My canon EOS R5 is taking slightly blurry photos

[Shaneradin]

hey all, I’m very lost and I really need help. I have a canon r5 with a 15-35 24-70 70-200 all lens are 2.8 rf. Whenever I shoot with the 70-200 or the 24-70 zoomed in my pictures are slightly blurry. Just to give context I sent canon my camera 5 times and they said nothing was wrong with it each time. The pictures are never under exposed and they are all shot at 2000 shutter speed. I really hope someone can help me.

[Tronhard]

OK... let's see.  Let's see if we can start an experiment... Can you go out with your camera and take a set of RAW images of some static objects and some of people - they don't have to be moving, in fact having some static and some still might be a good idea.

[Shaneradin]

Will do god bless you. Do I just reply to you back on this thread?

[Tronhard]

Yes please.

[Shaneradin]

Hey Trevor, did a shoot today. Here is the link to the some of the photos. 

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/159AAxnHqHH6JBqBBN58ydQiDhZqNhFhS 

[FloridaDrafter]

Hello, Shaneradin!

I don't normally recommend a firmware update when someone is having issues with their camera, but in this case it may be applicable. You are still on 1.5.2 and IIRC, Canon addressed some focusing issues with later updates. Current for the R5 is 1.9.0.

I only downloaded 3 of your 6 posted Raw files (xxx9124, xxx9283 and xxx9429). 9429 looks great and you really won't get any better than that. To my eye, xxx9283 looks soft from motion blur even though your shutter was 1/800th, and I'll note that focus was on his shoulder (I turned on your focus points in DPP 4). Focus was squarely on the eye in xxx9429. Also, to my eye. xxx9124 looks almost oof as apposed to motion blur. I will note that the better shots were not wide open (f/2.8). So far it's been my experience that RF glass is pretty sharp wide open, which hasn't been true with DSLR's and EF glass, not all, but the majority of what I have. You may consider closing down your aperture a bit, and if need be, raise your ISO. The R5 will tolerate a lot of ISO with little to no noise, trust me, I shoot a lot of low light with the R5.

Trevor will probably have better tips as I am more of a birder and macro shooter now. I have done other types of photography, just not with the MILC's

Screenshot of 9429 showing Focus Box.

Screenshot of 9429 showing Focus Box on shoulder.

**EDIT** I will add that these screenies are zoomed to 100%.

Newton

[Tronhard]

FWIW, I agree with my respected colleague Newton, I think the best thing is to do the firmware update.  I have my R5 at 1.9.0 with no issues, if that is any help.

[Shaneradin]

Hi all, here are some pictures I took today at a track meet after I had updated my camera. I took a few and left today because I couldn’t get much with blurry shots. 

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1mE7y-HDjNa0yzAyL8eTe6SD0yNZLPfIV

[Tronhard]

Looking at the images, I note that the dominant f/stop is f/2.8 which does not give a great depth of field.  In the case of image 461, the focus point is behind the subjects face and onto her hair.  In the majority of the others there is sharpness but it is razor thin.   I usually would associate f/2.8 with subjects under which one has control, such as a portrait.
So, without prejudice, is this something (i.e. shooting sports with a f/2.8 aperture) you have always done with other cameras and had success, or is this a relatively new situation for you.    Would you be prepared to try shooting at something like f/8 and see how that turns out, even if only as an experiment to eliminate that variable.

[Shaneradin]

Yes I can do another shoot with higher aperture. And yes I’ve always shot 2.8 always and just recently starting to have an issue.

[Tronhard]

Thanks for your fast response!
I would suggest, as an experiment, trying to shoot similar images with a higher f/stop and let's see how that works out.