ikodimer

School auditorium and granddaughter's choir at distance to camera 50-150 feet ( estimate) with no flash allowed, low overhead incandescent lighting, no tripod allowed, auto focus ON, center point metering, large file size. Hand held, Tried ISOs in 4000 to 6400 ranges, bracketing shots at wide open
f stops using 2 different lenses....a Canon 17-85 mm, set @ f 4.0 and Tamron 18-270 mm lens ,set @ f 3.5. Got extremely low shutter speeds in ranges from 0.6 sec maybe up to 1/ 6-1/8 seconds. Unacceptable, fuzzy images on both lenses..so doubt is a lens problem.
Tried Menu # 2 to manually increase shutter speeds to at least 1/30-1/60 seconds using same settings stipulated above. When image taken, it didn't respond to manual adjustment of shutter speeds upwards to faster speeds but merely reverted to original very low speeds. Canon Repair had no answer..did clean camera and updated my firmware to latest. Come on "Hoggers" : any cogent inputs would help so I can talk to Canon again or guide me instead thru this problem..Could this be a camera to lens communication problem ?? Thanks for your help.

RichardTaylor Loc: Sydney, Australia

For "very low" light shooting and "reasonable" shutter speeds you will need fast to very fast lenses (f2.8 to f1.4?) and very high ISO values especially if shooting at f2.8 (ISO 12800?)
Shoot raw and be prepared to do some noise reduction when post processing.

BebuLamar

I don't think there is anything wrong with the camera.Low light, long distance from the subject compound the problems.

rjaywallace Loc: Wisconsin

Are you located within reasonable distance to a full-line camera store? Go there, select a different model Canon camera. Bring your lenses with you. Try shots with each lens. If results are not similar to the problem you describe, you may have a bad 80D camera. Return/exchange it if possible. If results are similar to the problem you describe, something else is wrong. Talk to folks at the camera store for guidance. Lower f-stop, higher ISO?

rgrenaderphoto Loc: Hollywood, CA

Post a few images, please check the "store original" box.

Apaflo Loc: Anchorage, Alaska

You have a fairly decent APS-C camera. But it simply will not provide acceptable results in that circumstance. Worse than that are your slow lenses. Not even a good full frame body will do that job well with a slow lens.

Another way of saying it is that you are looking at a job that requires the best equipment available, it takes money and also very good technique.

twowindsbear

First off - how was the exposure on the "Unacceptable, fuzzy images?"

IF the exposures were pretty good - then your camera is doing everything it can do to give you properly exposed images.

Next - were your "Unacceptable, fuzzy images" showing camera movement or subject movement or maybe even both?

Try this - choose a reasonable shutter speed, to counter any camera & subject movement, & wide open lens opening, your choice of manual, shutter priority or aperture priority, AND auto ISO with no upper limit set.

This should be more likely to give you well exposed images with little to no camera or subject movement, but probably with a fair amount of high ISO noise.

IMHO, a noisy but well exposed image showing no camera or subject movement is preferable to a grossly underexposed & 'shaky' image with little to no noise.

Good luck! & happy new year to you & yours.

happy sailor Loc: Ontario, Canada

You said you were shooting at wide open f stops of 3.5 on the Tamron and 4.0 on the Canon. Both of those lens are zooms and are not constant aperture throughout the zoom range. At distances of 50 to 150 feet I am sure you were zoomed in which means your minimum aperture on those lenses would have been more in the range of 6.3 for the Tamron and 5.6 for the Canon which would explain the slow shutter speeds. You might want to put the camera in full auto mode in those light conditions and see what settings the camera picks just for a reference. What mode were you shooting in, full manual, aperture priority or ??

chaman

This sounds like user's error, mixed in with poor knowledge of the gear used and perhaps a bit of poor knowledge of the exposure triangle....also known as the basics....IMO.

Apaflo Loc: Anchorage, Alaska

With that camera and those lenses it can't be done under the circumstances described.

At least a 6D body and lens with a maximum aperture of f/2.8 is required. And even with that it would need very good technique and post processing.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

Floyd is right - this is FF, fast lens and high ISO territory. Low light, moving subjects, and no flash is a challange in terms of equipment (and $).

chaman

A crop sensor can indeed get good images in low light if the equipment is used well and its limitations are known, not a particularly fast lens either. Ive shown these before:


Canon 7d2, ISO 6400, f/4.5, 1/30, handheld, 24-105mm L lens

LY2A4107 by Oscar Baez Soria, on Flickr

SS 1/25
LY2A4102 by Oscar Baez Soria, on Flickr

SS 1/20
LY2A4099 by Oscar Baez Soria, on Flickr

SS 1/20
LY2A4094 by Oscar Baez Soria, on Flickr

Peterff Loc: O'er The Hills and Far Away, in Themyscira.

This is straight out of the camera, no time to process yet. Some dancers at night with only available street lights, so fairly dark. Canon 80D, EF 50mm lens f/1.8, 1/200s, ISO 10000. Still some motion blur and a little noisy, but it captured the essence of the situation, settings all set manually except for focus.

These situations are demanding, but especially with the lenses used and the ISO values chosen.

Good luck to the OP.

(Download)

Apaflo Loc: Anchorage, Alaska

Not true at all, and your example images are not even close to the same problem.

Consider that a "decent" image means a useful dynamic range of at least 6.5 fstops. The Canon 80D, as measured by Bill Claff, drops to that at an ISO of only 1834. Compare that to a Canon 6D where that is at ISO 4070. Better would be a Canon 1DXmII that could be used at ISO 5189. (Tops is a Nikon D5 at ISO 7178. That is about 2 fstops better than the Canon 80D.)

Of course with a lens that is at least 2 fstops faster too, this project is almost reasonable. Instead of shutter speeds of 1/8 or slower and a dynamic range of 2 fstops with intolerable noise a proper camera could produce noise free images at a shutter speed of 1/60 or even faster. High quality rather than just a visible image.

chaman

Wrong...

Those images were taken at very low light. Situation seems similar to what the OP presented. A crop CAN GIVE good images in low light. Not better than a FF but it can do it. If you CAN NOT do it....its your problem. The only light was from light poles in a dark parking lot BTW. If anything the OP needed a longer lens. The camera body can pull off the rest.

Provide examples yourself then and stop with the useless techno babble you always recur too. Unless you can not give any examples of your work dont waste your time arguing. With all that "knowledge" your work should something for the whole world to see. So lets see.....unless you nothing to show of course. Oh wait.... I saw your snapshots.....seems Im wasting my time.

BTW, you agree that professional glass is only minimally sharper than cheaper ones? Right?