Canon AF Calibration

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baron

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Hi everyone, im new to the site, I love photography as a hobby and have a faithfull 40d and never had any issues, but recently wanted to upgrade to full frame so searched and found a low count and as new looking 1DS mkii and told it was used as a backup and been serviced just over a year ago and never been used since, so ended up buying it.

Now when I 1st got it, it took some getting used to over the 40d so didn't have much confidence in using it until I got to grips with it, but the more I used it the more I noticed that thing just arent as sharp as it should be, so did a few tests on af it bleeps to confirm af achieved but if I turn the focus wheel a hair ccw it becomes unbelievably sharp in the view finder and captured image, so tried it with all my lenses and it the same right accorss the board with the exception at 300mm where it made no difference, so tried all the lenses on the 40d and everything was sharp in af and made it worse turning manualy, so make me believe its the 1ds body, so rang canon tech support who said they offer a fixed fee service of £110+shipping and includes af check for 1 lens and adjustment and they gave me the number for the repair centre, called them and got the most unhelpfull person ever who said the fixed price only includes an adjustment not calibration and could explain to the difference, and said prices for calibration would be £60per hour for the 1st lens and £30ph for each lens there after, now I have 5 lenses so does sound cheap, I then looked for independant authorised repair centre and found Lehmann and couldn't of got a more friendly and helpful person on the phone who said that if it doing to all my lenses I just need to send them the body it just needs recalibrating and they can do that with there reference lens.

So has anyone had experience with this, do I just need my body calibrated or do I need each lence matched to the body, and am I better just sending the body to Lehmann for calibration or to canon for a service, and is there a difference to af adjustment vs af calibration?

Sorry for so many quiestion on me 1st post
 
if it is all your lens then I would suggest send the body for calibration ..but send to canon at elstree NOT lehmans.... the latter dont have the best reputation no matter how nice they sound on the phone..
 
That's where the original service receipt supplied with the camera was done at elstree, so almost leads me to believe it was either calibrated to one of the previous owners lens or not done right, is the af adjustment thats included in a service mean calibration?
 
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baron said:
That's where the original service receipt supplied with the camera was done at elstree, so almost leads me to believe it was either calibrated to one of the previous owners lens or not done right, is the af adjustment thats included in a service mean calibration?
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I am happy to be corrected but I am sure AF adjust and calibration are the same thing.. In newer cameras you can do self calibration which is af adjustment.. I had to do mine but change to various points on various lenses.. I gave up in the end and decided to let canon sort.. I had my camera calibrated and when buying new lens they work straight out the box now..

canon esltree are pretty much the best place as its canon.. if lehmans have too much of a problem then they send to elstree.. although they do calibration in house at lehmans..

last time i used lehmans i took a 1dmkIV and a 24-70 both for calibration.. i went to pick up and took my laptop.. i went outside and took some test pictures.. put on laptop.. absoloutly terrible... they had calibrated both items but not to each other or tested on same... waste of time :(
 
I thought it would be the same thing but the person on the canon was very unhelpful when I questioned it, least you have had 1st hand experience with both lehmann and elstree, I prob got the wrong person on a of day that tainted my confidence with elstree.

Am I worth sending my most commonly used lens with the body, or just send body only and let them setup of there reference lens?
 
Personally just the camera but I would absoloutly 100% NOT do anything until someone else has chirped in.. my way is my way. its not always the best or only way.. give it the rest of today and someone more knowlegable might see it.. HoppyUK would be top of my list :)
 
Ive just put my 60d in the post to canon @ elstree for af recalibration they gave me the choice of 4 different places to send it so i chose it purely as its the official canon one. My camera seems to be focusing in front of the subject and ive since found various threads and articles on the net to say this is a common fault with canon cameras.
 
Sounds the same with mine, Focus slightly in front, Did you go for the fixed price service or calibration at £60ph or something different?
 
KIPAX said:
Personally just the camera but I would absoloutly 100% NOT do anything until someone else has chirped in.. my way is my way. its not always the best or only way.. give it the rest of today and someone more knowlegable might see it.. HoppyUK would be top of my list :)
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From what the OP has said, it looks very much like the body is out so that needs sorting. But that also suggests the 300 would then be off.

Easy/expensive option is to ship off the whole lot, including 40D just to be sure. Longer/cheaper option is to get the 1DS body done and then check each lens/camera combo carefully and take a view on them individually.

Could you not get a bundle deal from Elstree, who did the 1DS service that's at the heart of the problem? Play on that.

Be careful how you do AF tests or you could get led astray. Lots of threads on this.
 
Don't send the lenses, just the body.

Sending the lenses, which have nothing wrong with them, just gives them chance to mess the lenses up somehow or for them to get lost or broken in the post.
I sent two of my three lenses when I had a body calibrated (which was only happening because Canon UK returned it to me calibrated wrongly after a paid-for repair). One of the lenses was given an external clean (which I presume means they wiped it with a cloth or something along those lines) while the other came back missing focus by over a hundred metres. And that's not an exaggeration, I could AF on a subject near to infinity and something near to me would be in focus.

Me and Canon UK are three for three with bad experiences that could have been avoided if they'd checked simple things so I'm inclined to say you should try someone other than them. They were always helpful in communication but it's not much good if the equipment comes back unusable.
 
Thanks guys, seems to be hit and miss with no mater where I send it, Estree prob makes the most sence seing it's actually canon, prob safer just sending the body 1st as all the lenses preform perfectly on my other body so really wouldn't want them limited to one body, also joined the canon cps that offer priority repair so hopefully being a dedicated service its better, has anyone else had any experience using the cps membership?
 
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KIPAX said:
..but send to canon at elstree NOT lehmans.... the latter dont have the best reputation no matter how nice they sound on the phone..
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Totally 100%. Agree with this
 
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