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Archive 2009 · Major 7D focus issues

brad_s
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p.3 #1 · Major 7D focus issues

UCSB wrote:
Lots of possible explanations for these problems. But, I would say that Ian's comments on micro adjustment seem to indicate that he is either using a faulty process ....

+1

Oct 07, 2009 at 12:19 AM

Milan Hutera
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p.3 #2 · Major 7D focus issues

IanCale wrote:
I've shot over 500 frames so far tesing and not one is in proper focus,It will be going back this weekend,

Come on Canon Wake the F' up,

Well... ever thought about the fact it *might* not be the camera?

Oct 07, 2009 at 12:22 AM

Gochugogi
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p.3 #3 · Major 7D focus issues

My new 7D won't focus worth a frickin' damn. Amazon still has it on backorder...

Edited on Oct 07, 2009 at 01:24 AM · View previous versions

Oct 07, 2009 at 01:20 AM

thw2
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p.3 #4 · Major 7D focus issues

Photon wrote:
Sorry yours is bad. Here's someone who seems to have a 7D with excellent AF performance:
https://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/821100

My copy focuses perfectly with the 70-200 f/4 IS and 100 macro lenses.

It just does not focus consistently with 10-22 and 17-55 f/2.8 lenses, i.e., the wide angle stuff.

It's really easy to check. Mount camera on tripod. Point it at a contrasty subject under good daylight. Carry out a series of half-presses. Watch the distance scale. It should always return to the same (or nearly) position. Mine travels back and forth with each half-press.

When the same lens is mounted on the el cheapo XSi, the distance scale is absolutely stationary and focus is perfect.

Some people have great working copies of the 7D. I hope it's a simple calibration issue. But we'll see. I'm traveling in a few days time. If the technicians are not done with their calibration job, I shall grab my lenses and use my old XSi. It'll be rather disappointing since I was hoping to use the 7D for this trip.

I understand Ian's frustration. This is the FOURTH (4 out of 4) Canon body I bought that requires me to bring all my lenses + camera to the service center for calibration. Sigh. The previous 3 bodies worked fine after calibration.

Oct 07, 2009 at 01:24 AM

keithreeder
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p.3 #5 · Major 7D focus issues

thw2 wrote:
This is the FOURTH (4 out of 4) Canon body I bought that requires me to bring all my lenses + camera to the service center for calibration.

Oh, so it's not a 7D issue then..?

I bet I'm not the only one who thinks that four out of four bodies "needing factory calibration" to the same specific lenses(?) sounds a bit - uuummm - fishy...

Oct 07, 2009 at 02:05 AM

keithreeder
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p.3 #6 · Major 7D focus issues

IanCale wrote:
yes, I went one click at at time from +20 to -20 and it basically just made things worse with both lenses.

I don't see how that would be possible.

At some point in that process, the problem suggested by these images (possible back focus) would be caught by an adjustment - certainly a sweep from full positive to full negative would have done something.

Assuming a properly conducted adjustment process, of course.

Oct 07, 2009 at 02:09 AM

thw2
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p.3 #7 · Major 7D focus issues

keithreeder wrote:
Oh, so it's not a 7D issue then..?
I bet I'm not the only one who thinks that four out of four bodies "needing factory calibration" to the same specific lenses(?) sounds a bit - uuummm - fishy...

Good point. But the previous bodies were mostly calibrated for consistent back and front focus. In-camera micro adjustments were not available then.

But the issue is more serious for the 7D. It's an inconsistent, over-active focus thing. I can't do anything about it.

Edit: Mind you, I once tested all my lenses on a rented 50D, and they were spot on without any calibration whatsoever.

Oct 07, 2009 at 02:24 AM

Daan B
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p.3 #8 · Major 7D focus issues

A lot of things can cause AF issues. From lens/body calibration issues to malfunctioning parts (AF sensor, mirror box, etc). And then there are user errors or unrealistic user expectations.

It is hard to distuingish what is going on here, since all the OP does is being angry. To the OP: if you want some help determining what is going on here, I suggest posting some images and give an exact description of what you did.

