Sudden Blurriness with Canon R6 Mark II and 70–200mm Lens

[KM1983]

Hello Canon Community,

I’m looking for advice regarding a sudden issue I’ve started experiencing with my Canon EOS R6 Mark II.

Until recently, I’ve never had any problems with this camera. My images were consistently sharp. I typically shoot moving subjects with a shutter speed between 1/1000 and 1/2000, aperture around f/5.6 for large groups, and ISO kept as low as possible. This setup has always worked well for me.

However, over the past few days I’ve been getting unexpected blur, especially with movement. The issue only seems to happen when I use my zoom lens (70–200mm),I also purchased another 70 to 200 lens thinking that was the issue and the problem is the same. The blurriness becomes more noticeable the more I zoom in. At around 70mm things are usually fine, but at the longer focal lengths the images become much blurrier. I do not experience this issue at all with my prime lens (35mm).

I’ve already checked my autofocus settings and am shooting in Servo AF with continuous eye tracking enabled, but the issue persists.

Canon support believes it may be a camera-related issue and suggested sending it in for repair. Before doing that, I wanted to ask the community:

Has anyone experienced something similar with the R6 Mark II and a 70–200mm lens? If so, what was the cause, and how did you fix it?

Any advice or shared experiences would be greatly appreciated.

[March411]

Hey Demetrius correct me if I have this wrong but doesn't the IS control on the lens control both the camera and the lens. Turn off IS on the lens and it shuts down IS overall.

If the lens IS off or malfunctioning it would impact IBIS overall. It could be the lens seen better days, it's over 20 years old and may be having communication issues with the lens IS. 

KM1983 I doubt that the problem is related to a menu setting since you said other lenses are OK but in Shooting Menu option 7 you may want to check the setting noted in the link below. 

Image Stabilizer (IS Mode)  

[deebatman316]

Since your lens has IS then it is NOT the EF 70-200mm F/2.8L USM lens as this lens doesn’t have optical lens IS. The lens IS switch controls both optical lens IS and IBIS. You can’t use each system independently. So you have one of the following lenses below. Please confirm your exact lens model. Having the correct name will greatly help us and prevent confusion. I have an example lens below to help identify your lens’ exact model name. The lens name is visible after removing the lens cap on the outer ring. Have you tried sitting the camera down on a table (or other stable surface) for instance and tried taking a picture with IS off. If you don’t have any access to a tripod. To see if the picture is till blurry.

• EF 70-200mm F/2.8L IS USM (2001)
• EF 70-200mm F/2.8L IS II USM (2010)
• EF 70-200mm F/2.8L IS III USM (2018)

 

[deebatman316]

That is correct Marc. The lens’ IS switch controls both optical lens IS and IBIS. The OP originally indicated that they were using the original non-IS version of the lens. Later in another post they said the lens had an IS switch on it. So the lens they’re using is NOT in fact the EF 70-200mm F/2.8L USM lens. It’s one of the newer stabilized versions. Then they said it’s happening with 2 different Canon 70-200mm lenses. So this is a big confusion now on what’s really happening now. This is what the OP said in the opening post “I also purchased another 70 to 200 lens thinking that was the issue and the problem is the same. The blurriness becomes more noticeable the more I zoom in. At around 70mm things are usually fine, but at the longer focal lengths the images become much blurrier. I do not experience this issue at all with my prime lens (35mm).”

[SignifDigits]

Addressing the OP's question as far as I can personally.  I have not experienced the same on my R6 Mark II using the EF 70-200mm F/2.8L IS III USM with stabilization on in the camera and switches on the lens set to 1.2 meters to infinity, AF on, Stabilization on in Stabilization Mode 1.  I used f5.6 and 1/1600 and focused on trees far away and a bird feeder very close.  I used 70mm and 200mm.  Autofocus was very fast in one-spot, and occasionally needed a bit of assistance in servo.  All shots were sharp.

I'm not sure why Canon support suspect your camera and not the lens given your data to us.  Perhaps it could be that your lens is a version that is no longer supported by Canon and they want to ensure your R6 Mark II is functioning properly, and not that they truly suspect the camera, but that is pure speculation on my part.

Again, we really do need the specifics on the lens.  And I'll add there are f/4.0 versions of the EF 70-200mm on top of the f/2.8 versions.

And to the OP, if you're not already enrolled in Canon Professional Services, I suggest you ensure all of your gear is registered and join at the level for which you qualify at https://www.usa.canon.com/pro/canon-professional-services