Canon 70-200 f/2.8L IS II not sharp at 200mm

[garymui]

I've been using my Canon 70-200 f/2.8L IS II for years now and it's always been my favorite lens for sports.  In my last couple outings, I noticed that I was getting a lot of blurry shots and I now realize that they are all my shots taken at full 200mm zoom.  Is it common to have focus go bad just at the long range of a lens?  Seems the same as usual at say 170mm and under.  Could something like this be fixed with AF Microadjustment?  In these cases, nothing is in focus (so it's not focusing on something else).  Do I need to take this in for servicing?

Thanks!

Gary

[ebiggs1]

Rodger,

I was going to offer to do the editing for you but it appears as you will not need it.  That's great!  

" Anna will be participating in a math modeling workshop ..."

Is that one of those things that involves numbers and silly symbols like + or x or perhaps - ?

[wq9nsc]

Ernie,

I appreciate the very generous offer but it will be just punishment for me to undo my own mistake 🙂   But if I run into problems I may have questions!

And yes there will be plenty of those odd symbols at the workshop.  I thought I was pretty bright finishing my doctorate just before I turned 29 but I am happy to admit my daughter is far more capable both athletically and academically. 

Rodger

[ebiggs1]

Layers, content aware and hopefully some 'helper' photos.  Hair and an elbow would be nice.  

[ebiggs1]

Obviously you can't get a photo like this one if you are not allowed on the field. Location is key.  Perhaps you could ask permission to go onto the field.  If you get it, make sure you respect others especially if there are paid photographers. Do not touch or move anything.

[Waddizzle]

"If people are racing by and I'm wanting to keep a particular subject in focus as they approach, go by and go past me, wouldn't that be a case for using AI Servo?"

It would depend on the drive mode. For Single Shot drive mode I would be inclined to use One Shot autofocus. For Continuous drive mode I would definitely use AI Servo autofocus.

[Waddizzle]

If you use Single Shot drive mode, you can use One Shot or AI Servo autofocus modes. By default, One Shot will wait for a focus lock before firing the shutter, while AI Servo will not wait.

But, if you set 1st Image Priority to Focus Priority, then the shutter will not fire until an AF point has a focus lock. Furthermore, you can select the initial AF point that AI Servo will always use. Select the center.

If you can make AI Servo behave similar to One Shot, then would you ever want to use Ons Shot? I use One Shot when I do not want the camera to refocus, such as when I photograph high jumpers.

One Shot also seems to lock focus faster. AI Servo wants to track a subject. This is where the AF speed in the camera can shine. I use AI Servo all of the time with Image Priority set to Focus when shooting sports.

[wq9nsc]

I experimented quite a bit with AF setup early this season and for soccer the best overall choice for me was servo mode with 4 point expansion although with more controlled testing I might have chosen 8 over 4 point expansion.  

The Canon separate AF guidebooks for the 1DX and 1DX Mark II are well written and I believe that they also have similar guides for most of their other models.  These are fairly lengthy and involved but these guides do an excellent job of explaining system characteristics and capabilities which will help you customize the system to what best suits your needs for different shooting situations.

Some experimentation is needed because focus acquisition speed varies by model of lens and camera body and this will change with different lighting conditions and subject matter so what works perfectly in one situation will be suboptimal with another lens or lighting situation.  For fast paced events, prior to the event I choose what I think is the best overall setup while accepting that there are going to be images captured during the event where another setup would have been better but for most sports excessive twiddling with camera settings is best avoided during the event.

Rodger

[garymui]

Just as an update on this, I think setting the focus to higheset priority helped in general for pictures at less than 200mm, but I still can't get a sharp picture at 200mm.  I captured 2700+ pics this weekend and my day job is keeping me from going through them but I didn't take many at all at 200mm because it looked like they still weren't sharp.  These are still handheld shots but were taken under the same conditions. Here are some screenshots of what a couple test shots look like in Lightroom which show the 105mm shots are sharper even magnified in:

at 200mm:

and at 105mm

and the same 105mm picture zoomed in is sharper than the 200mm

and the same 200mm picture zoomed in to match the magnification

[Waddizzle]

Screenshots are never good examples.

I hope to be at the Section 1 Championships today or tomorrow.

[garymui]

Waddizzle - hope you saw that the Section 1 State Qualifier (not Championships) got rescheduled to today and tomorrow at 5pm (due to rain yesterday).  My daughter just runs tomorrow so I'll just be there tomorrow.