I've been hearing lots of talk about sharpness issues with the Mark II so even though it's midnight and I have to shoot tomorrow I thought I'd throw a lens on and see for myself.

Here's a 100% crop of the image shot handheld at 40/sec with my 50mm 1/4...all the info is below... (I also compressed it to a 6 level jpg)



Camera Model
Canon EOS-1D Mark II
Tv(Shutter Speed)
1/40
Av(Aperture Value)
5.0
ISO Speed
250
Lens
50.0mm
Focal Length
50.0mm
Image Size
3504x2336
Image Quality
Superfine
Flash
Off
White Balance Mode
Auto
AF Mode
One-Shot AF
Parameters Settings
Tone Curve Standard
Sharpness 4
Contrast 0
Color Matrix
6CM set1
Color Space sRGB
Color saturation Mid. High
Color tone 0
Noise Reduction
On
File Size
4818KB

Pretty eye my man.

I've heard a good bit on this too and was chiefly concerned with output. My second concern has to do with how images display online. I don't want soft prints nor soft looking web images for my clients.

I contacted my printer (PICtage) and asked for their wisdom as to whether or not I need to sharpen in camera or have them do it in the printing process or both. I'll let you all know what they say in response once I hear.

Hey David,
I've also heard plenty of concern regarding the softness of images with the Mark II. Your shot appears to settle the issue, but have you noticed any sharpness problems in your wedding images or elsewhere? And how does it respond with the 550 flash attached? Thanks.
Christopher
p.s. Hope you're recovering nicely from your surgery.

I've been meaning to post up a response to this original post because now that we've run almost a dozen weddings through the Mark II's I admit that it is a lot more difficult to get a sharp image. I haven't figured out exactly why that is but I think it's a combination of factors that are both technical issues with the camera as well as user issues.

1. The camera is a lot bigger with a much heavier shutter. Much more possibility of camera shake that I think has resulted in some of my soft images.

2. Larger sensor = less depth of field. The 10d having a smaller sensor gave us the luxury of having a a larger dof and allowed some room for lazyness is focusing. I find myself not shooting at 1.4 - 2.8 nearly as much. It's not a problem in terms of blowing out the background but it just takes a little getting used to.

3. Fong thinks that Canon's anti aliasing filter was too strong and that's the result for the softer images but I'm not sure I agree b/c I would expect that to affect every image and as you can see from the image above it is possible to get sharp shots.

4. I was reading in August's Popular Photography about Image Stabilization and Canon reported that "When there's not enough motion for the IS system to detect, the result can sometimes be a sort of electronic "feedback loop" somewhat analogous to the ringing noise of an audio feedback loop." Most of the IS lenses implented a technology that senses when the lens is being held steady and shuts down the IS to prevent this but that may be an issue as well b/c I've noticed that most of my soft images were coming from my 70-200 IS.

Advice for now is to stop down a bit and increase your shutter speed until you find a shooting range that works for you. Don't worry about ISO - I just printed a 12x18 at 500 and it was spotless and Denis Reggie said he may switch and shoot almost everything at 800.

As for the 550's - They're great with the Mark II!!! I rarely use them other than for a few of the formals and at the reception but the ETTL has been hugely improved!

8-)