Help with 20D????

ShannonW

I recently photographed a product and struggled with focus while I was shooting but, the cameras sensors lit up showing it was in focus. So I thought maybe since my allergies were acting up and my eyes were irritated making it look slightly out. I shot them in RAW. When I looked at them on the computer they are all slightly out of focus! So today when I got home I went outside in BRIGHT light and shot some pictures AF and MF they are also not sharp. I focused on the apple in this shot and the square inside the camera lit up I also played around with all my lenses and they all were not sharp. PLEASE ADVISE!!!!

ehughes

It looks like you were at 1/40 at f/4 in bright sunlight. Try increasing the shutter speed above 400 and see if the focus is still soft, maybe you are moving ever so slightly after the camera locks the focus.

What lens are you using?
Are you using the center focus point or are you letting the camera choose?

If you bring up the origional picture in Zoom Browser you can see what the camera is focusing on..

ShannonW

ehughes wrote:

It looks like you were at 1/40 at f/4 in bright sunlight. Try increasing the shutter speed above 400 and see if the focus is still soft, maybe you are moving ever so slightly after the camera locks the focus.


ok I will bump up the shutter. I did think that movement might be the issue but the butterfly shot (product) was on a tripod.

What lens are you using? This shot was the 24-105

Are you using the center focus point or are you letting the camera choose?

I did let the camera choose and it chose the apple.

If you bring up the origional picture in Zoom Browser you can see what the camera is focusing on..

Zoom Broswer? I'll try zoomin in using PS

DanielB

ehughes wrote:

It looks like you were at 1/40 at f/4 in bright sunlight. Try increasing the shutter speed above 400 and see if the focus is still soft, maybe you are moving ever so slightly after the camera locks the focus.

What lens are you using?
Are you using the center focus point or are you letting the camera choose?

If you bring up the origional picture in Zoom Browser you can see what the camera is focusing on..

also. there is a little dial near the eyepiece. try moving that. it may be out of focus, and the camera's AF is working fine.:D

ShannonW

This is MF ISO 800 4.5 at a 40th with flash (with every light on ) I changed the focus setting off of the center dot to the middle right to help with the focus. I think this is better but still not as sharp as I would like. I also took one without flash it looked about the same but better color.

After cleaning the sensors the lens seems to be a little faster. Also I read that you should turn the camera off before you take off a lens and put on a different lens and turn it back it on??? I read this on dpreview. Is this true?

Thanks for the input so far

kdog

Can we get some more details?

What does MF mean in this context? You're talking about an autofocus problem, right? Also, what's your history with the camera? Is it new, or have you taken lots of pictures with it. Does it do this on all lenses? In bright sunlight at fast speeds too? How are things at f8? Thanks.

wxwax

ShannonW wrote:

This is MF ISO 800 4.5 at a 40th with flash (with every light on ) I changed the focus setting off of the center dot to the middle right to help with the focus. I think this is better but still not as sharp as I would like. I also took one without flash it looked about the same but better color.

After cleaning the sensors the lens seems to be a little faster. Also I read that you should turn the camera off before you take off a lens and put on a different lens and turn it back it on??? I read this on dpreview. Is this true?

Thanks for the input so far

What lens?
On what setting do you have your Autofocus?
How far away are you from the objects you're shooting?

We need more info.

ShannonW

KDOG and WKWAX


I have had the camera for a few months.

A little background for you. I have always shot in creative/manual modes always in manual focus. I prefer it b/c the film camera I used would tend to focus on the wrong thing. So with that being said I am (WAS) a very quick precise focuser. I shot 11 or so weddings with my film camera and had very few out of focus pictures. The fist wedding I shot with the digital I had no problems but Since then I have been having a harder time with focus. I thought it was just me....my eyes, unsteady hands so I got a tripod and use flash more than I would like to help stop motion. But I am still having issues. Take this pin picture for instance. This was a wake up call! The shutter speed is low 4th of a second but the apeture is F13 on a tripod with the camera telling me the middle of the butterfly pin is in focus, but clearly it is not. It did not look sharp as I shot but like I said before I thought it was just my allergies. I was about 2 ft away from this shot.The wreath was about the same. Both times the lens was 24-105. My issue is hat my camera is telling me it is good to shot the light inside comes on but when I look at it on the computer it is not sharp even after I use he unsharp mask.

