my canon T3i, on auto-focus or mannual, does not focus properly. Pictures come blurred (not sharp).

[ravespandya]

I have canon rebel T3i. It was working properlly when i bought. But suddenly its picture quality started degrading. Pictures looked good in camera but when opened in computer, they were blurry with no sharpness. I tried all modes, auto and mannual focus, but all had same problem. I recently baught tripod also to solve the problem, but it had no effect on sharpness. Any help would be appreciated. 

[ScottyP]

Tripods won't help freeze things that are moving. For that you need a fast shutter apeed Does the tripod help with stationary things?

If you shoot in bright outdoor daylight in TV (Shutter Priority) mode, and you set a fast shutter time, like 1/2000th of a second, is it clear?

[TCampbell]

The camera focus mode should preferably be in "One Shot" mode which enables a feature called "Focus Priority" -- that feature insists that the camera must lock focus before it will take the shot.  

For sports or action shots, photographers often want to use "AI Servo" mode which allows for continuous re-foccus of moving subjects and continuous shooting.  But "AI Servo" mode disables focus priority (the camera WILL take a shot when you fully press the shutter button... even if it is not focused.  The photographer is expected to know that they need to half-press the shutter until they are happy with focus and THEN fully press the shutter to take the shot when they are ready.

I"m wondering if your camera has been switched into "AI Servo" mode -- if so, you will probably want to return it to "One Shot" mode.

[drdan_1]

I have seemingly this exact problem. I have a refurbished T3i with the 18-55 kit lens and a refurbished 55-250 lens. I have never been able to get really sharp pictures with the kit lens. they look all right until you get them on the computer but are soft in close up. At first the 55-250 was crystal clear when you would zoom in to full size on computer but now is soft focus on almost every picture. Sometimes there is an area of the picture that is clear, but not where the focus should be. I put the camera on a tripod, turned off IS and auto focus and I can get pretty sharp pictures that way, although they still don't seem quite as sharp as I remember this camera being when I got it a year ago. It appears to me that the autofocus is not focusing accurately. Setting is on "One Shot" .