was using my D60 -- and I haven't changed my style or approach - e.g. I try to get the shutter speed to match focal length. I have an owl experience my wife bought for me coming up and can't afford to have sharpness issues for that. I would really like to achieve the type of sharpness that is found in this photo: I have realised since writing this might be just a 'practice harder' related question -- Rob Aug 17 at 7:30 Are you comparing apples to apples when you zoom in? Remember, the D60 is a 10mpix camera and your new one is 16mpix. Put the D7000 images at about 80% instead of 100% to compare at the same size. The D7000 may just demand more precision than you're used to. -- mattdm Aug 17 at 13:24 feedback 2 Answers The first photo is tack sharp -- it's just that the focus is in the wrong place. You want the eye to be sharp, but take a look at the hair just above the ear. It doesn't get any better than that. It's hard to tell at the posted resolution, but I'd bet the base of the lavalier mic in the second picture looks as sharp at a 100% crop as it appears in this reduced-resolution image. I know the Tamron 90. It is sharp, sharp, sharp from wide-open to f/11 or so, where diffraction starts to take over. It is only just the tiniest bit better at