Canon EOS R7 Blurry Images

[jrprochaska]

This will be a lengthy post. I purchased the R7 body and an EF to RF adapter from B&H. The return by date has since passed so that is no longer an option. I have no RF lenses. The R7 came with firmware version 1.1.0 so I updated it to 1.2.0. The weather for the next month was terrible for photography so all of my testing and use was indoors. I was very satisfied with the results.
When the weather finally allowed, I went out in my backyard with an EF 70-200mm f/4L IS USM + EF 1.4x II extender and an EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM to try shooting small birds and animals. They were mostly congregated around a bird feeder about 20 feet from me. I shot at maximum zoom. The first EF 100-400mm shots were all terribly out of focus. The R7 easily locked on and tracked the animals, but the photos were consistently back focused by a foot or more. I tried every combination of AF settings I could think of with no effect. Results shooting with the EF 70-200mm were similar. So, then I began researching Google and YouTube...found nothing except one YouTube video where the poster had experienced similar issues with long lenses after upgrading his R7 firmware from version 1.1.0 to 1.2.0. After contacting Canon, his solution was to perform a factory reset. I followed his procedure but still the problem continued. I even installed the 1.2.0 firmware a second time. But since his problem began when he upgraded his firmware to version 1.2.0, I decided to downgrade mine back to 1.1.0.
The next day I tested using a tripod and the following settings:
    SERVO mode
    Whole area AF
    Subject tracking ON
    Subject to detect Animals
    Eye detection ENABLED
    Av mode
    F8.0 ISO1600
During these tests the shutter speed was never slower than 1/1250. The subjects were mostly perched birds and some squirrels.
I tested the EF 100-400mm first. There seemed to be a little improvement, but still a big problem.
Now the EF 70-200mm + 1.4x extender. The results are confusing to me. I took 8 shots. All were very sharp. But when I tried to repeat the results all 8 shots were front focused about 6 inches. I thought I had shot both sets under the same conditions but found that the first set had been shot at full zoom (280mm) as I had intended while the second had been accidently changed to 235mm. When I repeated at full zoom, all 8 shots were sharp again. More testing produced the same results with both lenses.
Now I am at a loss. Have I overlooked some setting? Is this an issue with my copy of the R7? Does the R7
just not play well with some EF lenses? I'm reluctant to invest in RF lenses at this time. I would appreciate any suggestions on how to proceed.

[Stephen]

Hey! Thanks for "reporting" this as "not spam" the auto-mod flagged it because the lens lengths look like phone numbers or gibberish to those of us non-camera geeks. (pesky auto-mod)

[rs-eos]

Is the EF to RF adapter a Canon one? If so, which one (one with control ring or without)?

One thing you could do is rent one or two RF lenses (preferably the same focal ranges) and see if the same issues happen there.

It could end up being an issue with the adapter, extender and EF lens combos.

[jrprochaska]

Thanks for responding.  I'm using the Canon adapter without control ring.  Renting some RF glass is definitely a possibility.

[shadowsports]

Greetings,

Start with this.  Remove the TC.  Change AF to single shot, one point.  Test results at various focal lengths both lenses.  A tripod or stabilizer could also prove valuable.   

Please be aware of the following.  The R7 is a APS-C based camera.  Your EF lenses are going to provide an equivalent FOV  70-200 (112~320mm) and 100-400 (160~640mm).  Bird feeder 20ft away.  You don't need a TC.  Using it significantly reduces the number of focus points available to the camera's AF system.

Also read this article.  It will help you understand what using a full frame lens on a APS-C body does.  See the section Crop Factor explained.

APS-C vs full-frame - Canon Europe (canon-europe.com)

[jrprochaska]

Thanks for your suggestions.  I am familiar with APS-C cameras.  I've been using a 7D II for years with very good results from both lenses.

[jrhoffman75]

Do any of your lenses have filters installed? If so remove and test again. 

[jrprochaska]

Thanks for your response.  No, I did not use any filters.

[Waddizzle]

“ The next day I tested using a tripod and the following settings:
    SERVO mode
    Whole area AF
    Subject tracking ON
    Subject to detect Animals
    Eye detection ENABLED
    Av mode
    F8.0 ISO1600
During these tests the shutter speed was never slower than 1/1250. The subjects were mostly perched birds and some squirrels. “ 

Could post a sample photo from this shot sequence?  Thanks!

One big difference between these settings and those you may have used with a 7D2 are the Animal Detection and Eye Detection.  I recommend disabling these features and put the camera into what I would describe as “DSLR mode”.

[jrprochaska]

 You had to ask:) I had already culled the worst before I expected to be posting to this forum. I did keep a few of the better ones that I thought might be made suitable at low resolution. I'm attaching small JPGs as they came out of the camera to show the context.  I'm also attaching JPGs of RAW files cropped in DPP4 and saved at full resolution to show more detail.  There was no editing beyond what was needed to crop.  The focus points can be seen on any of them when viewed with DPP4.

AN9A0508 was the best focused of all those shot with the 70-200mm + extender NOT at maximum zoom.    Though the focus point is on the house finch's head the photo appears sharpest on the perch to its left.

AN9A0484 can be deceiving. It is most typical of the amount of blur. The male house finch (reddish) doesn't look all that soft, except focus was actually on the female's head. If it weren't for the male that one would also have been culled.

AN9A0556 and AN9A0557 are typical of photos taken with the 70-200mm + extender at maximum zoom. Both were focused on the eye...I think reasonably sharp considering an extender was used and the age of that combo.

None of the 100-400mm photos survived my first round of culling. If I can recover one or shoot another, I'll post later.

I'll give your "DSLR mode" idea a try, though I'm pretty sure I tried that while testing with firmware version 1.2.0. But it seems that would defeat the main purpose of switching to mirrorless.

4N9A05564N9A0556crop4N9A05574N9A0557crop4N9A04844N9A0484crop4N9A05084N9A0508crop