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Thread: Lens focus issues?

  1. #1
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    Lens focus issues?

    I purchased a 60d about 1.5 years ago and have gotten into wildlife and bird photography (also shoot my son's high school baseball). I purchased a new 400mm 5.6 about a month ago and am getting used to it. I've got more birding keeper photos with the 400 in the last month than I have in the last eighteen months. I used to use my 70-200 f4 (non-is), occasionally with a 1.4II.

    Most of my roughly 1000 photos with the 400mm have been in focus if I hit my target (center point), often aimed at the birds eye. This morning I went to a new spot and found a few good opportunities at waterfowl I have not seen yet. I took about 100 shots, mostly of swimming ducks and a few in flight. It was drizzling on and off all morning, overcast and not ideal by any means. While shooting I thought to myself these might be my best photos yet. When I got home, I was very disappointed. It appears that most of the shots were out of focus, despite the fact that I hit my target (eyes) on many occasions.

    Can a lens work fine for a month then have problems with auto focusing for no apparent reason? I assume I cannot do anything to correct this and may have to send the lens to Canon if the problem persists. Anyone have any ideas how a lens can appear fine for about a thousand photos then act up out of the blue? I will try another lens tomorrow and see if the problem is the lens or the body for starters.

    Please share your thoughts.

  2. #2
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    Quote Originally Posted by Always Looking View Post
    It was drizzling on and off all morning, overcast and not ideal by any means.
    Perhaps this had something to do with this.

  3. #3
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    All shutter speeds are manual, all fstops set manualy, all iso on auto. I did not do any processing on these, not sure I wil even bother with how bad they look.

    #1 1/400 5.6 iso400 This one of the sharpest shots I've gotten so far, all of these are from this morning.
    #2 1/1000 5.6 iso250
    #3 1/640 5.6 iso400
    #4 1/500 8.0 iso500 (the blurry vertical lines are from the weeds, I don't think they were in front of the target though)

    I added the data since I don't know how to include EXIF data (yet).
    Last edited by Always Looking; 03-03-2012 at 11:27 PM. Reason: missing information

  4. #4
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    To answer your question about the lens: Yes, even if you had a 50D and used the microadjustment feature to get it "dialed in", there is still enough slop in the mechanism to get soft shots. Even the normal use of a lens wears down components let alone the accidental drop.
    What focus mode were you in though? Assuming the camera could lock on to small detail on a dark face in not so good weather, those reeds could play havoc in servo mode.
    Don't give up just yet. Tomorrow is always a better day.
    Words get in the way of what I meant to say.

  5. #5
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    I guess it makes sense. In the four photos above, the three with the lousy focus the lighting was gloomy at best. With the gull photo (#1), the clouds broke and things got a lot better. I was in one shot focus mode.

    Thanks for the information, obviously I still have a lot to learn.

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