EOS 5D Mark II seems to have grainy images?

[Betsywtaylor]

I bought this camera second hand from a friend who had barely used it. The images never seem to be in focus. When I crop them a little it seems to bring them into better focus... Is this normal? I have a 70D as well and it's images are so much sharper

[Waddizzle]

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@Betsywtaylor wrote:

I don't know! That reset may be above my paygrade! I could take it int local camera shop

Thanks

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Do that.  Let a pair of professional eyeballs look it over.

[Avid1]

This post is old, but I am having the exact same issue on a used 5D Mk II that I bought  a month ago, with about 30,000 shutter counts. I am getting images that look out of focus blurry and have a strange noise pattern in midtones and shadows. The noise pattern kinda resembles that of halftone in photos that are scanned from glossy magazines. I have used both Canon and non Canon glass with adapter (which shouldn't matter anyway) with the same result.

I was surprised to see someone was having the same exact issue with a 5d Mk II, but I can't tell if they managed to fix it and how. The previous owner of the camera says he hasn't seen this problem with the camera. I haven't done any customization to the shooting modes. Here is a 100% crop of an image shot with this camera body and you can see the noise pattern I am talking about, as well as the soft focus, The image has a curve adjustment to bring out contrast and a little bit of sharpness in ACR RAW processor. The sand stone in the lower part of the image was roughly 10 to 15 feet away and I was stopped down to f/8 to deepen my depth of field:

[RobertTheFat]

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@Avid1 wrote:

This post is old, but I am having the exact same issue on a used 5D Mk II that I bought  a month ago, with about 30,000 shutter counts. I am getting images that looks like out of focus blurry and have a strange noise pattern in midtones and shadows. The noise pattern kinda resembles that of halftone in photos that are scanned from glossy magazines. I have used both Canon and non Canon glass with adapter (which shouldn't matter anyway) with the same result.

I was surprised to see someone was having the same exact issue with a 5d Mk II, but I can't tell if they managed to fix it and how. The previous owner of the camera says he hasn't seen this problem with the camera. I haven't done any customization to the shooting modes. Here is a 100% crop of an image shot on this bosy and you can see the noise pattern I am talking about, as well as the soft focus, The image has a curve adjustment to bring out contrast and nothing else. The sand stone in the lower part of the image was roughly 10 to 15 feet away and I was stopped down to f/8:

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What lens? What shutter speed? RAW or JPEG? If RAW, what photo editor was used to convert it to JPEG?

Are you sure the lens was set to AF? AF problems are usually more selective; i.e., not all of the picture is so consistently OOF. I'd suspect either a lens problem or motion blur.

It's hard to blame the artifacts on the sensor, as their orientation bears no obvious relationship to either axis of the sensor.

[Avid1]

Hi Bob, thanks for responding and trying to help.

This particular image was shot with a 28mm SMC Takumar (in M42 mount, no corrective glass in bewteen) at ISO 400, shutter speed 1/250 at f/8. Shot in manual focus mode, of course. At hyperfocal distance, stopped down optimally for deep focus and with a high enough shutter speed, I would expect a sharp output. This RAW image was processed with Phtoshop CC's ACR engine. Has a curve adjustment and sharpening of 42 inside of the ACR processor. This is what I do with images shot with other Canon bodies and get a certain result. The non Canon lens shouldn't be the cause of it. The halftone-like noise pattern is more disturbing than the soft focus at this point (it is still a concern, though). I don't know much about these sensors, but could it be somehow heating up or something and causing such anomaly?

[jrhoffman75]

Can you have the previous owner send you a copy of a file taken just before the canera was sold to you?

[Waddizzle]

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@Avid1 wrote:

Hi Bob, thanks for responding and trying to help.

This particular image was shot with a 28mm SMC Takumar (in M42 mount, no corrective glass in bewteen) at ISO 400, shutter speed 1/250 at f/8. Shot in manual focus mode, of course. At hyperfocal distance, stopped down optimally for deep focus and with a high enough shutter speed, I would expect a sharp output. This RAW image was processed with Phtoshop CC's ACR engine. Has a curve adjustment and sharpening of 42 inside of the ACR processor. This is what I do with images shot with other Canon bodies and get a certain result. The non Canon lens shouldn't be the cause of it. The halftone-like noise pattern is more disturbing than the soft focus at this point (it is still a concern, though). I don't know much about these sensors, but could it be somehow heating up or something and causing such anomaly?

