Sharpness of my 7d Mark II

[kshark343]

Hello Guys,

I bought a 7d Mark Ii last year and started to learn photography since then. However when compared with those photos on the 7d Mark ii review articles or videos, I always feel mine are less sharp than them. By sharp I mean when they zoom in the image, I can see the finest detail like grain of the wood or the feather of the bird. I understand it will make a huge difference depending on the lens used on the camera body. But recently I heard someone need to microadjust the AF on the 7d Mark ii to achieve a good AF. Unfortunately I am not 100% sure the IQ is caused by the difference of lens or there is a potential flaw on my camera, or it is just normal. 

Thus I wonder if anybody here can kindly check my photos and give me some idea. The bird is taken with EF-S 15-85mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM and the tree is taken with EF 50mm f/1.8.  

1. https://www.dropbox.com/s/a3th73vsgiyaw5o/20151223-Melbourne-395.dng?dl=0

2. https://www.dropbox.com/s/ho3xdud4a03x1kk/20160111-auto%20focus-010.dng?dl=0

This is my first post here, so if I did not ask the question in appropriate way, please fogive my ignorance. Any suggestion would be appreciated.

Thanks

Fanpeng

[ebiggs1]

I guess we are going to disagree, .... again. It isn't "bad advice" especially if you care what part of the bird is in critical focus.  Does multi-point work, sure but so does single.  In the right circumstance you can make use of it.  But with single you know where and what is happening.

With subjects like these two samples, I use a single focus point.  You are free to use what you wish but you can't say it's "bad advice".

Even a person that likes multi-point is going to shut off must of them as the subject gets larger.  And, the background more cluttered.  Both of those were single point.

I think you folks that didn't grow up using fully manual cameras with no auto focus have differing opinions.

[kshark343]

Thanks for your reply! Maybe I should ask the question in this way: "Do you think the image qulity of these photos achieve the average performance of the [CAM body] and [Lens] combo?" I am really curious when hearing a reviewer talks about a lens to be a  truly sharp lens. Hopefully I will have more personal understanding about sharpness after I got some decent lens to compare. 

[TTMartin · Accepted solution]

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@kshark343 wrote:

Thus I wonder if anybody here can kindly check my photos and give me some idea. The bird is taken with EF-S 15-85mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM and the tree is taken with EF 50mm f/1.8.  

1. https://www.dropbox.com/s/a3th73vsgiyaw5o/20151223-Melbourne-395.dng?dl=0

2. https://www.dropbox.com/s/ho3xdud4a03x1kk/20160111-auto%20focus-010.dng?dl=0

This is my first post here, so if I did not ask the question in appropriate way, please fogive my ignorance. Any suggestion would be appreciated.

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On your photos, the one of the tree is taken with the EF 50mm f/1.8 II at f/8 that really isn't going to tell you where the camera is focusing. If you want to check focus that should be done wide open. However, like I said above, that is not the lens to do it with.

The second photo of the gull in flight was taken at f/5.6 which is wide open for that lens, lenses tend to be sharpest stopped down about 1 stop. The second thing on the gull photo is the shutter speed of 1/1000, for birds in flight I typically use 1/1600, between the focus changing to track the bird, the camera moving to track the bird and the bird moving, you need a much higher shutter speed then you would expect to get sharp subjects.

[jrhoffman75]

http://learn.usa.canon.com/resources/articles/2014/eos7dmk2_afGuidebook.shtml