i have a 30d and am just fed up with thinking its autofocused correctly only to check it sometimes later to find the eye of a bird is out of focus on 5 out of 6 maybe images taken often none will be infocus. when viewed on zoombrowser with highlighted focus points its shows smack on the eye and its not in focus by the way convinced its me i now have a 100 400 a 24 105 and 17 40 and sigma 12 24 all play up and i run single point focus point to try to help it along. i went into a photographic shop and the guy says its quite common he now has a 40d and says its not really any different how do you guys test things cos if something isnt sorted i may well look at nikon or do i have to go to 1d series to get it to work im sure the pros would soon play up or change . perhaps a 1dmk11n is the answer any ideas guys some in focus pics on google search "steve doidge" i do sell pics but sometims feel like throwing it at the ground in frustration if i missed a pic cos of autofocus regards steve
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 Why not do a front/back focus test http://photo.net/learn/focustest/. Jusat as a matter of interest I have three Canons, 300D, 10D and the 30D. None of them have focussing problems. Harry
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Apologies if this sounds like the obvious, but are you actually focusing on the eye of the bird in the first place? Most focusing problems are down to user error. If you want the camera to focus on one point in particular, turn all but one of the autofocus points off, use the one remaining, recompose, and shoot. I've hardly ever had anything other than the AF point in the middle of my viewfinder switched on. Suppose this is the reason I don't mind having just three AF points on my trusty Olympus E-1 
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hi ya sorry if it didnt sound clear in the first instance but i rarely if ever have more than one autofocus point on (ie the middle ) and with the canon zoombrowser program you can highlight the point of supposed autofocus and the red square sitting smack bang over the eye might be out of focus on 5 out of 6 pics on say 1000/sec with canon l series image stablised 100 400 at 400mm and if im lucky i get to keep one its the ones i miss i get fed with, not the lucky one in six gamble, i think this problem dosent exist on 1 series surely
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Maybe your lens needs recalibrating? Can you post a blurry picture?
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sorry harry didnt notice yours first i dont think its a back or front issue i did have that big time on a 75/300 canon years ago this almost seems to be inconsistent ,agreed when you do 100% views other parts of image are in focus but not the bit with the red square over it ! and if it was one or the other i proberly wouldnt get the one in six correct still look at it from canons view i have to buy a new camera more often because i have to take 6 images to get 1 so i wear it out really quick dont get me wrong i like the camera and have some great pictures from it i ony want more keepers and less deletes !
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hi ya sorry if it didnt sound clear in the first instance but i rarely if ever have more than one autofocus point on (ie the middle ) and with the canon zoombrowser program you can highlight the point of supposed autofocus and the red square sitting smack bang over the eye might be out of focus on 5 out of 6 pics on say 1000/sec with canon l series image stablised 100 400 at 400mm and if im lucky i get to keep one its the ones i miss i get fed with, not the lucky one in six gamble, i think this problem dosent exist on 1 series surely
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sorry guys no idea how i managed to re submit entry twice im definately better at taking photos than i am with computers !!!
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If it's not you, then it's either the camera or the lens. Both are made to do their job, are generally reliable if expensive bits of kit, so at least one must be broken. You don't need a new camera - just a good repair guy?
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| Edited: 12/11/07 11:07 |
got a5d , does exactly the same, you think its in focus and bam, .......its not, except with my 300 f4?
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oh thats not so good either then thats the 5d off the wish list as well then im begining to think a 1 series is maybe the only answer ive talked to numerious people with 1 series and dont have same probs
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 Are you sure this isn't a problem with zoombrowser? I've just checked some of my own shots where I deliberately set the focus point and recomposed to put the subject on the side of the frame. Zoombrowser shows the focus point bang in the centre (on a clearly out of focus part of the image). The area I did focus on is fine (eye of bird as it happens). In fact in almost no shots that I've looked at does zoombrowser pick the real focus point. It just bangs a red square in the centre of the image irrespective of what I actually did.
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| Edited: 13/01/08 11:00 |
hi i see where your coming from with zoombrowser but if i do 100% on the eye on five shots it may be out of focus and one from the same burst of shots will be ok not nessararlly the 1st or last it seems to have a mind of its own. and im not in control of it and seem to have to take masses more pics in the hope it works on one! i have had a bit of thought on the focus point on zoombrowser issue i wonder what it shows if you use one shot focus on the eye, then lock hold then recompose it will then show where you were, not the point of re composed pic do you think regards steve
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I'm going to have to play with some shots to see what's ZB does. It looks like it simply tells you which focus point the camera was set to use, so in my case I always get the red square in the centre of the frame. There's always the possibility of operator movement in a burst. Or in my case operator and subject, since I usually photograph animals. Are you using a tripod for birds, or hand-holding?
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hi i have to say that i have three tripods but really dont use them as often as i should i have been doing some windsurfing pics recently (i windsurf as well) use a heavy old (rusty now)one with damped video head with 100-400 canon is to pan, not a bad sucess rate with a1 servo but could have better results it hates being on more than centre point focus. not a huge amount of wildlife in worthing england (theres a lot of odd creatures in brighton, but i think there supposed to be human ! who hate having their pics taken some get as dangerous as wild animals, sad really !) i understand it can go off if hand held but on fast burst and lets say all pics have eye in middle in zoombrowser x100% with 3 pages open it is really obvious it cant cope i have done a similar thing with the 24 105 canon is focused on the persons eye and taken maybe 3 shots and maybe only one has eye in focus good job i dont need to make a living out of weddings, i do them but really only under duress ! i do a mixture of pics some of which should have the time to browse is on "steve doidge" at photobox but google search in inverted commas brings me up straight away please feel free to comment on here or there happy piccy takin everyone steve
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hi to any body who still be reading this i decided to buy a 40d i read vaious write ups and talked to a few people with 40d s and they thought there wasent a big gain i have to disagree i have just taken mine to hong kong ,night shot live view focusing is very usefull, high speed 6.5 frames sec cool for sport and used a lot in australia on 3 week trip ps dont leave on iso expan or noise reuce or frame raate drops a lot , took me ages to work that one out , did it by reseting camera back to default then adding things fousing is vastly better question is was it my 30d a poor one maybe but i know my keeper rate has really gone up and extra pixies give a deeper image so would a 1d ---- but cant afford one, bit like most people i guess. got some great pics while away so i have no regrets in changing except i cant open 40d raw images on photoshop cs2 you have to have cs3 but zoombrowser is good and canon dpp so dont really mind ps any know a way round to open in cs2 ? will try to get some pics onto photobox soon the zoos in aus are really cool for pics and east coast is great too next time we want to camper van from melbourne to queensland maybe 3 weeks min so better start saving now that means no new camera bits, oh dam happy piccy takin steve
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Yes, download the DNG convertor from Adobe. http://www.adobe.com/products/dng/ I have the choice with Lightroom (far better than using the convertor in CS2) of converting direct to DNG or use CR2, personally I see no difference in the two.
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God! this all sounds to complex to me. The camera either works or it don't. You dont need to bring computers into it, not for true photography. PS I'm not a ludite computers are great BUT not a substitute for poor photography, or equipment failure.
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hi im not really sure where you going with this if your happy with out of focus pictures before they even see a computer then your easily pleased me i like mine in focus and my 40d is now much better at doing that im pleased to say regards steve
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Hi Steve, I don't have a problem with out of focus pics and have enlarged many to A2 and A1 for exhibition use. Sure there is a degredation due to lack of pixels, one of the reasons I'm looking to upgrade to a 40D or maybe a 5D.
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