Hey guys - some of you are aware of some soft-focus issues that have been driving me crazy lately. Well, I've been doing some test shots today (tons of stuff.....words, stuffed animals, people, rings, words on bottles, words on flat paper, words on paper hanging up) to try and figure out whether the issue is my camera or my lenses. Now I think I've officially gone crazy b/c I cannot even tell if the focus is soft or not. When I zoom in, it looks really soft, but .....do these look soft to you??

The stats: These were taken with a Canon 30D, Raw, fully manual, 125/2.8 (trying to rule out camera shake), ISO 400, AWB

btw, these are my rings.....aren't they pretty? Family heirlooms.

Thanks so much, guys!!!

yes they look soft, but there are many possible reasons, shooting sharp macros (handheld) can be a beast of it's own.

try this with a tripod

http://www.photo.net/learn/focustest/scale45.jpg

if the center line is still OOF consider sending your camera and lens in to be calibrated.

The images look very soft. Have you tried the focus tests using a tripod? That would probably rule out camera shake.

Beautiful rings, BTW.

-janelle :-)

Okay, here are the results of the tripod test:

The 1st is with my Tamaron 28-75mm on my 30 D. The second is with a nasty Canon kit lens that came with my Rebel 2000 a LONG time ago.

What do you think??

Looks very soft to me.
Also seems pretty grainy for ISO 400 in my opinion.

sorry I should have explained, you need to shoot the test.jpg at a low angle, 45 degrees or less to get a good idea if it's front or back focusing.

I don't think you have the focusing issue. It looks like the lens focuses right on spot, but it the lens itself is soft. Maybe you got a bad copy?

love your rings!


-allan z.

Thanks for the compliments on my rings, guys!

Sorry, Stephen....I must be confused today, but I don't know what you mean about shooting it at 45 degrees.

I agree that it's too grainy.....very wierd.

Also, I should mention that when I had my digital rebel AND the tamaron lens, I did not have these problems (that I can remember or that I noticed).

Alex - I think you're right.....the lens is def focusing on the spot I want it to hit, but it's just not producing a sharp image.

the focus test will tell you 3 things, if your lens is back focusing, front focusing, or focusing correct but it's just that soft.

first, print the test.jpg out on standard white paper, lay it on a level surface like a table. place your camera on a tripod and point the camera at the focus test, it should be at a low angle to the paper. make sure the center line is perpendicular to the camera, focus on it, and shoot at your widest aperture. Than you can examine the test to see where the sharpest part of the test is. It should be the center line, but it allows you to see front and back focusing issues.

Stephen - you are such a huge help. Here's what I've got:

(still looks grainy and, while the center line is the one in focus, it still seems soft)

And this....

I see some very strange things happening, but it would be eaiser to tell if the test sheet was turned so the center line was perpendicular, or horizontal to the camera and the sidelines should look like a landing strip.

I'm an idiot.

BRB.

Okay, here it is:
(to review: Canon 30D, ISO 400, AWB, 25/2.8, tripod)

it looks like there might be some front focusing, it would be best to do a series of these and study them all together and see if it repeats from test to test. autofocus isn't perfect so one bad test doesn't rule anything out. but now that you've got it down you should be able to see.

also when doing this kind of test, it's really important to make sure the camera is perfectly perpendicular to the center line to get the best result.

Thanks again, Stephen! - You are a life-safer. I will get to work taking a few more!!!

Put the camera on a sturdy tripod, go outside and focus at 6-8 ft on a brick wall in sunlight. Have the camera body parallel to the wall. Shoot at Av and select apertures; wide open, mid range and stopped down. Shoot fine jpeg. If you want to really test the lens repeat the three aperture exposures at three different zoom points; wide, middle and tele. Then look at the files on the monitor. Look at the center and edges of the files.

To check for auto focus accuracy shoot a few more images with the lens wide open and focus manually.

Keep notes.

Keep in mind that Canon files will always look slightly unsharp because of their anti-aliasing filter in front of the CMOS sensor. They advise to add some sharpening as the last step in post processing.

Rick

Rick - thanks so much! I'm grabbing my gear and heading outside right now! ; )

Hi Stacy! I just bought the Tamron 28-75 lens. Is this the one you are talking about with the focusing issues? I hope I don't find mine to be that way. I just took a few test shots (random objects around the house!) and I'm about to upload them. I heard very good reviews about this lens for my pricerange so I hope it works out.