50D Servo AF... dreadful performance... faulty body?

Werecow

Werecow

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I've had a Canon 50D for a couple days now... tested the AF on static objects on the first day and it's bangon with all my lenses.

Today i took it out to test on seagulls in flight and it performed so badly that i think the body is faulty. It got one shot in focus out of over 60 in pretty ideal situations. The rest were way out, not just slightly out. Even on gulls that were flying parallel to me.

I also have a 30D and a 1dmk2 but the 30D has VASTLY superior results to what i saw from the 50D today.

Has anyone else had a situation like this where the servo just doesnt work properly? (on any camera)
 
Guess that's a no then :lol:

I'm going to try and test it out more this week and get it exchanged if it continues like this. Only problem is the weather forecast looks incredibly dull all week :(
 
Hey,

When i first bought my 50D the AF was awful..i then proceeded to calibrate my lenses to the 50D body with the microadjustments in the custom feature menus...under AF/DRIVE>...

This made all the difference...After some work, my 50D performs fantastic...

Give it a try...it may help. I was not at all pleased with my 50D for some time...but now it seems to be tweaked just right..

hope this helps.
thegary
 
Hi. Thanks for the reply :)

I already tested my lenses on static objects and they were all perfect... adjusting the micro-adjustment either way just made them blurry.

It's just the servo af with moving objects that doesn't work at all it seems
 
Which Servo mode do you have the camera in ? AI Focus or AI Servo ? As i know AI Focus has been complained about regularly by people as it just doesnt seem to work !

Have you applied the latest firmware to the camera ? I believe the latest is 1.0.3 this can be seen on the menu 3rd icon from the right, and is stated at the bottom !

http://web.canon.jp/imaging/eosd/firm-e/eos50d/firmware.html
 
Ai servo. Yeh i've never trusted AI focus. I don't see the point in it really.

The camera came with 1.03 already installed.

I've found a few posts on various forums where there seems to be sample variation in Servo tracking. Guess i've been unlucky.
I'm pretty experienced with BIF shots and i know the conditions i was shooting in should have gotten a high percentage of keepers even on my 30D.

Seagulls gliding slowly against a blue sky with shutter speeds up at 1/1600 and it was no where near. I'm usually dissapointed at shots being a tiny bit out in those conditions with my 1d or 30D.

I'll probably get it replaced this week.
 
Werecow said:
Ai servo. Yeh i've never trusted AI focus. I don't see the point in it really.

The camera came with 1.03 already installed.

I've found a few posts on various forums where there seems to be sample variation in Servo tracking. Guess i've been unlucky.
I'm pretty experienced with BIF shots and i know the conditions i was shooting in should have gotten a high percentage of keepers even on my 30D.

Seagulls gliding slowly against a blue sky with shutter speeds up at 1/1600 and it was no where near. I'm usually dissapointed at shots being a tiny bit out in those conditions with my 1d or 30D.

I'll probably get it replaced this week.
Click to expand...

Ah right ok, had to ask :) Does sound like you have been unlucky :(
 
Forgot to add.. was with the 500 F4 as well. Not exactly a slow focussing lens :lol:
 
I know it is not the same problem you are having but I have a 50D and 3 of my lenses are L lenses but the 10-20 Sigma which I use for a lot of my landscape stuff is sadly not as sharp as it was on my old 20D, now I have read and how true it is I am not sure that because of the 15.1 pixels the camera does need good quality glass to obtain the best images from the 50D, as I say not like your problem but just my experience of the 50D

LesF
 
Had an issue with front focus on 5D classic in Ai Servo mode. Simple to test for, just download a test card and shoot from a tripod at 45* in that mode. Canon had it back for calibration - not had chance to test it since so hopefully it is fixed!
 
Issey said:
I know it is not the same problem you are having but I have a 50D and 3 of my lenses are L lenses but the 10-20 Sigma which I use for a lot of my landscape stuff is sadly not as sharp as it was on my old 20D, now I have read and how true it is I am not sure that because of the 15.1 pixels the camera does need good quality glass to obtain the best images from the 50D, as I say not like your problem but just my experience of the 50D

LesF
Click to expand...

Sorry to side-track Werecow's thread.....

Les....you're right in what you say about the 50D needing better glass to take advantage of the increased resolution but that fact shouldn't make it worse than the 20D, simply that you don't get the benefit of the extra pixels.
Similarly the 50D will become diffraction limited much earlier but it only means that the advantage will be lost.
It's worth looking at focus adjustment and any other possibilities to see what's giving you the problem.

Bob
 
Canon Bob said:
Sorry to side-track Werecow's thread.....

Les....you're right in what you say about the 50D needing better glass to take advantage of the increased resolution but that fact shouldn't make it worse than the 20D, simply that you don't get the benefit of the extra pixels.
Similarly the 50D will become diffraction limited much earlier but it only means that the advantage will be lost.
It's worth looking at focus adjustment and any other possibilities to see what's giving you the problem.

Bob
Click to expand...

That's quite an interesting read bob, thanks for that! :thumbs:
I'm getting the 50D soon and i was actually thinking about some of my cheaper lenses and if the effects of the higher pixel count but now you've cleared things up!
 
Have you tried loading a raw file into zoombrowser and viewing the active focus points?

Maybe your aim is off? :lol:

Seriously though, I sometimes do that and results can be quite surprising at times with fast moving birds.
 
In AI Servo mode, if you have all focus points enabled you must first lock focus with the centre focus point and the camera will then hand off focus to other focus points if the subject moves off the centre point. For this to work you need a subject that is large enough to cover two focus points at once. If it is too small it can slip through the gaps.

This operation is different to One-Shot focus when you have all focus points enabled, in which the camera will focus on the nearest item in the frame that has good contrast. For AI Servo you must lock onto the subject with the centre point first.

If you are only using a single focus point then obviously that is the focus point to keep over the subject. The 50D is much quicker to acquire (and lose) focus than the 30D because the focus is more responsive. That puts the onus more strongly on the photographer to keep the fous point exactly where it needs to be while focusing. If the point slips away from the subject then focus will be lost. With a dozy old tool like the 30D it took a while for the camera to realise that you had lost the target so you had a moment longer to get back on track before focus was lost. With the 50D you need to be more skilled at tracking the target. Of course, the 1D has the benefit of expanded focus points to help you maintain focus even if the subject slips away from the selected focus point a bit.

FWIW I have the 30D, 40D, 50D and 1D3 and I do shoot BIF and also dogs on the run, so these are my real world experiences with the cameras. I always use back button focus rather than the shutter button for focusing. That way, if I do lose lock, I can quickly disengage focus and then re-acquire the subject while still having my shutter button half pressed and ready for the shot with IS still spun up and ready for action (if I'm using IS at the time).

If you want to test the AI Servo performance on something that largely eliminates the risk of human error, by giving a target that is easy to track, just try focusing on moving vehicles. If you can keep a bead on the number plate as a vehicle approaches then you should have a fairly repeatable test subject that you can try over and over again.
 
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