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Refurbished 80d...blurry out of focus photos.. HELP!

KevinG1
Enthusiast
Im new to photography, started this year with a rebel t6 that I outgrew fast. I seemed to learn pretty quick and have always shot in manual mode. Quality of my t6 photos are great! Clear, crisp, and so on.

decided to upgrade to a 80d, and picked one up through canon refurbished. Well the majority of my shots come out blurry. For example, i do car photography {stills} and lets say the wheels are out of focus, or the lights... cant seem to get consistent clear crisp photos.

Not sure if its me, or the camera. Seems all of my lenses will do it. Mostly shoot with the canon 50mm 1.4 and nothing comes out clear under f2.8. Best around 4.

Ive tried everything. Tripod, high shutter speed, manual focus.. live view, view finder, tried all different focus point methods. The one wierd thing I noticed is when i used live view today, it showed the image on the screen perfectly in focus and crisp. As soon as the shutter went of it became blurry. That was on a tripod, using 2 sec delay.

Hope someone can help me...
1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION


@KevinG1 wrote:
Gotcha. Ill just need to shoot more and see what methods work best for me.

Also i did a micro af adjustment and found my canon 50mm 1.4 was off a bit. Definitely wasn't helping me

I suggest that you reset your AFMA back to zero, until you gain more experience with the camera.  Learn how to half press the shutter when using One Shot mode, so that you can evaluate the AF points.

When you have all AF points active, like [A} mode, you may see multiple AF points light up.  Be aware of the fact that the camera is indicating which AF points are capable of achieving a focus lock, but only one AF point will actually be used to focus the shot.  The automatically selected AF point will typically rest on the closest object under an active AF point.

 

It is highly recommended that you configure the camera to always use the center AF point, which is the most sensitive and accurate AF point.  And, always use One Shot focusing mode, until you gain more experience using the camera to focus on the subject that you want.    

 

One final note.  The AF points are actually slightly larger than the red boxes you see in the viewfinder.  Placing an AF point on something may not always focus where you want it to.  The camera will focus on the highest contrast area that it can find within the AF point coverage area.  So aim your camera at vertical and horizontal contrasting lines.

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"The right mouse button is your friend."

View solution in original post

108 REPLIES 108


@Naipes wrote:

I have a brand new 80D and I have the same viewfinder vs. live view focus problem.  I think it's the camera.  These images were shot using a tripod and timed (2 s) shutter release.  My hands did not touch the camera when the pictures were taken.

 

One shot, single, center point autofocus, 24mm, iso 400, f 2.8. It's a little hard to see, but the top image was autofocused through the viewfinder. The bottom image using live view.  My old Rebel T1i takes better pics. Guess I have to send the camera in for warrenty repair.  Very disappointing, brand new $1100 camera.Compare.jpg


It appears that you may need a bit of autofocus microadjustment. But if you're going to rely on a 2-dimensional test pattern to do the calibration, make sure that the pattern is absolutely perpendicular to the line of sight. In your images, it appears that the right side is in slightly better focus than the left, suggesting a slight deviation from perpendicularity.

Bob
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania USA

Posting photos with EXIF data is useful.  Screenshots are totally useless for evaluating the focusing ability of the camera. 

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"The right mouse button is your friend."

That is probably true. I did not level off the line of sight. The center focal point was aimed at the middle of the chart in all images.  I did a couple more experiments and I think the problem is focused (excuse the pun) on the middle focal point. When I select the single focal point one up (above) from the center point I do not get the same result. Using the focal point one up from the center point, viewfinder and live view images are sharp with multiple lenses.  (I know it's hard to see, but the EXIF info is in the right panel of all images.) These images were shot using the focal point immediately above the center focus point.  The top image was shot through the viewfinder and the bottom image was live view. If the camera continues like this, I can live with it.  I just won't use the center focus point.  Still a bummer though on a brand new camera.

 

Compare2.jpg


@Naipes wrote:

That is probably true. I did not level off the line of sight. The center focal point was aimed at the middle of the chart in all images.  I did a couple more experiments and I think the problem is focused (excuse the pun) on the middle focal point. When I select the single focal point one up (above) from the center point I do not get the same result. Using the focal point one up from the center point, viewfinder and live view images are sharp with multiple lenses.  (I know it's hard to see, but the EXIF info is in the right panel of all images.) These images were shot using the focal point immediately above the center focus point.  The top image was shot through the viewfinder and the bottom image was live view. If the camera continues like this, I can live with it.  I just won't use the center focus point.  Still a bummer though on a brand new camera.

 


Follow this Canon EOS Micro Focus Adjustment Guidebook.

KevinG1
Enthusiast
Its not the camera. Read the post. It has to do with using the 45pt autofocus

Oh, I did not use the 45 point autofocus.  I only used the single center point autofocus.  I should change to the 45 point autofocus?  That doesn't sound right. 

jrhoffman75
Legend
Legend
Naipes said he was using single point center.
John Hoffman
Conway, NH

1D X Mark III, Many lenses, Pixma PRO-100, Pixma TR8620a, LR Classic

KevinG1
Enthusiast
What mode are you shooting in?

Those were shot with aperture priority, f2.8, but it should not matter.  The camera should focus regardless.

KevinG1
Enthusiast
The problem i had is when using 45pt autofocus. If i took a photo of a car, and had 20 boxes lit on the car and 2 on the ground, it would put priority on the ground because its closest to me.

Not sure if that's your problem since you took a photo close up to you.

The other problem i had with this camera is shooting with my prime lens wide open. When i use my 50mm 1.4.. anything under 2.8 will be blurry. Figured that was a problem with the lens.

Did you try another lens?
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