ShannonW

Oh and the MF is manual focus for the santa shot

wxwax

2 feet away is pretty close. Do you have the EXIF for the butterfly shot?

I'll bet dollars to donuts that your film camera had a much bigger and brighter viewfinder than your 20D, making manual focus a lot easier.

ShannonW

wxwax wrote:

2 feet away is pretty close. Do you have the EXIF for the butterfly shot?

I just looked it up on my EOS viewer and it is ISO 100 3rd of a second F10 Focal length 55mm. I did crop this image. I may have been farther back than that but, not much more.


I'll bet dollars to donuts that your film camera had a much bigger and brighter viewfinder than your 20D, making manual focus a lot easier.

Yes it does. I got it out to compare the way the lenses looked and worked. Trying to figure out if it was the lens or camera or ME????

ShannonW

The middle part was lower than the feathers. So I thought I should focus there and have a somewhat small aperture so the rest would be sharp. Is this correct? Cause if I focused on the feathers the middle part would have been out since it was on a different lower plane....right? But I am still having issues with focus ... ie the wreath.

Mike Lane

Sorry if this has been mentioned before. But I had accidentally changed the diopter setting on my 20D's viewfinder at one point and had some out of focus shots for a while before I realized what the deal was.

I fixed it by going in bright light and let the camera auto focus on an easy to get subject. Then I adjusted the diopter correction thing until the subject looked the most in focus to me. I haven't had any problems since.

ShannonW

Well, I am going to get some good rest wake up and shoot in bright light, different lenses, ISO's and see what happens! Wish me luck I don't want to have to take my camera to the shop for fixin' :cry

Mike I have changed it before but, that was when I first got it so it could have moved. I'll check it tomorrow in the bright light.

Thanks so much guys!
And WXWAX.... Howdy Partner! I noticed your in GA are you in Atlanta? I am in Athens.

ShannonW

Ok Here's the issue! I cleaned all of the sensors, changed the dioptor which did need to be changed again...Thanks you. Reset the camera setting to the factory settings. Then set the focus to AI Servo and the AF setting is the middle spot. Ok So I go outside to shoot ISO 100 Shutter 500 F4 This shot is Manual focus I am happy with this shot.

ShannonW

This is the issue...This is AF with all the same settings. The red light inside the camera came on telling me the bow was sharp but I could clearly see the that the image was not.

ShannonW

So refocused on something else a tree and then back to the bow and put the bow right into focus!?!?! HELP What is going on?

wxwax

Turn off AI servo.

Red Bull

In that second picture you looks awfully close to the bow. Maybe you are too close for the focusing range?

I would also try to turn off AI Servo. Make sure that the camera locks focus and beeps...then open the shutter.

gtc

aperture,film plane and DOF
also,once you have focused think about aperture-smaller aperture equals greater depth of field-also when shooting macros it helps to have the film/sensor plane flat against the subject as the DOF is so shallow in macro-if it is tilted like in your example then only part of the subject will be in focus,you need to be either directly above or shoot from the side with the camera sitting up straight eg flat on the bottom-also set your metering to partial and switch off servo ai-thats for moving subjects

Red Bull wrote:

In that second picture you looks awfully close to the bow. Maybe you are too close for the focusing range?

I would also try to turn off AI Servo. Make sure that the camera locks focus and beeps...then open the shutter.

ian408

AI will cause the lens to hunt. Especially true when shooting in low light.
Someone suggested single shot mode with the pwr switch set to beep on
AF lock.

Another way you could keep AI enabled is to use the "*" button. I can't
remember the custom function number (and the manual isn't handy). This
way, you press "*" until you get focus lock then use the shutter for exposure
lock and firing the shutter. This method takes some getting used to.

Ian

ShannonW

Well Guys, I guess it was the AISERVO. I am still going to have it cleaned and looked at it. Also, I am going to go out and shoot today to confirm that it is a happy camera! It seems that it was a combination of things aiservo, the dioptor and the focus spot not being in the middle. Thanks so much for input and help. I'll update soon.

wxwax

Red Baron

AI Servo is for continuous focus. Set Custom Function 4 to either 1 or 3 to shift focus to the * button on the back of the camera. This takes some getting used to but once you do you'll find it difficult to go back to focusing with the shutter button. Using the * button to focus in AI Servo allows you to lock focus essentially operating as though you're in One Shot mode. It's kind of like having the best of both worlds - One Shot focus when you need it and focusing tracking when you need it.