Refurbished 80d...blurry out of focus photos.. HELP!

[KevinG1]

Im new to photography, started this year with a rebel t6 that I outgrew fast. I seemed to learn pretty quick and have always shot in manual mode. Quality of my t6 photos are great! Clear, crisp, and so on.

decided to upgrade to a 80d, and picked one up through canon refurbished. Well the majority of my shots come out blurry. For example, i do car photography {stills} and lets say the wheels are out of focus, or the lights... cant seem to get consistent clear crisp photos.

Not sure if its me, or the camera. Seems all of my lenses will do it. Mostly shoot with the canon 50mm 1.4 and nothing comes out clear under f2.8. Best around 4.

Ive tried everything. Tripod, high shutter speed, manual focus.. live view, view finder, tried all different focus point methods. The one wierd thing I noticed is when i used live view today, it showed the image on the screen perfectly in focus and crisp. As soon as the shutter went of it became blurry. That was on a tripod, using 2 sec delay.

Hope someone can help me...

[KevinG1]

I get the same results using different lenses. I tried micro focus adjustments with my canon 50mm 1.4 and it just seemed to get worse

[TTMartin]

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@KevinG1 wrote:

I get the same results using different lenses. I tried micro focus adjustments with my canon 50mm 1.4 and it just seemed to get worse

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Please take the time to review the links I provided, even if they don't solve your problem, they will make you a better photographer.

[ScottyP]

1/60 is a slow shutter for handholding a 50mm lens on a crop sensor. The general rule of thumb for full frame sensors would be a shutter speed at least as fast as the reciprocal of the focal length. On a crop sensor you must multiply the minimum speed x 1.6. So a 50mm lens on a crop needs at least 1/80 second or faster. A 100 mm lens on a crop needs at least 1/160 second or faster.  At 200mm you'd need 1/320 or faster shutter. 

Here it is front focusing though. It could be the AF system making a wrong guess.  See if the AF system can focus right by simplifying things. Use your f/2.8 again but go into the AF point selection and select ONLY the center af point to be active so you can tell the camera what to focus on. Either use a tripod or use a plenty fast shutter speed (1/100 minimum or if possible faster like 1/200 or 1/400 if there's enough light). Place that selected af point on the subject and take the picture. See if it focused where you told it to.  If it just can't do that then you probably have a problem with the camera.  If it does focus you know the problem is not the camera. 

[ScottyP]

One other thing is do the test on a non reflective surface. If the car has a nice mirror finish then the camera may try to focus on a reflection instead of the car.  Use something non shiny and something with clear contrast and edges (not a plain smooth wall) as the subject. 

[TTMartin]

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@KevinG1 wrote:

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Unfortunately you saved the above image without any EXIF information, so it it hard to tell what is actually going on.

The photo does seem to be front focused. That can be caused by a couple of things, the most common would be for you to be using an auto AF point selection mode and the camera is picking up and focusing on the white lines in front of the car. Another, but, seemingly less likely in this case would be that your lenses need micro focus adjustment on your 80D. I'm guessing it is understanding the more complex AF system of the 80D that is giving you issues rather than a problem with the AF system that needs adjustment. 

[KevinG1]

Another weird thing that i just noticed... not sure if its normal or i have a setting off?

Took the same photo, same settings, one using the view finder, one using live view.

When im in live view, the shutter speed sound is much slower then when using the view finder. When using the view finder my image comes out blurry. When in live view, image is clear.

[jrhoffman75]

If you are getting sharp images in LiveView but unsharp through viewfinder with more than one lens it is very likely a camera problem. LiveView focuses right on the sensor. The viewfinder uses an indirect ethod of focusing (as discussed in the links).

It should be sent back.

[KevinG1]

Yes ill definitely take a look at those links you posted! Appreciate all the help i can get

[KevinG1]

Thanks for the help! Im really struggling with this camera, and feel like it shouldn't be this difficult to use

[TTMartin]

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@KevinG1 wrote:
Thanks for the help! Im really struggling with this camera, and feel like it shouldn't be this difficult to use

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Be sure you watch those videos on Auto Focus they might explain some of your difficulty. 

Your camera's PDAF system may need factory calibration. The problem is your statement that you 'tried MFA and it made it worse' indicates a user issue not a camera issue. The thing is even if it does following the directions in Canon's Micro Focus Adjustment guidebook should make it better. If you use MFA and make it better, but, it is beyond the range of MFA to make it 'perfect' your camera needs a trip to Canon. If you use MFA and it requires a +/- 15-20 adjustment to make it perfect you still might consider sending it to Canon.