Is it me?
I can’t decide if my camera has problems or if it’s me. Many of my pictures seem to be out of focus despite having one of my lenses calibrated and cleaned. I did some research on the internet and a lot of people have the same problem…but that doesn’t mean that there’s anything wrong with the camera. There are droves of whiners out there who want to blame their equipment for their lack of photography skills, so I don’t know how much faith I put in all the complaints. Of course, the vast majority of people are thrilled with the 5D Mark II. The thing that makes me think it’s operator error is the fact that some pictures are razor sharp. For instance, last night I took this shot of an old leather camera bag by my desk:
That’s completely unedited and it’s as sharp as can be. But I feel like all the pictures I take outside are a little soft. I spoke to a guy at Canon the other night and he said suggested I change some settings. I took a few photos of Little Buddy but am not convinced the problem is resolved. I’ll take it to Spain next week and see how those shots turn out. If they suck, this thing is getting returned.
January 27th, 2010 at 9:04 am
Not being an optics person I wonder how much your own vision affects the focus on a shot? Would a person with 20/20 have the same final focus settings as a person with 20/120? Or am I totally missing the point in that this is an autofocus issue, not a manual setting issue?
How do you focus this camera? With the view finder (ala ‘the good old days, one eye shut, the other looking through the little window) or do you do this by looking at the LCD panel? Hmmm, as I type this out I seem to recall that my brother had some adjustment on his old camera which allowed him to not use his glasses when he took a photo, I suppose a view finder correction knob or such. Now where is John Link when I have these optics questions??
Sharp jumper you have on LB!
January 27th, 2010 at 9:59 am
You’re an amazing photographer, despite your criticisms. I hope you get your issues resolved and enjoy Spain!
January 27th, 2010 at 5:15 pm
Hi Melody… I bought the 5D a few months back and I’m getting similar “is it me” moments. Photostand mounted, auto-timed shutter, using a 100mm macro f/2.8 and couldn’t get a clear image for the life of me. Some suggested shooting in RAW and doing post-processing ‘sharpness’ filters in Photoshop. But I’m only using images for the internet or to show on a low resolution LCD projector and don’t won’t to take the editing time. If you find more advice, please post… I’m also sure some pro photo blog has discussed this, but again, I haven’t had enough time to even learn the camera’s ins and outs; this is one of its habits. Going to Costa Rica with Maggie in February, so I should have it figured out by then.
January 27th, 2010 at 6:24 pm
Paul, thanks. Don’t let anyone tell you that you have “get offa my lawn syndrome”. You never fail to brighten my day.
Brad, I am really glad you commented about this because I am kind of losing it over this camera issue. I sit here and obsess over these photos and I don’t know what to do. The internet doesn’t help either because I have read just about every explanation under the sun. I have to admit, however, that I am leaning towards operator incompetence on this one. “Incompetence” is probably the wrong word. I can’t believe that Canon’s quality control is so bad that they’d allow zillions of these cameras to be released with the same problem. People all over the web talk about it but I only believe a fraction of them have honest-to-goodness technical problems.
I spoke to a guy at canon the other night and he suggested changing a couple of settings. One, disable noise reduction which is under MENU and second to last option. Go down to Custon Function II under image and change it there.
Two, Try taking photos on Medium or small settings instead of at the 21mp setting.
He also mentioned that this camera is so sensitive that inferior lenses are going to look terrible. But, you and I both used the 100mm macro which is an L lens, the best they make.
There is also another thing you can do and that is to make sure your microadjustment is set to zero or you may have to adjust it for each lens. THere are instructions for this on the internet. I’ll email you some websites for more information.
I don’t know what to do. I keep telling myself that it’s me, but I am continually disappointed with my outdoor shots. I havent’ had much time this week to do anything, but will experiment more on Friday. I’ll be in touch soon.
January 27th, 2010 at 6:27 pm
I forgot to mention, this camera has so many goddamned settings that I kind of feel like there’s bound to be something that I’m missing buried way down in some obscure menu option.
January 28th, 2010 at 3:42 am
Plan to do some tinkering this weekend as well, so thanks for the suggestions. The Planet5d has similar suggestions. If it is too many pixels, how ironic.
http://blog.planet5d.com/2009/06/canon-eos-5d-mark-ii-and-focus-my-images-arent-sharp/
January 28th, 2010 at 2:23 pm
love the “yawn!”
January 28th, 2010 at 8:12 pm
God I miss the days of f-stop, push film speed etc…
ps. I am NOT a Luddite – I just feel like one.
January 28th, 2010 at 9:19 pm
Hah, Robin, this thing would make your head spin. Honestly,there’s just too much crap on it i’ll never use. I’d have been happy if they’d simply have kept to the basics and charged a whole lot less money.
February 17th, 2010 at 4:24 pm
But let’s not forget the handsome subject of these pix, all dressed up like the little dude he is…