Ok I shot all of these shots with my 1D Mark II @ f/3.5, 1/125, ISO400
My focus was aimed center focal point at the bullet marks on the 2nd paragraph closest to the edge of the box.
24mm
35mm
70mm
Anything that I shoot at 24mm is out of focus. 70mm appears to be the only focal length where anything will be in focus. Can Canon fix this or should I just exchange it for a new one. I just bought it off the boards and the guy bought it brand new for the UPC rebate. Should I send my camera in and have them calibrated or should I just get a new lens?
I shot the same camera with a 17-40mm and it worked perfect. So I know its not the camera.
If the guy send in the upc, then it has to be sent in under his name. Work it out with him as to where to ship it to. Hopefully you can ship it to his name/Care of you/ at your address.
It is really worth sending it in and waiting about 10 days for calibration. I did that with 5 of my lenses and all are right on. It sure beats the return and test cycle.
You don't need to send it in with your camera, unless you suspect that the camera is off too. They calibrate them seperately.
One other thing. When you send lenses in with a new camera they seem to do a complimentry check /calibration on all of the lenses. Not sure if this is always the case, but they did it for me. Some of mine were out of warrantee.
Edited by Malcolm Stitt on Feb 14, 2005 at 08:40 PM GMT
The shot is from about 4 feet away. I tried it against flat surfaces as well. I took it outdoors and shot a few shots as well. Every shot at 24 up to 68mm is waaaay out of focus. 70mm appears to work ok. I took a shot of my office and aimed at a chair from about 10 feet away and at 24mm on up every single thing in the picture was out of focus. I took the same shot at 70mm and the wall was in focus behind the chair. It is definately a bad copy. My 17-40 that I just sold on here was spot on.
bmizar wrote:
The shot is from about 4 feet away. I tried it against flat surfaces as well. I took it outdoors and shot a few shots as well. Every shot at 24 up to 68mm is waaaay out of focus. 70mm appears to work ok. I took a shot of my office and aimed at a chair from about 10 feet away and at 24mm on up every single thing in the picture was out of focus. I took the same shot at 70mm and the wall was in focus behind the chair. It is definately a bad copy. My 17-40 that I just sold on here was spot on....Show more →
It's my personal belief that this is caused by the video card used in your Mac. This is a well known bug in OS X which causes all 24-70 tagged images processed with a G5 having a NVIDIA 6800 video card to become defocussed. You should therefore send your video card (you can keep the G5) to me.
Seriously, I would send it back for return if you are able, otherwise, back to Canon.
My 24-70 was also a dud. My 17-85 and 28-135 are considerably sharper at all tested focal lengths, even at 5.6 - 11. I returned it and the shop is getting in another I'll try. If that's also a dud I'm done with it.
I just picked up my second 24-70 form the store and gave it the same test I did previously comparing it against my 17-85 and 28-128.
I'm happy to say that this 24-70 is considerably better than the last one. The focus is much better and the action of both the zoom and focus rings even feel smoother. I'll shoot around with it a few days before I decide to keep it. That last one has me spooked but good.
Canon required a signature so they didn't leave it yesterday. I picked it up today but just got home from work... and on my way out the door with the kids for a school event.
I'll break it out Saturday at one of my sons soccer games - and cross my fingers
update:
I just took one shot with it. Indoors, crappy lighting.. it's awsome!!! weeeeeeeeeee
Now I'm pumped for Saturday!! [although it's supposed to rain.. hmm]
I shot around with my second 24-70 and though it's considerably better than the last one I had it's still not knocking my socks off so I did more rigorous focus testing using 24, 28, 35, 50 and 70mm at f2.8, 4, 5.6, 8, and 11 I found it back focuses from 24 to 50 but at 28 oddly enough it hardly focuses at all and I have to focus manually. The only spot it's decent is at 70mm, there it's darn near perfect.
Since I've had no issues like this with my other lenses I decided I wasn't going to bother with the 24-70 and returned it, swapping it for a 100-400 f4.5-5.6L (the next lens on my wish list).
I am curious, is this a USA version of the lens? I know your next ? is why, because i went through 3 USA versions of that lens before they had no more USA versions and sent me the cheaper Non USA version which was dead balls on accurate. Then i went through the same thing with the 16-35L but 2 copies of that were terrible, told them to send me the Non USA Version and bingo another dead balls on hit, i will never buy another Canon made USA lens again. JMO
