5DSr + Otus 85 NOT SHARP, Live View Problem - NOT HAPPY WITH CANON!

[charleshansen]

Let me 1st preface with saying about 10 posts down from this one, was my original from last week. Many people contributed help, for which I'm grateful. I still have the problem. I also want to say the 5DSr is new - less than 300 exposures on it. I have many Canon lenses, with many being "L". I am a member of Canon Pro Services, CPS. Using the 5DSr + the Zeiss OTUS 85mm, there's $9000 invested, with no satisfaction. Let me also add that for the 1st time since I'm 18, and that's over 40 yrs ago, I have ventured outside of the Canon system and bought a Fujifilm X-T2 + their 56mm 1.2, and I am in all ways astounded at what else apparently is out there. Quality, performance, functionality - superb. The best money and satisfaction right out of the box (at 1/3 the money of the Canon + Otus) I have ever spent in photography. And the sharpest images I have ever taken. Enough of that, because I think I'm finished with the Canon ride. 

To recap the problem - when using Live View for any lens attached, Canon or Zeiss, the lens automatically stops-down to say 5 or 5.6 or thereabouts. It can be stopped. When the picture is snapped, the lens opens up to whatever I set, say 1.4, makes the exposure, and the  returns to a stopped-down position - cannot be averted in ANY way. Exposure simulation enable, disable, or "during" makes no difference. What brought my attention to this was trying to discover why images viewed at 16X during live-liew, looking razor, razor sharp on the LCD using "the finest lens in photography", the Otus 85mm, result in soft, out-of-focus throwaways every time, regardless of lens. I made the posting last week addressing this problem.

People contributed lots of input - all to no avail. I called CPS phone tech support, and ABSOLUTELY no help there. I attended the Photo Expo show yesterday in NYC, spoke to the Canon techs at their booth + the techs they had there at the CPS booth - and no help there. Nobody's even really sure what the functionality is supposed to be. The only real help, or at least corroboration was had at the Zeiss booth, where a rep mounted the Otus 85 on a 5DSr, in Live-View, and it performed as it should - lens stayed wide open, until the exposure was made. So, my original suspician that there was something wrong with the camera seems true. Luckily is well within warranty, so Canon will be getting it back.

The reason I'm so annoyed at this is because I believe Canon has become the Microsoft of the photo world. They find it hard to support what they're putting out. They'd rather put customers through the ringer, than admit a problem. I did other searches..for the last 4 yrs or so, many people have had issues with Canon DSLR live-view. Now whether it's a defect 100% of the time, is probably not true either, but apparently either the systems are not designed/implemented well, or they can't be explained well enough to operate. People having real frustrations after spending good money with live-view systems either improperly designed or too flaky to operate without lots of heartache. No one on this board will accuse Canon of being the industry's most innovative company, but Canon will have to accept the fact they're the largest and are getting sloppy and complacent. I dread sending this Camera back, as I've read other such horror stories. They don't listen to their customers. And since the 5DS series has been released - NO firmware updates either.

If you're happy in all ways in the Canon eco-system, God bless you - but I believe it's the end of the road for me with Canon.

(And I won't even talk about waiting 4 years for the Mark III's successor, only to see a half-hearted attempt at what should have been a winner)

[charleshansen]

essentially, you got the same result. Goose it by forcing the algorithym to react faster - turn your ISO up to 2000. Now try it. set to AV, widest possible aperture, press live view, then look at lens diaphragm. Wave your hand in front of the lens - it's reacting to ambient light!
I have 9 Canon lenses - I just bought the 24-70 L 2.8 ll - behaves just like all the others, no difference. Zeiss says the EOS system is designed to do this. Coming from a large and medium format background, makes no sense to me having to press a DOF button to OPEN a lens - that is supposef to "stop it down". Anyway, that's how Canon wants it, even if it makes little photographic sense. My only point in this very long diatribe is that not even their own people can describe how it works.

[jrhoffman75]

What happens if you turn off Exposure Simulation?

[charleshansen]

Turning exposure simulation, on, off, or during stop down has zero effect..

I know; extremely frustrating

[kvbarkley]

I would look into a Keyence system. It works really good for us.

[sapics]

Just purchased a  5dMK1V as  an upgrade from the  5DMK111, so  have a  bit of learning  to  do, I would like to  see  the  level when I'm using  live view but can't make it  happen via  menu settings. It  does appear if live view is off though  and  I'm using  the  view finder.

Also  I used to  be able  to  move  the exposure   around in  live view with the  multi  controller so  I could measure different  parts of the  image, is  this  still possible with the  MK1V ?.

Also  is  there a  "how  to manual " available not the  standard tome  that  comes  with the  camera 

Any help grately appreciated :))

[jrhoffman75]

PDF manual

http://gdlp01.c-wss.com/gds/0/0300024970/01/eos5d-mk4-im-en.pdf

[Waddizzle]

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@sapics wrote:

Just purchased a  5dMK1V as  an upgrade from the  5DMK111, so  have a  bit of learning  to  do, I would like to  see  the  level when I'm using  live view but can't make it  happen via  menu settings. It  does appear if live view is off though  and  I'm using  the  view finder.

Also  I used to  be able  to  move  the exposure   around in  live view with the  multi  controller so  I could measure different  parts of the  image, is  this  still possible with the  MK1V ?.

Also  is  there a  "how  to manual " available not the  standard tome  that  comes  with the  camera 

Any help grately appreciated :))

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Start a new thread for your issue.  Don't hijack someone else's thread and question.

[sapics]

Sorry !!! I'm new here didn't mean to muscle in

[charleshansen]

When Live-View is used, the aperture is closing down to some value, and from what I found out, this is correct and by design. Thus is influencing your photographic method, whatever that is. My beef is that no one at Canon knows what that stop-down value is, or how it is arrived at. Simple question, right? Deserves a simple answer.

[kvbarkley]

I would guess it stops down so that the highlights are not blown out on the sensor at the minimum video shutter speed.