Canon EOS 7D images soft

[sparkyj]

Hi,

I am experiencing soft , lackluster images with my Canon EOS 7D with a EFS 17-55mm lens.

Perhaps this is operator error, however I'm wondering if the focus of light settings are out of wack.

I would expect tighter focus overall. No matter what I do I can't seem to pull focus. Most of these shots were with the autofocus setting. And the watterfall shots were timer/tripod shots, incuding the movie.

These shots just seem bad.

These are a sample of Auto, P and M settings.

See what you guys think. Thanks

http://chappledesign.com/Canon_EOS_7D/

[RobertTheFat]

Possibly you need to tweak the autofocus microadjustment. The 17-55 is a very good lens, but it isn't an "L", and mine (also on a 7D) required +9 points of AFMA.

[sparkyj]

Thanks Bob, is this something that needs to be permanently set, and will it stay set? Have you seen any links out there that tackle this specific task for this body/lens combo? I thought maybe it might be a firmware issue. Or maybe I just completely have a bad batch of settings going. 

[RobertTheFat · Accepted solution]

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@sparkyj wrote:

Thanks Bob, is this something that needs to be permanently set, and will it stay set? Have you seen any links out there that tackle this specific task for this body/lens combo? I thought maybe it might be a firmware issue. Or maybe I just completely have a bad batch of settings going. 

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It is permanent and will stay set unless you reset the camera to factory settings. The latter will happen if you send the camera back to Canon for cleaning and inspection. So what I do is record the AFMA settings in a spreadsheet (cameras on the x axis, lenses on the y), so that I can restore the settings later without guessing or recalibration.

The calibration itself isn't hard, although it can be time consuming, since it involves trial and error. Capitalist corporations will try to sell you various aids to the process (paper targets, etc.). Most (all?) of those are unnecessary and should be eschewed.

AFMA is described in the user manual of every camera that has it. The manuals for the rest of the cameras pretend that it doesn't exist.

[sparkyj]

thanks for your answer Bob! Will give it a try..... Cheers!

Dave