely still. If the picture is blurry there are a few likely factors that caused the blurriness. The subject moved, you moved or the camera moved. Movement can sometimes be resolved by having built in stabilization in your camera or lens and/or having your shutter speed set to a fast speed. With the advent of high quality cameras in phones, a lot of these concerns are taken care of automatically by software built into...