Tarheelnga Loc: Hendersonville, NC, live in Buford, Ga

I recently sent my 7d ll back and received another one, as I could not get it to focus using my Tamron 600mm. The 600 and camera was sent to Tamron. Firmware and update/adjustment was performed on lens and camera. Nothing helped. With my first camera, I printed out the BOOK of a manual from the CD. There is a section that discusses the "Fine Adjustment of AF's Point of Focus". My question is, should I make this adjustment, along with the lens micro-adjustment, or just do the lens adjustment?

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

JohnM Loc: Springfield, Illinois

just wondering, did you buy your camera and lens online or from a brick and mortar store? I see great deals online but so far have been reluctant as I am one who knows I am going to need face to face help. Just wondering?

Tarheelnga Loc: Hendersonville, NC, live in Buford, Ga

The camera was purchased from the local Best Buy...I know, a lot of people think you should just buy from a true camera store, which is ok too. Actually, my wife and I BOTH had the 7d ll. Neither camera worked with the Tamron, and both cameras and the lens had been sent to Tamron for updates and firmware. We had been reading how others on the site had focus issues with the camera and lens combination. Along with how many times the lens and camera had been sent back in, or how long it had taken to get their gear back, we decided to see if we could just return our cameras and get new ones...hoping the more recent models had the focus issues fixed. My wife's camera had been purchased back in October, and she got me mine for Christmas. We returned them last week. No questions ask, they just took them back, and in three days we had the replacements. We even got money back, because they had a sale going on. And yes, I will buy from them again. The lens came from Milford Photo in Milford, CT. When we could not find the lens anywhere else, they had it. I will buy from them again also.

LFingar Loc: Claverack, NY

I had to send my first 7DII back because of focus issues. Maybe one shot in ten was usable. The replacement that B&H sent me seems OK but there is a definite need to practice and study up on how to use the autofocus properly. I wouldn't hesitate to use the camera's micro focus feature. You can always turn it off.

Swamp Gator Loc: Coastal South Carolina

GFL if you have to deal with Canon on this. Mine has been in twice for inconsistent focusing issues and it's still unresolved going on six weeks of getting the run around from them.
Worst CS of any company I have ever dealt with.

JohnM Loc: Springfield, Illinois

thanks so much for the added information. Its really hard for me to figure out "what next" even harder when you dont have a go to expert you can trust.

Donkas1946 Loc: Southern NH

How are the replacements working out?

travisdeland Loc: deland, FL

I was wondering if there is a range of serial numbers-which would correlate to production date-that would give the buyer an indication if the lens/camera combo will be problematic, or not. I haven't seen any firmware updates for the 7D2, so would assume this problem would be addressed by a firmware update from Tamron. How would the consumer be able to tell the firmware level on the lens, if it's not marked on the box? Just some thought, as I have a 7D2 and am considering the Tammy 150-600.

thelazya Loc: Wendell, MN

Tamron has a lens~7Dii problem. hope they can fix it before the Sigma Contemporary comes out. That's what I'll be ordering. I rented the Sport and just loved it.

RRS Loc: Not sure

I'll bet your glad you kept your old 7D. I haven't made the change yet and still get great results with the 7D. If I was having problems with a lens other then a Canon lens I'd be damned if I would send my new Canon camera to a third party lens company. They have so many lenses coming back that they should go out and buy their own 7DMKII to fix the problem. So now if you are having problems with your new camera after they have made changes to make it work with their lens good luck sending it back to Canon to fix.

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

They are one and the same thing. MFA or Micro Focus Adjustment is just a term that's been commonly used. Latest Canon documents refer to it as Fine Adjustment. But it's the same thing.

You should be able to test to see if any further adjustment is needed. Your 7DII has "version 2.0" of the fine lens adjustment. This allows for two adjustments with zooms like the 150-600mm... one at each end of the zoom range. The original 7D had "version 1.0", which only allowed for one adjustment per lens, even with zooms.

If it helps, there are more sophisticated and precise methods of doing lens focus adjustment, than Canon's method described in the manual. Probably the most thorough and accurate is Reikan FoCal software, which essentially runs a series of tests shots, analyses them, then applies an average of adjustment.

Any lens that tends to produce shallow depth of field, such as a very long focal length or a large aperture, is more likely to benefit from critical fine tuning of the focus. Even then, no lens/camera combo will focus exactly the same place every time... there are just too many variables that come into play and this is just not all that necessary. Focus calibration such as this should be redone every so often, as lens mechanisms wear over time and things get out of adjustment. At some point the camera's ability to fine tune AF may be exceeded and the lens itself (possibly the camera body, too) will need to be sent in for re-calibration. Some lenses need re-calibration more than others, too.

I'd suggest looking at lensrentals.com's blog about various lenses... for example comparing Canon's original 24-70/2.8 with the 24-70/2.8 II. They handle a large number of any given lens model, regularly test them and maintain as needed... so are a really good source of information about these things.

Not sure about you in particular, but a lot of fretting about precise focus and sharpness is simply due to digital's ability to be easily enlarged to utterly ridiculous levels on a computer monitor. If we look at our images at 100% or larger, that's just plain silly and not at all surprising if focus appears to be off or the image may look a little soft. 100% of a 7DII image file is like looking at a five foot wide print from approx. 18" away. 200% is like looking at a ten foot wide print from that same distance. Of course it looks soft! Any image will! Even if we were to make prints that large, we certainly wouldn't be viewing them from anywhere near that close. We need to back off to 50% or 33% when evaluating focus and image sharpness. Even 50% is quite large to be viewing so close.

orriebarber Loc: Stratford CT.

I Purchased the 7d mk. 11 and the Tamron 150-600mm from Milford Photo when they first came out and have no problems with them. I sent Tamron five pictures at there request and they said that they were a little soft and to send the lens in if I want to. The turn around was three days and everything is perfect. What looked OK to me was not perfect to them. Milford Photo and Tamron are very reliable people to do business with.

rstrick2 Loc: Beverly Hills, FL

I have the 7D MKII and the Tamron 150-600, i thought i was having focusing issues. The lens is slow so you need to crank up the ISO, i was trying to use a lower ISO in order to keep noise down, however, the camera is capable of getting you very good photos up at HI ISO , i frequently use ISO 3200 or 4000 if need in early or evening light but it give me a higher shutter speed so i can get better photos in focus. I shoot in RAW and if need be in my post processing i will remove some noise. i also turned off all noise reduction on the camera. hope this help you can see my photo in the gallery section