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...

[Naipes]

That is probably true. I did not level off the line of sight. The center focal point was aimed at the middle of the chart in all images.  I did a couple more experiments and I think the problem is focused (excuse the pun) on the middle focal point. When I select the single focal point one up (above) from the center point I do not get the same result. Using the focal point one up from the center point, viewfinder and live view images are sharp with multiple lenses.  (I know it's hard to see, but the EXIF info is in the right panel of all images.) These images were shot using the focal point immediately above the center focus point.  The top image was shot through the viewfinder and the bottom image was live view. If the camera continues like this, I can live with it.  I just won't use the center focus point.  Still a bummer though on a brand new camera.

[jrhoffman75]

Don’t settle. Send the camera back, get it fully adjusted and enjoy it.

[TTMartin]

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@Naipes wrote:

That is probably true. I did not level off the line of sight. The center focal point was aimed at the middle of the chart in all images.  I did a couple more experiments and I think the problem is focused (excuse the pun) on the middle focal point. When I select the single focal point one up (above) from the center point I do not get the same result. Using the focal point one up from the center point, viewfinder and live view images are sharp with multiple lenses.  (I know it's hard to see, but the EXIF info is in the right panel of all images.) These images were shot using the focal point immediately above the center focus point.  The top image was shot through the viewfinder and the bottom image was live view. If the camera continues like this, I can live with it.  I just won't use the center focus point.  Still a bummer though on a brand new camera.

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Follow this Canon EOS Micro Focus Adjustment Guidebook.

[Waddizzle]

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@jrhoffman75 wrote:
Don’t settle. Send the camera back, get it fully adjusted and enjoy it.

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Listen to John.  Send it back, instead of meddling with it.

Making AFMA adjustments is deceptively complex.  It is real test of your skills as a photographer.  You need to be able to reproduce duplicate results on a consistent basis.  

It gets complicated because you need to touch the camera, to enter the camera menus.  Your light source is another, perhaps even more significant, complicating factor.  You will get best results in broad spectrum sunlight, not narrow spectrum artificial lighting.  Speaking of artificial lighting, did you enable flicker mode?

Taking one set of photos, and then making adjustments is a mistake.  You need to take a series of shots, perhaps a dozen for starters, and then average the results.  In fact, if your series of shots should show consistent lens performance, meaning the lens seems to always be off by minus five, for example, or in that ball park.  

If test shots suggest that the required compensation is all over the map, then you test technique may be flawed.  It is very easy to have flawed technique.  The AFMA adjustments that you are making alter lens performance in very small ways.  Touching the camera between shots can throw everything off, so having a pretty robust tripod and head is a MUST.

Remember, making AFMA adjustements are what test labs are for.  Canon can check your camera, if you ask them to do it.

[TTMartin]

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@Waddizzle wrote:

Making AFMA adjustments is deceptively complex.  It is real test of your skills as a photographer.  You need to be able to reproduce duplicate results on a consistent basis.  

 
Remember, making AFMA adjustements are what test labs are for.  Canon can check your camera, if you ask them to do it.

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Nonsense, AF Microadjustment is for exactly this issue when the PDAF and LiveView AF don't match.

In this thread you went as far as to tell another poster that stated he had successfully adjusted his lens to undo it. Ridiculous advice.

Roger Cicala from Lens Rentals has a great article entitled "This lens is soft" and other myths where he explains why AF microadjustment is needed. <link> Below is his addendum to that article.


Addendum I recently saw the greatest real life example of this ever, in an online forum where the poster states ’Canon’s New XX camera sucks’ (I’m eliminating names so the bots don’t pick this up and repeat it.) He goes on to say he had a body for several years, and a hand picked collection of lenses that he knew were perfect because he’d gone through several copies of each to get the sharpest one. Now he bought a new body and all his lenses sucked, and he’d now exchanged bodies twice and they still all sucked. So here is the perfect example of a person starting with a camera at the edge of tolerance, choosing through multiple selection a set of edge-of-tolerance lenses, and now generalizing that all the new bodies suck. The sad part is the new body has microfocus adjustment and he never even tried it. Just sent copy after copy back to the store.

edit: keep in mind your camera might be 'in spec' and your lenses 'in spec', but, still require AF microadjustment. In which case sending you camera in to Canon will do nothing, they'll inspect it and send it back saying it is 'in spec'. You can send your lenses and camera into Canon together to get them calibrated together, but, I believe that is beyond what would be covered by warranty, and you may have to pay to have that done. 

