EOS R7 Focus Issues continue even after Factory Service

[edwardfranklin]

I bought an EOS R7 with kit lens RF-S18-150mm 3.5-6.3 IS STM and a separate RF 100-400 5.6-8 IS USM lens in December 2025. After seeing that my RAW files with both lenses were not tack sharp and talking with Customer Service, my equipment was sent in to the Factory Service Center for evaluation. All products "performed according to specifications" and sent back to me. 

In their notes they suggested some recommendations to see if those ideas helped my images and my focus concerns, but they did not. 

I would expect to see tack sharp images in Photoshop and Lightroom with my RAW files, but I still do not. Maybe my visual expectations are too high (I don't expect it to be top of the line camera), but I expect my images to be sharp. Maybe this camera just doesn't perform well even though "it meets specifications". Canon says I can't return it at this point. I'm not satisfied. I'd like to return it and get maybe a better camera. What can I do?

[edwardfranklin]

Waddizzle,
I see everyone's comments that my issues are because I am viewing my images at 200% or more in Post. I understand that the software is scaling up and interpolating the image and therefore looks fuzzy, and fuzzier the more [+] I go in viewing, but I am having a hard time feeling my images are sharp at 100% when I zoom in a little and see it so blurry.

[jrhoffman75]

If you are recording images in RAW picture style doesn’t matter since Ps doesn’t recognize it. Canon DPP4 will. 

[edwardfranklin]

John, what do you mean when you say "Photoshop doesn't recognize it"? It opens my images up in Camera Raw. Is that different than DPP4?

[jrhoffman75]

Many of the options you can select in-camera are not recognized by third party software. ACR will apply its own sharpening setting on import. If it is like LrC the setting would be 40 in the Detail section. 

[jrhoffman75]

DPP4 is Canon’s free software. It recognizes all camera settings. Downloadable from the Canon support site. 

[FloridaDrafter]

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@edwardfranklin wrote:

John, what do you mean when you say "Photoshop doesn't recognize it"? It opens my images up in Camera Raw. Is that different than DPP4?

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Here are a couple of JPeG files extracted from your Raw files using DPP. No edits other than what your R7 applied and the "Picture style" you have selected, which is "Auto". Crop is 200%.

200% at focal plane.200% at focal plane.

To me, these look as expected. Yes, a bit soft, but as expected IMO.

Newton

[FloridaDrafter]

EDIT: My bad! I did do one edit in DPP... I applied Canons lens data for your RF-S18-150mm F3.5-6.3 IS STM and ticked "Digital lens optimizer".

Newton

[Waddizzle]

“ I understand that the software is scaling up and interpolating the image and therefore looks fuzzy,…. “

That’s incorrect. The software isn’t interpolating anything.  What you see is what you captured. 

I suggest that you try capturing images of subjects that do not require such severe cropping.  Use a midrange setting on the zoom, not one of the extremes. Try between 50mm and 100mm.. 

As the repair center and others have told you, there is nothing wrong with your gear. Your expectations exceed the performance of your lens. 

[edwardfranklin]

i just cropped that much as an area to look at for this exercise. i, of course, would never make that my final image. thx for your input.

[jrhoffman75]

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@edwardfranklin wrote:

Waddizzle,
I see everyone's comments that my issues are because I am viewing my images at 200% or more in Post. I understand that the software is scaling up and interpolating the image and therefore looks fuzzy, and fuzzier the more [+] I go in viewing, but I am having a hard time feeling my images are sharp at 100% when I zoom in a little and see it so blurry.

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Good morning Edward.

A number of folks have looked at your images as well as separately processing them. (I have used DPP4, LrC and Ps). The consensus is that I see nothing wrong with the images that would indicate a camera problem.

I understand that you would like to see "crisper" images. Is that because you are comparing to a previous camera or just an expectation?

You can adjust the sharpening in post processing. Perhaps you could edit one of the images to your liking and post the JPEG. We could then see your expectations.