Or sent the cam back to the store and get another one

Oct 07, 2009 at 05:09 AM

n0b0
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p.3 #9 · Major 7D focus issues

IanCale wrote:
With any product, no matter how good, there will always be a few defective units out there. Nothing to fear...just exchange it for a different one.,

should not be that way, canon is really messing up, I just read in the past 5 mins online, about 8 posts with problems, from , errors', to batteries frying the camera itself, other focus issues, not good as now more are hitting the shelves, and since the major issue with the 1D3, you would think canon would make sure that these things were friggin perfect.

So that EIGHT owners of defective units out of how many units sold around the world?

Oct 07, 2009 at 05:24 AM

teppy1
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p.3 #10 · Major 7D focus issues

IanCale wrote:
most of them look way oversharpened, look at the artifacts in the blue skies . halos etc..

yes, alot of them are over sharpened. it looks like too much radius on the USM. thats what causes the the large black outline. there are some that are OOF in my opinion and just not in focus. it looks like he may have just missed the focus from panning though because alot of the over sharpened images would be fine if he had not overdone the USM radius.

Oct 07, 2009 at 06:53 AM

goldscout
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p.3 #11 · Major 7D focus issues

mine's sharp as tack

Oct 07, 2009 at 06:55 AM

kenski
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p.3 #12 · Major 7D focus issues

IanCale wrote:
most of them look way oversharpened, look at the artifacts in the blue skies . halos etc..

Must be your monitor... Those look very good on my corrected monitor...

Oct 07, 2009 at 06:58 AM

kenski
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p.3 #13 · Major 7D focus issues

Just came back from DC with my 7D and all my shots were perfect... Nothing that I can notice...

I dont sit there and blow my pictures up to 5000000% either and examine every pixel. If it blows up to a 20x30 good, Im happy....

Oct 07, 2009 at 07:01 AM

Steve Spencer
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p.3 #14 · Major 7D focus issues

I think you have to keep in mind that when thinking about these shots you have to consider their intended use. I had assumed that Ian wanted to make prints from shots like these. After seeing these crops on my computer I have no doubt that these shots would make very nice 8 X 10 or even 11 X 14 prints. The 100% crops are just huge magnifications and reducing them to these sizes for printing would hide the focus errors we are talking about here. It seems, however, that Ian is interested in stock photos and that probably means a different and a higher standard. With that in mind I think that before we get too worked up about the focussing of the camera a couple of things should be addressed in the shooting technique. First, for optimal sharpness--and that appears to be what Ian is after--then on a camera like the 7D (crop with high pixel density), IMO the shutter speed needs to be 2X the focal length. Second, I think there needs to be better placement of the focus point and for portraits like these I think that means that it needs to be on the eye rather than the nose and the spot AF of the 7D should probably be used. Third, I think the lens and body need to be carefully adjusted using the MA feature and a system like lens align or a carefully set up focus chart. It does appear that the combination of Ian's camera and the lens used in these shots is back focussing slightly and needs MA. Once these three things are put in order, then I think we can start to talk about whether the camera has a problem. I think these three things would likely fix the relatively small problems here. In fact, it seems that the only reason we are seeing the problems is because we are looking at them at such huge magnification. Whether more problems would emerge at narrow apertures, however, is an interesting question, and if Ian needs sharpness at these huge magnification at wider aperture then it remains to be seen whether the system can deliver it.

Oct 07, 2009 at 07:06 AM

PetKal
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p.3 #15 · Major 7D focus issues

teppy1 wrote:
yes, alot of them are over sharpened. it looks like too much radius on the USM. thats what causes the the large black outline. there are some that are OOF in my opinion and just not in focus. it looks like he may have just missed the focus from panning though because alot of the over sharpened images would be fine if he had not overdone the USM radius.

While I tend to agree that Conrad has gone heavy handed on USM/cropping/PP on some of those images, I see just about all of them as being in focus. In some cases, imperfectly so, but still in focus.
However, images like those are of limited usefulness when seeking some evidence that the camera Servo AF works well on BIF. For that, one needs a series of shots fired while tracking a bird. Even 40D is quite good in initial focus pickup of a BIF....it is what happens afterwards with the subsequent frames that separates an ordinary EOS body from a fairly good EOS body such as 1DMkIIN.

