I am having issues wit the sharpness of my 70D. I have yet to be able to take a truly sharp photo

[smokieblues]

Hello there,

I was hoping someone could help me with a problem that I am having with my 70D. I have had my camera for almost 6 months now and I have yet to be able to take a truly sharp photo with my camera in ANY kind of automatic mode. The ones I would consider passable where ones that I had to manually focus and even then there is only a 50/50 chace that I'll get any that I truely like.

My lens of choice is the 100-400L IS and yes I do know that with this lens I have to contend with camera shake. I almost always shoot hand held and I do know that  shooting this way it is much harder to get  shots that are in focus and I almost always shoot in Manual.

I have set the camera up to use the Center Point Focus and I have noticed that it will very rarely focus on that point. For example I will focus on the eye of a bird and the back of the head will be in moderate focus and the eye will be soft or blurry.

I previously had a T2i and I was getting wonderful results with that camera and I was so excited to get the 70D and see what I could accomplish with it. I have been really disappointed in the results so far.

I have no idea what I'm doing wrong with this camera and any help would be appreciated.

Examples below:

Image below was take with my T2i a few years ago and I'm very happy with this image.  400m at 1/1600 f/10  ISO 400. Slightly cropped. Taken on a bright, very sunny day. I was sitting on the ground and had the lens stabalized on my knees.

Image below was taken with my 70D yesterday. Not so happy with this one. This image is an example of the image quality I get with this camera. Taken on a very bright, sunny day. This bird was slightly closer to me me than the one above. I was also sitting on the ground and had the lens stabalized on my knees. Not cropped. Straight out of the camera. 400m at 1/1000  f/7.1 with ISO 200.

Any help on what I am doing wrong would be most appreciated. I really am having quite a time trying to get good phots with this camera. I wanted something better than just snapshot quality.

[j-p]

I also went with the 100-400L from the T2i to the 70D. I get noticeably more sharp photos with the 70D. Your 70D photo is not sharp, but as others have noted, you need to do more controlled tests.

[ebiggs1]

Most of the thime, in myexperience, this type of issue is mostly user error or technique.

[smokieblues]

Thank you for your comments Mr. Myers.

As to your question about the filter on the lens the answer is no, I did not.

I had been seriously looking into getting a set but it seems that your comments about the original 100-400L not "playing well" with filters fits the consensus I have beens running across. No need to add another layer of "not working properly" to my set until I can figure out what is going on at the moment.

Thank you for explaining the in camera process for sharping. I try to do as little post as I can prefering to get what I need when I take the photo. My T2i was a perfect camera (for me at least - after I got over the learning curve) where I could look at the shooting situation, enter my shooting info and at the end of the day I would have more keepers than trash. If the camera was sharpening the photos it was doing a wonderful job. Now with the 70D it seems I have more trash than keepers and it is getting rather discouraging.

Thank you for taking the time to answer my questions.

[smokieblues]

This particular shot was #2 or #3 in a burst of 5. So no manual focusing on this photo.

[smokieblues]

Thank you again Mr Hoffman for your comments.

[jrhoffman75]

AI-Servo doesn't always deliver every image in focus. If you want to be sure your gear is functioning I recommend going outside on a nice sunny day in Program mode with lens at 100mm. Choose a static subject that can fill frame.

[smokieblues]

J-P, I was hoping for that result as well.

Thanks for taking the time to answer.

[ebiggs1]

Use just the center focus point.  Turn the others off.  Use 'One shot' and not AI-servo.

AI-servo would be more for a flying bird, not one on the ground standing pretty still.

[smokieblues]

Thank you Mr. Hoffman,

I was planning on doing that this weekend or sooner with my big lens.

I have the test shots I did with my small lens downloaded to disk so I could take them into town with me when I went to the camera shop but unfortunately that disk is in one of my camera bags that I loaned to my brother.

I am sure that I could get a possitive answer to my question if I had "test photos" to show than actual "working" photos with the lens that I use most.

I'll post them when I have them.

Again thank you for taking the time to answer my questions.

[smokieblues]

Thank you for the suggestion. I will try that the next time I'm out. I was hoping to catch this guy in flight that day.