Canon R5 + RF 70-200 F2.8 L IS USM - "Soft" or Blurry Photos

[ibaker121]

Hi everyone!

I've shot several concerts prior to this past Friday but this was my first concert with my R5 and RF70-200 F2.8 lens combination and I'm a little baffled at some of the results from this combination. I had high expectations going in but am left a little disappointed - for some reason I can't get sharp photos out of the R5 and I'm not sure if it has something specifically to do with this lens, but my inclination is that it doesn't. I also recently shot a football practice in much better lighting conditions with much of the same problem. It looks almost like there is camera shake happening, but I'm operating at 1/500 of a second in the example image. I'll list the full settings below:

Canon R5, RF70-200mm F2.8 L IS USM

Image: shot in RAW, processed in JPG to meet upload specifications here, no editing.

Camera settings: 200mm, 1/500 sec, f/2.8, ISO 800

Both the camera and the lens are updated to the newest versions. I'll attach another sample image, but this image was initially shot in JPG as I was working on faster turnaround times and thought that this was the issue originally. The above image was initially shot in RAW, so it seems like that might not be the case (though I'd imagine it doesn't help).

Canon R5, Canon EF-RF Adapter, Sigma 150-600mm f/5-6.3 DG OS HSM Contemporary Lens for Canon EF

Image: shot in JPG, 252mm, 1/2000 sec, f/6.3, ISO 1250

Any help/advice would be much appreciated. Thank you!

[Waddizzle]

Welcome to the Canon Community!

Is it possible share your JPG or RAW files to a public file sharing service like DropBox or Google drive?  The resolution of your images is only 999 x 666.  Any image at that resolution will look soft.  You can post higher resolution images to the forums by limiting the bit depth to 8-bits, which significantly reduces file sizes.

Are you using any filters on your lenses?  Test shooting without one.  The indoor shot could benefit from a faster shutter speed.

[ibaker121]

I just went and took some test shots without any filters on. Uploaded the RAW files to this Google Drive folder: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1VNCz4h9IzzGjm6eLQ5sGfoSqgtHL-_A2?usp=sharing

Three shots, all at ISO 100, settings as follows:

f/2.8, 1/6400 sec

f/6.3, 1/1250 sec

f/11, 1/400 sec

The shot at f/2.8 still seems out of focus. The focus point was on the corner of the seat of the chair closest to the camera.

[shadowsports]

Greetings,

What focus method were you using?  One spot /  servo?  What does DPP say the camera was focusing on?

[ibaker121]

Hello!

I was using servo for the most part in both cases. Not sure - I don't have DPP installed and use the Adobe suite to do my editing in.

[FloridaDrafter]

Hello, Ian!

Just an observation, but your subject line is "Canon R5 + RF 70-200 F2.8 L IS USM - "Soft" or Blurry Photos".

The first photo posted of the female bass player was shot with an EOS R6 mark II and RF 70-200 f/2.8L IS USM. The second example of the football player was shot with the R5 and 150-600mm F5-6.3 DG OS HSM C. Both images, posted here and Raw on Google, have different owners and authors, according to the EXIF data.

Is there something else going on that we may need to know to get you squared away?

Newton

[ibaker121]

Hi Newton!

Thank you for pointing that out! The owners issue was something I noticed ex post facto as well - I have since changed the copyright information in the camera. I purchased it from a company that had mass replaced all of their camera bodies so the information was tagged to an LLC!

I guess the other part of the question (concerning the differences in camera bodies and lenses) leads me to a few different thoughts. On the case of the photo shot with the R6 mark II - I haven't had a sharpness issue with the R6m2 in other concert scenarios, but in those scenarios I used a RF 28-70 F2 and a RF 85mm F1.2. Images rendered using both of those lenses are tack sharp (unless, of course, I miss focus as the operator). It seems that with the RF 70-200 f/2.8 that I am using that the images are not rendering as sharp as I am used to. The concert this past week was the first big event that I've used the RF 70-200 f/2.8 for, and previously I had been using an adapted EF 70-200 F2.8 III that was working wonders for me. I'm thinking that there might be an issue with the lens since the issue is reproducing itself using both the R6m2 and the R5.

As for the photo taken with the R5 and the Sigma 150-600mm F5-6.3 DG OS HSM C lens - I think that the issue here is that the photo was shot in JPG format rather than shot as a RAW first. I'd imagine that the compression of the image shows a bit more from the R5 than I am used to on the R6 because of the size of the sensor, but that's just a guess.

Either way, I decided to take the RF 70-200 F2.8 out for another test run with the R5 this evening and took some shots of bees moving about a garden area and still found myself rather frustrated by the end result. I will upload the results (unedited RAW) to the above folder, which I will relink here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1VNCz4h9IzzGjm6eLQ5sGfoSqgtHL-_A2?usp=sharing

I'm beginning to think it's a lens issue, which would be quite the disappointment as I have heard such great things about this lens. Either way, if I can identify the issue, I'm sure I can get it fixed one way or another! Thanks again for input, looking forward to hearing more of your thoughts!

[FloridaDrafter]

Thank you for the reply, Ian, that clears things up.

I downloaded the flower and bee Raw file and will review it further, but at first glance it kind of looks like focus was missed, even though the focus point was on the bee. At 100% zoom in DPP, the flower parts are fairly sharp to the left of the bee to the petals. You would have got more of the bee and flower in better focus by closing down your aperture a stop or two from f/2.8. I didn't thoroughly look through the EXIF, but will do that later (it late, Mongo need sleep) 😁

Newton

[ebiggs1]

"Are you using any filters on your lenses? " "What focus method were you using?" "... at first glance it kind of looks like focus was missed, ..."

Great points. You do know that most blurry photos are user error and not camera/lens issues? I would reset the camera(s) all back to default settings. Use One shot and do some testing on a nice sunny day.

BTW, first thing out of the box you should always reset any used gear you buy before using it.