Canon 7D inaccurate focusing

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ohara

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I'm having some problems with the focusing on my 7D. I noticed this while shooting for a business yesterday, the images looked fine on the LCD but when I check at 100% on computer afterwards it's obvious the focus is slightly off, maybe by a couple of inches. Thankfully I could just about recover the images with sharpening but nonetheless this still worries me.

The strange thing is this doesn't happen every time. I used 3 different lenses yesterday and I only noticed it happening on the 70-200. What's stranger is that it was more pronounced at 70mm and f/2.8 than at other focal lengths and apertures. I shot one at 136mm and f/8 and it was perfectly in focus. I know there's nothing wrong with the lens as it works flawlessly on the 5D III.

I can't post any example images right now as I'm away from computer but I'll try to put some up tomorrow. The settings I was using were:

Minimum 1/160 shutter speed (faster at longer focal lengths)
Aperture between f/2.8 and f/11
Single point AF (centre point)
Stabiliser on, mode 1

I'm absolutely certain it's not camera shake. I shot a lot on the 100mm macro too at the same settings and had no problems.

Has anyone had a similar problem? Perhaps I need to look into the AF microadjustment?
 
Sounds like it might need a little micro af adjustment at 70 mm. Maybe only really noticeable because of the narrow depth of field at 2.8.
 
I had similar problems with my two 7d's in the end I sold them and bought a 70d and am much happier with the results
There are many topics on the net regarding the 7d and it's focusing
 
I don't think it's a depth of field thing. I've shot at much faster than f/2.8 on the 5D and whatever I focus on comes out incredibly sharp. I know that at large apertures anything which is slightly out of the focus plane won't be perfectly sharp but I KNOW exactly where I put the focus and I confirmed it probably 5 times to make sure. But it still wasn't in focus. It was well lit and with plenty of contrast so I know for a fact that it should have had absolutely no problem getting accurate focus.

If people can shoot birds in flight on a 7D with a 600mm lens at 8fps while tracking in servo AF and get pinpoint focus accuracy on the eye of something which is flying in unpredictable directions and at high speed hundreds of metres away from the camera then I don't understand why mine can't get a static shop sign in sharp focus at 70mm when I'm standing 10 metres away.

I'll do some tests including using spot AF when I shoot a wedding tomorrow.
 
We need samples. 7Ds AF system is notoriously sensitive.
 
Tried to attach some images to the post but the forum compresses them so I've uploaded to my FTP server. These are full resolution from the camera RAW, unedited aside from cropping. The exif data is present so you can see my settings.

http://tehguy.net/7d/

As you can see, some are extremely sharp, yet example4.jpg is the biggest problem. I know the focus was absolutely nailed on the middle carton, I even confirmed it loads of times.
 
Last edited:
ohara said:
Tried to attach some images to the post but the forum compresses them so I've uploaded to my FTP server. These are full resolution from the camera RAW, unedited aside from cropping. The exif data is present so you can see my settings.

http://tehguy.net/7d/

As you can see, some are extremely sharp, yet example4.jpg is the biggest problem. I know the focus was absolutely nailed on the middle carton, I even confirmed it loads of times.
Click to expand...

The only one that is out of focus is Sample 4
 
1, 2 and 4 are out. The rest are ones that are in what I consider sharp focus, just to prove the camera is capable of doing a good job. 4 happens to be the worst.
 
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