Inconsistent Sharpness Issue withCanon 5d Mark iv

[KBoyerPhotos]

I have a 5d Mark iv and am having lots of trouble with sharpness consistency on every image.  I am shooting back to back images with exactly the same settings and some of them are tack sharp and others are totally blurry and I have not changed any settings.  Can someone please help.  I have tried everythiing to "fix" this and am out of ideas. I just want nearly ALL my images to be sharp!  

[KBoyerPhotos]

[KBoyerPhotos]

[RockbambooPF]

Hey Boyer!

I actually have the exact same problem and it almost killed my love of photography. I have a work-around for you, but it's not a perfect fix and I am still dying for the fix. I even sent my camera to Canon, paid $400 for them to say there was no issue according to their mechanical testing. I sent it to a private calibrator who does it all manually, it got a bit better, but really, photos are still foggy/blurry, almost like nothing is sharp. SO!! The good news for you is my work around that I discovered. I was told the live view uses a different focus system from the back LCD. Shoot with your LCD screen rather than through the viewfinder and photos will be TACK sharp nearly every time! But the sad part is the obvious... the LCD sucks for sports and motion. Hope that helps, please let me know if you find a fix! Only people with this issue will understand it. And Canon currently denies it exists, so we need enough people to point it out! This is an expensive camera!

Thanks,

Joey H

[jrhoffman75]

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@RockbambooPF wrote:

Hey Boyer!

I actually have the exact same problem and it almost killed my love of photography. I have a work-around for you, but it's not a perfect fix and I am still dying for the fix. I even sent my camera to Canon, paid $400 for them to say there was no issue according to their mechanical testing. I sent it to a private calibrator who does it all manually, it got a bit better, but really, photos are still foggy/blurry, almost like nothing is sharp. SO!! The good news for you is my work around that I discovered. I was told the live view uses a different focus system from the back LCD. Shoot with your LCD screen rather than through the viewfinder and photos will be TACK sharp nearly every time! But the sad part is the obvious... the LCD sucks for sports and motion. Hope that helps, please let me know if you find a fix! Only people with this issue will understand it. And Canon currently denies it exists, so we need enough people to point it out! This is an expensive camera!

Thanks,

Joey H

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You are correct that the LiveView focus system is different than the OVF focus system. Since it shows the image that the camera sensor is seeing it is not subject to any focusing errors that the OVF phase-detection system may be experiencing.

But it will not overcome many of the other causes of unsharp photos. We never did find out exactly what Ms. Boyer's problems were caused by.

[jrhoffman75]

https://www.lightroomfocuspointsplugin.com/

It is a free plugin for Lightroom.

As a test, try shooting some portraits like you posted using One Shot AF and see if you are getting the same problem.

I am always looking to learn from others. I noticed that you convert your Canon RAW files to DNG. What advantages have you found?

[KBoyerPhotos]

To be truthful, I just import them into LR as DNG since it is adobe's format and I use exclusivley adobe products.  I wish I had a more impressive reason!! :). 

[rs-eos]

I also exclusively use Adobe products (Lightroom, Photoshop, Illustrator), but I keep the RAW files as-is (Canon RAW).   In that manner, I know that I have the original data as saved by Canon.

[RockbambooPF]

His problem’s my problem as well, LCD does work better as a work-around, but currently not much of a fix for the viewfinder way of focusing. Many photogs have this issue right now. And many dont even know they have it until I show them.

[Nitzanman]

We're you able to fix this?
I have the same problem with all my Canon lenses, 24-70 ii, 70-200 ii and 50 1.4.
Working with live view for over a year now because there is no solution to this..

[hillary_jeanne]

I have this same issue. It's so frustrating. My default at this point is to shoot and cull for what's in focus vs the actual best shot. I find that it's about 50/50 crisp or slightly soft like the above example. I have done everything that's mentioned in this thread as well. It seems to be an issue with the Mark IV. I have had many other photographers tell me also had this issue until switching to the R6.