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That photo does not look good, and your above post does point to the camera body.  If you can get a refund, do it.  That photo looks like something taken [by] a NASA rover on Mars, or somewhere..

[Avid1]

John, I did actually send the previous owner a message to send me one of  the RAW images taken with this camera before the sale, so I know what the benchmark is, as he says this is an unknown problem to him. He hasn't responded yet, but I am sure he will.

I asked another photographer with the same camera to send me a sample image in RAW format so I can do furter deducing.

[BurnUnit]

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@Avid1 wrote:

Hi Bob, thanks for responding and trying to help.

This particular image was shot with a 28mm SMC Takumar (in M42 mount, no corrective glass in bewteen) at ISO 400, shutter speed 1/250 at f/8. Shot in manual focus mode, of course. At hyperfocal distance, stopped down optimally for deep focus and with a high enough shutter speed, I would expect a sharp output. This RAW image was processed with Phtoshop CC's ACR engine...

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According to the attached EXIF info this shot was taken at 1/100 sec at ISO 400 and shot at a 50mm focal length. Are you sure you're looking at the right EXIF data? Does the body serial number match the camera in question?

EXIF IFD0

Camera Make {0x010F} = Canon
Camera Model {0x0110} = Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Picture Orientation {0x0112} = normal (1)
X-Resolution {0x011A} = 3000000/10000 ===> 300
Y-Resolution {0x011B} = 3000000/10000 ===> 300
X/Y-Resolution Unit {0x0128} = inch (2)
Software / Firmware Version {0x0131} = Adobe Photoshop CC 2015 (Windows)
Last Modified Date/Time {0x0132} = 2019:02:10 04:04:01

EXIF Sub IFD

Exposure Time (1 / Shutter Speed) {0x829A} = 1/100 second ===> 0.01 second
Exposure Program {0x8822} = manual control (1)
ISO Speed Ratings {0x8827} = 800
EXIF Version {0x9000} = 0221
Original Date/Time {0x9003} = 2019:02:09 17:33:48
Digitization Date/Time {0x9004} = 2019:02:09 17:33:48
Shutter Speed Value (APEX) {0x9201} = 6643856/1000000
Shutter Speed (Exposure Time) = 1/100 second
Exposure Bias (EV) {0x9204} = 0/1 ===> 0
Metering Mode {0x9207} = pattern / multi-segment (5)
Flash {0x9209} = n/a (16)
Focal Length {0x920A} = 50/1 mm ===> 50 mm
Last Modified Subsecond Time {0x9290} = 53
Original Subsecond Time {0x9291} = 53
Digitized Subsecond Time {0x9292} = 53
Colour Space {0xA001} = sRGB (1)
Image Width {0xA002} = 585 pixels
Image Height {0xA003} = 726 pixels
Focal Plane X-Resolution {0xA20E} = 5616000/1459 ===> 3849.21
Focal Plane Y-Resolution {0xA20F} = 3744000/958 ===> 3908.14
Focal Plane X/Y-Resolution Unit {0xA210} = inch (2)
Custom Rendered {0xA401} = normal process (0)
Exposure Mode {0xA402} = manual exposure (1)
White Balance {0xA403} = manual (1)
Scene Capture Type {0xA406} = standard (0)
Body Serial Number {0xA431} = xxxxx8049

EXIF IFD1

Compression {0x0103} = JPEG compression (6)
X-Resolution {0x011A} = 72/1 ===> 72
Y-Resolution {0x011B} = 72/1 ===> 72
X/Y-Resolution Unit {0x0128} = inch (2)
Embedded thumbnail image:

[Avid1]

Yes, the last 4 digits of the ser# is correct. Camera firmware 2.1.2

I shot 2 or 3 at the same time at different exposure values, to test for this exact problem, and I probably remembered the wrong shutter and ISO setting for this particular exposure, but it wouldn't matter if it is on a tripod as far as the softness is concerned. With a non Canon lens, it just deems it to be a 50mm as de facto. The problem happens at all ISO settings, not just at 800 ISO.  And I heard shooting at 800 ISO on the 5d Mk2 is not a problem.

The soft focus is less of a concern than the patterened noise. Perhaps, I should reset the camera and see if it helps.

[Peter]

Any raw sample you can upload?