[RobertTheFat]

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@TTMartin wrote:

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@Waddizzle wrote:

Making AFMA adjustments is deceptively complex.  It is real test of your skills as a photographer.  You need to be able to reproduce duplicate results on a consistent basis.  

 
Remember, making AFMA adjustements are what test labs are for.  Canon can check your camera, if you ask them to do it.

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Nonsense, AF Microadjustment is for exactly this issue when the PDAF and LiveView AF don't match.

In this thread you went as far as to tell another poster that stated he had successfully adjusted his lens to undo it. Ridiculous advice.

Roger Cicala from Lens Rentals has a great article entitled "This lens is soft" and other myths where he explains why AF microadjustment is needed. <link> Below is his addendum to that article.


Addendum I recently saw the greatest real life example of this ever, in an online forum where the poster states ’Canon’s New XX camera sucks’ (I’m eliminating names so the bots don’t pick this up and repeat it.) He goes on to say he had a body for several years, and a hand picked collection of lenses that he knew were perfect because he’d gone through several copies of each to get the sharpest one. Now he bought a new body and all his lenses sucked, and he’d now exchanged bodies twice and they still all sucked. So here is the perfect example of a person starting with a camera at the edge of tolerance, choosing through multiple selection a set of edge-of-tolerance lenses, and now generalizing that all the new bodies suck. The sad part is the new body has microfocus adjustment and he never even tried it. Just sent copy after copy back to the store.

edit: keep in mind your camera might be 'in spec' and your lenses 'in spec', but, still require AF microadjustment. In which case sending you camera in to Canon will do nothing, they'll inspect it and send it back saying it is 'in spec'. You can send your lenses and camera into Canon together to get them calibrated together, but, I believe that is beyond what would be covered by warranty, and you may have to pay to have that done. 

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I have to agree with Tom. AFMA can be tedious, but it doesn't have to be difficult. All you need is a scene with objects at different distances and the ability to tell whether each of them is in focus or not. If the object on which the autofocus point is placed isn't the one that's most in focus, you change the AFMA setting until it is. The process goes faster if you take several pictures (using different AFMA values) at a time before going in and looking at them on a computer. That's pretty much all there is to it.

BTW. I've yet to encounter an "L" lens that needed significant adjustment on any of my camera bodies.

[KevinG1]

The only lens thats giving me a problem is my canon 50mm 1.4.i bought this the same time I bought my 80d. Its a good potrait lens, or good for shooting anything up close.

Im having a hard time shooting anything under f2.8 without having the whole image blurry. After searching, it seems that's pretty common with that lens.

So it seems that i waa having multiple issues, one lens, one 45pt AF.

I talked to someone on a different forum, and she said that all of her lenses needed MF adjustments when she got a 80d...even the kit lens.

[Waddizzle]

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@RobertTheFat wrote:

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@TTMartin wrote:

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@Waddizzle wrote:

Making AFMA adjustments is deceptively complex.  It is real test of your skills as a photographer.  You need to be able to reproduce duplicate results on a consistent basis.  

 
Remember, making AFMA adjustements are what test labs are for.  Canon can check your camera, if you ask them to do it.

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Nonsense, AF Microadjustment is for exactly this issue when the PDAF and LiveView AF don't match.

In this thread you went as far as to tell another poster that stated he had successfully adjusted his lens to undo it. Ridiculous advice.

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I have to agree with Tom. AFMA can be tedious, but it doesn't have to be difficult. 

BTW. I've yet to encounter an "L" lens that needed significant adjustment on any of my camera bodies.

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My whole point was that it is a tedious process.  It is not a bang-bang procedure.

Tom, I stand by what i wrote.  The OP did not perform a successful AFMA.  The camera seems bad.

[Waddizzle]

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@KevinG1 wrote:
The only lens thats giving me a problem is my canon 50mm 1.4.i bought this the same time I bought my 80d. Its a good potrait lens, or good for shooting anything up close.

Im having a hard time shooting anything under f2.8 without having the whole image blurry. After searching, it seems that's pretty common with that lens.

So it seems that i waa having multiple issues, one lens, one 45pt AF.

I talked to someone on a different forum, and she said that all of her lenses needed MF adjustments when she got a 80d...even the kit lens.

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I have bought two 80D bodies from the refurbished store, and they were both fine, even with the kit lens.  

Be aware that consumer lenses do not have the ability to accurately repeat focus like a professional grade “L” lens.  

Despite crude comments to the contrary, this is why I stressed that you need to take numerous test shots, and take an average.  Making AFMA adjustments is not as straightforward and simple as it might first appear.  

[KevinG1]

Someone recommended the reikan focall software. I was going to give that a shot