Focus on Canon 5D Mark III
Sep 2, 2013 11:47:15 #
Yesterday I went out to experiment with my focus on my 5D Mark III. I haven't been happy with lots of my shots and am trying to figure out if it is me, my camera, or my lens. I used a tripod and a 2 second timer with this picture to avoid shake. I used a single, center, AF point with my 70-300 Canon L lens. Thoughts welcome. My focus was on the center strawberry in the group of three.
strawberry
Sep 2, 2013 12:42:07 #
I feel your pain - that's really not sharp . . ..
First thing is - you're all the way out (300 mm), and even "L" glass is not at its best at the end of zoom range- maybe foot zoom a little closer? Also - 1/3 of second?!?! That's an incredibly long exposure time in daylight! If it was REALLY low light, there may not have been enough contrast for the autofocus to lock in (Esp. at 300 mm). For a still life, I would recommend manual focus. My Canon gives a yellow rectangle (Instead of the green ) when it's struggling for AF lock.
The EXIF doesn't say, but I'm thinking you may have left the Image Stabilization on, and it generated some movement where there wasn't any.
First thing is - you're all the way out (300 mm), and even "L" glass is not at its best at the end of zoom range- maybe foot zoom a little closer? Also - 1/3 of second?!?! That's an incredibly long exposure time in daylight! If it was REALLY low light, there may not have been enough contrast for the autofocus to lock in (Esp. at 300 mm). For a still life, I would recommend manual focus. My Canon gives a yellow rectangle (Instead of the green ) when it's struggling for AF lock.
The EXIF doesn't say, but I'm thinking you may have left the Image Stabilization on, and it generated some movement where there wasn't any.
Sep 2, 2013 12:48:33 #
Actually I did have the IS turned off as well. I am back out today with different lenses trying to see if I can tell a difference. I had just set it to AV and let it do its thing. It was evening. I am heading back out to try TV to see what I can discover at that end. Thanks
Sep 3, 2013 06:48:48 #
Try a different subject,it might be trying to focus on the wire around the plant.
Sep 3, 2013 08:15:24 #
karelowe wrote:
Yesterday I went out to experiment with my focus on my 5D Mark III. I haven't been happy with lots of my shots and am trying to figure out if it is me, my camera, or my lens. I used a tripod and a 2 second timer with this picture to avoid shake. I used a single, center, AF point with my 70-300 Canon L lens. Thoughts welcome. My focus was on the center strawberry in the group of three.
The 5DM3 as everyone will tell you is a fantastic camera, I have been shooting with a 7D and yesterday took delivery of my new toy!!!! Yeah a 5DM3 that I have lusted over for months! This was my first use of it and the attached shot was taken at approximately 5:30 pm with sunset at 5:40pm (here in Sydney, Oz) so not a lot of light. This was taken with a 70-200 f2.8 IS II which I have been using on the 7D but was blown away with the clarity with the 5DM3. Not sure why yours isn't as sharp as you want 'cause I was struggling to understand the new AF setup on the 5D and was able to get this despite my lack of good understanding. Good luck I am sure you will work it out with the help of the crew here.
5DM3 first shots
Sep 3, 2013 08:29:42 #
Sep 3, 2013 09:06:00 #
Chris wrote:
Have you micro adjusted your lens to your camera? Page 104 in your manual
Just note that for what it is worth Ken Rockwell suggests that you don't touch this function! Don't know why but just FYI.
Sep 3, 2013 15:42:25 #
Sep 3, 2013 18:37:29 #
Thanks to all. I have a local friend trying to help me and we are doing the ruler test. Still working on it. I had read about the micro adjustments on my camera but I am leery of doing that at this point.
Sep 3, 2013 18:54:15 #
Also you had it wide open F/5.6 @300mm most lens do not perform there best wide open at max focal length
Sep 3, 2013 18:56:16 #
Capsurfer wrote:
Just note that for what it is worth Ken Rockwell suggests that you don't touch this function! Don't know why but just FYI.
Ken might be right on a lot of things but here he is definitely wrong. It was an afternoon worth of work but I adjusted all my lenses on my D7000 and the results are definitely worth the effort...and no, it's definitely not that hard to do!
Sep 4, 2013 03:49:13 #
yaterman96 wrote:
Try a different subject,it might be trying to focus on the wire around the plant.
My thoughts too.
Sep 4, 2013 18:44:50 #
klaus wrote:
Ken might be right on a lot of things but here he is definitely wrong. It was an afternoon worth of work but I adjusted all my lenses on my D7000 and the results are definitely worth the effort...and no, it's definitely not that hard to do!
OK, understood. As mentioned didn't know why KR was advising against it but good to hear that you had success.
I played around with a number of other lenses on my new 5D3 including a 24-70, a 300mm prime and a 50mm prime and they were all very, very sharp, there does appear to be a problem with what the original poster in this thread is getting - I accept that any electronic good can have a small percentage of "lemons" but would expect that the vast majority of cameras would work as expected straight out of the box.
Sep 4, 2013 19:59:30 #
There's more to this problem than has been posted so far ... karelowe, are there any updates?
The example JPEG has been post processed such that EXIF data is incomplete and the location of the focus point has been lost. Looking at the picture 100% I cannot find any point where there's sharp focus. Please confirm a filter is not being used on this lens. Along with the focus point, the picture style and other info from the 5DIII have been stripped although the Adobe RGB color space will dull the colors in the JPEG posted.
My 70-300L would capture this picture with at least something in sharp focus at 300mm and F/5.6. But, as mentioned by others, I'd close the aperture to at least 6.3 to maybe f/11 for sharper overall results.
The example JPEG has been post processed such that EXIF data is incomplete and the location of the focus point has been lost. Looking at the picture 100% I cannot find any point where there's sharp focus. Please confirm a filter is not being used on this lens. Along with the focus point, the picture style and other info from the 5DIII have been stripped although the Adobe RGB color space will dull the colors in the JPEG posted.
My 70-300L would capture this picture with at least something in sharp focus at 300mm and F/5.6. But, as mentioned by others, I'd close the aperture to at least 6.3 to maybe f/11 for sharper overall results.
Sep 4, 2013 20:27:37 #
It rained yesterday so didn't get back outside. Someone mentioned it could be focusing on the netting, so I just now removed the netting......No filters. I exported the picture through Lightroom and it should have all the metadata posted that is available. I have not done any processing on this picture. It is straight out of the camera. I bumped it up to f8. The focus point was "center point" on the strawberry on the right. I am still working on the issue.....
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