6D gave me really blurry photos?

[Sophós]

Hello everyone.

I'm posting here hoping to find someone who can help me.

I recently got a 6D mark 2 to shoot my videos and it was all fine. Last night I was asked to take some photos during a meeting but I immediatly saw the lack of quality in all of them. I can't explain this absence of details even in the darkest enviroment or with the slowest shutter...

[bethybarra]

I know it's been about a year at this point, did you ever figure out the issue? I am having the exact same problem and it is extremely frustrating and the people responding on here sound a little rude and condescending when they genuinely do not seem to understand the issue. Like you said, I did not have this problem on my other camera it has absolutely nothing to do with skill. It almost looks like the camera is trying to smooth out the photo itself and it completely takes away any quality in the photo. I really really want to like this camera but that issue is making it so hard for me to and I haven't seen a single helpful comment, it's just people being insulting. I don't want to sound ungrateful, I get that people are just trying to help but I genuinely believe this has nothing to do with the way the photos are being taken. The fact that we are only having this problem on this camera specifically should tell people it is not the photographer. If anyone at all has figured it out please help!

[AndreaW]

Unfortunately, I was never able to resolve the issue and did not want to re-send my camera back to Canon since they did not see anything wrong with it the first time and, more importantly, had never heard of such an issue with the 6D Mark II.  The camera performs well outdoors in bright environments.  But yes, when you take pictures indoors, unless it is a brightly lit environment, it is almost as if the camera attempts to over-compensate by smoothing out the image to the point to where it leaves "fuzzy" areas in the image.  There is no correcting that.

By the way, thank you for acknowledging the poor behavior of some of Canon's contributors on this thread.  That, too, was disappointing since those of us who are experiencing this issue are legitimately trying to resolve the issue, but instead were met with insults.

Good luck to you.

[ebiggs1]

In that sample it appears you set focus on the person with the child and red coat. DOF will not keep the person in front of her or behind her in sharp focus.  You stripped most of the exif data so I can not tell what your exact gear or settings were. However you saved the jpg at a 79 instead of 100 quality setting.  All these things do not point to a camera/gear problem.

[ebiggs1]

Keep in mind the camera does not make the image. The lens does.  A camera is basically just a storage device that captures what the lens saw. The sensor in a 6D Mk II has high enough resolution to capture pretty darn good images from what the lens tells it do.

[AndreaW]

Thank you for the explanation.  But here's the thing, I have used 3 different lenses using various settings with the 6D Mark II camera and yet I still get the same "fuzzy" result in my images.  Yet when I use the 6D, also using the same various lenses in the same indoor environment, I never get the "fuzziness" in my images.  That is why I believe the issue is with the 6D Mark II camera itself, and not with the lenses.

[ebiggs1]

"That is why I believe the issue is with the 6D Mark II camera itself, and not with the lenses."

The nearly 30% higher resolution sensor is going to display different IQ's for the same lenses. I still lean towards a DOF issue and not a gear problem.

Can you post a sample of both under as nearly the sane conditions with the exif intact and jpg set to 100? Basically what I am saying is a great lens will show better IQ on a higher resolution camera (6D Mk II).  But a marginal lens, or poor lens may show an even worse IQ on a higher resolution camera. This might account for the difference you are seeing between the two cameras.  The old saying resolution is not always the solution.

If the 'church?' shot was with a large aperture, then I can confidently say the issue is with DOF and the 79 jpg quality setting.

What post editor do you use?  I use Photoshop/Lightroom but you can also use the free DPP4 from Canon.  One very important post editing setting you should do is lens correction.  I do this on every single photo I shoot.  It is automatically applied upon import into Lightroom and or PS.

[ebiggs1]

A single-pixel on a sensor of any size pretty much has infinite depth of field, however it is not possible to have all of the other parameters so fixed. This presents a relationship between DOF and the pixel's parameters.  In other words the measured DOF is not changed but the perceived DOF is.

[AndreaW]

I will have to take some photos to show you examples of what is happening to my images.  However, please be aware that none of the photos posted in this thread belong to me.  Other photographers who are having the same issue posted those photos.  However, they may as well be mine because I am having the same exact outcome with my photos that are taken in a low-lit environment.

I am willing to accept that the camera is perfectly made and is doing the job perfectly fine.  🙂  I am now wondering if there is a setting that it is on that does not exist with the 6D model that I am not aware of that is causing this outcome(?)  I have to dig around in this camera to try to find the "issue".  For instance, I am wondering if it is buried somewhere in "custom controls"?

[shawnphoto]

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@AndreaW wrote:

Thank you for the explanation.  But here's the thing, I have used 3 different lenses using various settings with the 6D Mark II camera and yet I still get the same "fuzzy" result in my images.  Yet when I use the 6D, also using the same various lenses in the same indoor environment, I never get the "fuzziness" in my images.  That is why I believe the issue is with the 6D Mark II camera itself, and not with the lenses.

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Here is what is probably happening...

You are shooting in crop mode on the 6D II. 

I noticed that your images are tiny, any image that tiny would have to be produced by crop mode. I messed around with this mode on my EOS RP. It has the exact same sensor as the 6D II. When I shoot in crop mode the pictures look fuzzy in low light.

PROBLEM SOLVED! (You're welcome!) 

[ebiggs1]

"You are shooting in crop mode on the 6D II."

I know of no "crop" mode on a 6D Mk II ?  All images are full frame.  A DSLR captuers all imagages at full resolution.  The only option is how it is saved to the SD card. The file size, image dimensions in pixels, and the number of images that can be captured are for what can be saved to your SD card. Not what the camera/lens sees.

The options are Large with Fine, Large with Normal, Medium with Fine, Medium with Normal, S1 with Fine, S1 with Normal, S2 with Fine, S2 with Normal, or S3 with Fine. However all are FF jpg, not cropped or a crop mode.