Therefore, all I can say by looking at those images is that the photographer's 7D seems to have a good initial focus pickup (or it is capable of getting in focus sometime in a burst) and that his BIF capture skills have developed nicely.

Oct 07, 2009 at 07:24 AM

Greg Schneider
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p.3 #16 · Major 7D focus issues

The initial focus acquisition on the 7D is in the same league as the 1D3, which in turn is faster than the IIN. In my very limited testing, I would guess that the 7D may be even better in tracking, especially with all the new AF options. It certainly is extraordinarily stable with low contrast subjects and locks very quickly.

Oct 07, 2009 at 08:24 AM

Andre Goli
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p.3 #17 · Major 7D focus issues

IanCale wrote:
Well I happened to find a store that had a 7d in stock while away this weekend, Took a bunch of shots of whatever I saw, and tested the servo and video and such, when I got home and looked at the images nothing in sharp focus, so I've been playing around with it since Sunday , did every focus test , and them some, Micro adjusted both ways to the max in increments, tried 2 lenses so far , 28-135 and a 50mm, both with the same results nothing sharp, seems a major backfocus problem, with the servo even...Show more →

Be careful, when I bought a 35L six months ago, I immediately tested it with my 5DII on fixed objects. I was at first disappointed because everything looked front focussed. Then, I changed it with the other lenses which have been always rasor sharp, and to my big surprise, there were blury as well !!!!!!!!! That surprised me... Strange.....Then I tried them again on my backup camera (5D), and then every lenses were sharp again, included the 35L.... Weird...... So I came back to my 5DII and checked out what was different in the options... My brother played with my 5DII just before, and changed the one shot focus option to the servo option, what I didn't know. I selected back the one shot focus option, and tataaaaaa, every lenses were sharp again on the 5DII, included my new 35L. I never shot servo, but if you want to test fixed subject, it is a very bad idea..... I am 99% conviced that is your case... I helped another fellow in Fred who had the same problem a while ago, he was pissed by a L lens he just bought, and got the same successful results after my explanations.......

Oct 07, 2009 at 08:39 AM

Nowhere Man
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p.3 #18 · Major 7D focus issues

tanglefoot47 wrote:
I wonder how many of these people have no idea how to set up the camera? My 7D is excellent

+1

IanCale wrote:
With any product, no matter how good, there will always be a few defective units out there. Nothing to fear...just exchange it for a different one.,

should not be that way, canon is really messing up, I just read in the past 5 mins online, about 8 posts with problems, from , errors', to batteries frying the camera itself, other focus issues, not good as now more are hitting the shelves, and since the major issue with the 1D3, you would think canon would make sure that these things were friggin perfect.

Oh brother. Yeah, you read 8 posts on here. And how many members are on FM.com, somewhere above 100,000? Give me a break. Show me one company who has a perfect record with any mass produced product, whereby not one defective product ever come off the assembly line.

Oct 07, 2009 at 09:12 AM

Steve Spencer
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p.3 #19 · Major 7D focus issues

Hi Ian,

Yep, it appears to me in all four shots that it is back focussing about an inch to an inch and a half. Some time you have enough DOF to cover it other times you don't and at the high magnifications you are looking at you will see even the slightest bit that it is off focus. The problem should be correctable with MA. Once you do so you should be a lot happier with the camera. For the high precision work you are trying to do here, you will need to work out MA with all your lenses. I would suggest investing in the lens align system, which looks pretty easy to use.

Best wishes,

Steve

Oct 07, 2009 at 09:43 AM

CarlG
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p.3 #20 · Major 7D focus issues

Steve Spencer wrote:
but 1/60 for with a 85mm lens on a crop camera is a pretty margin shutter speed and could be causing the problem. In fact, if it were me I would want faster shutter speeds on all the shots--but I do not have the steadiest hands.

ditto!!!

Oct 07, 2009 at 10:22 AM

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