70D to 7D2 or 5DMkIII?

Hi - comments/advice/opinions please!

I currently use a 70D (previously 60D). I am concerned that I miss 'focus' on a lot of my shots although this has improved significantly since I acquired a Canon 70-200mm IS II which is brilliant (even with a 1.4x converter)! My other main lens is a Tamron SP 24-70mm F/2.8 Di VC USD (an excellent lens according to dpreview). I also, less frequently, use a Sigma 18-35mm F/1.8.

At present my photography primarily consists of ,what someone referred to in an earlier post as, hyperkinetic kids (often outside in relatively low light); school and sports shots of self-same kids and their mates, holiday snaps (general interest - anything)and off camera flash with Canon 600 RT. Clearly at this point I'm an amateur and part of getting more 'keepers' is learning to use your equipment properly. That said, I am considering upgrading and this is a bit of a how long is a piece of string question. My primary issue(s) are the "best" autofocus possible /IQ.

I am not concerned about video, Wifi, (GPS) massive ISO, and I suspect as I improve I won't need to crop out as much unnecessary detail as I currently have to do. Assuming, Ive got a reasonable exposure/DOF/ISO etc , and everything else being equal, which Canon camera would you recommend for "best" auto-focusing (i.e. sharp and accurate)/IQ (7D2/5DMkIII/other)? I can't justify the very top of the range but could stretch to a 5DMkIII or similar if the IQ improvement is significantly better than the 70D. Help please! Dave

Physioz said:

Hi - comments/advice/opinions please!

I currently use a 70D (previously 60D). I am concerned that I miss 'focus' on a lot of my shots although this has improved significantly since I acquired a Canon 70-200mm IS II which is brilliant (even with a 1.4x converter)! My other main lens is a Tamron SP 24-70mm F/2.8 Di VC USD (an excellent lens according to dpreview). I also, less frequently, use a Sigma 18-35mm F/1.8.

At present my photography primarily consists of ,what someone referred to in an earlier post as, hyperkinetic kids (often outside in relatively low light); school and sports shots of self-same kids and their mates, holiday snaps (general interest - anything)and off camera flash with Canon 600 RT. Clearly at this point I'm an amateur and part of getting more 'keepers' is learning to use your equipment properly. That said, I am considering upgrading and this is a bit of a how long is a piece of string question. My primary issue(s) are the "best" autofocus possible /IQ.

I am not concerned about video, Wifi, (GPS) massive ISO, and I suspect as I improve I won't need to crop out as much unnecessary detail as I currently have to do. Assuming, Ive got a reasonable exposure/DOF/ISO etc , and everything else being equal, which Canon camera would you recommend for "best" auto-focusing (i.e. sharp and accurate)/IQ (7D2/5DMkIII/other)? I can't justify the very top of the range but could stretch to a 5DMkIII or similar if the IQ improvement is significantly better than the 70D. Help please! Dave

Click to expand...

7DII will have slight improvement over 70D in IQ, but the 7DII easily has the best AF of the 3, 5DIII will have best IQ but you won't really notice it in lower ISO's
--
Jostian

Physioz said:

Hi - comments/advice/opinions please!

I currently use a 70D (previously 60D). I am concerned that I miss 'focus' on a lot of my shots

Click to expand...

Post an example, with a description of your AF settings, and maybe we can help you figure out what's going wrong. Chances are it has nothing to do with the camera.

Physioz said:

Hi - comments/advice/opinions please!

I currently use a 70D (previously 60D). I am concerned that I miss 'focus' on a lot of my shots although this has improved significantly since I acquired a Canon 70-200mm IS II which is brilliant (even with a 1.4x converter)! My other main lens is a Tamron SP 24-70mm F/2.8 Di VC USD (an excellent lens according to dpreview). I also, less frequently, use a Sigma 18-35mm F/1.8.

At present my photography primarily consists of ,what someone referred to in an earlier post as, hyperkinetic kids (often outside in relatively low light); school and sports shots of self-same kids and their mates, holiday snaps (general interest - anything)and off camera flash with Canon 600 RT. Clearly at this point I'm an amateur and part of getting more 'keepers' is learning to use your equipment properly. That said, I am considering upgrading and this is a bit of a how long is a piece of string question. My primary issue(s) are the "best" autofocus possible /IQ.

I am not concerned about video, Wifi, (GPS) massive ISO, and I suspect as I improve I won't need to crop out as much unnecessary detail as I currently have to do. Assuming, Ive got a reasonable exposure/DOF/ISO etc , and everything else being equal, which Canon camera would you recommend for "best" auto-focusing (i.e. sharp and accurate)/IQ (7D2/5DMkIII/other)? I can't justify the very top of the range but could stretch to a 5DMkIII or similar if the IQ improvement is significantly better than the 70D. Help please! Dave

Click to expand...

Don't buy more gear. You've got a camera with a super nice AF system.

Very likely, you simply need to find the right AF settings to match your situation. For example, focus/recompose using only the center point may work great for still subjects, but will create all sorts of limitations when shooting action. That's when servo mode may work best. You'll also need to determine how many focus points to use.

If you tell us something about the settings you're using when you get so many out-of-focus shots -- as well as the situation you're shooting in -- we'll be able to help you much better. But again, it's way too early to be getting rid of a really nice camera.

+1 on not needing new gear. Save your money. You have a camera with a great autofocus system. Much more tunable than the 60d. I was having issues until I went into settings and adjusted the focus system to my taking style and MAed my lenses. Now I am getting near perfect focus.

I say this with the utmost respect and in a constructive vibe: if you can't focus with the 70D, barring some strange disaster with all your lenses, it's probably not the camera but you. So I would suggest an investment but in more practice. The good news is you can save the money spent on a new camera and take a trip to shoot interesting subjects, for instance. I am an amateur myself and have come to trust my cameras so much I just know if something doesn't work out it's bound to be me...

Hi MTM, Walkaround et al. Thanks.

Point taken, it seems that I need to invest in more practise first. Can somebody explain the mechanics of uploading an example to this forum. I need to know:

- what format (jpeg/raw)

- what resolution (original?)

- minor adjustments in Lightroom (Sharpening)?

anything else that might be useful for this Cheers

Photosen

It's not that I can't obtain a sharp shot at all. It's just that it seems like too many of my shots are not sharp. With a tripod and the 70D + Canon 70-200mm IS II the images are incredibly sharp (manual focus = 100% perfect; well focus/sharpness at least, composition, colour, merit perhaps not

With the 70D and the same lens on autofocus whether still (single shot AF with centre point) or moving subject with servo mode (generally also centre point for AF), I get 'enough' sharp shots that I wouldn't have even considered changing the camera. My focusing/sharpness problems seem to be with the other lenses (mainly Tamron 24-70mm which is the lens I have on the camera most of the time). With the Tamron on a tripod and manual focusing, I can get acceptably sharp images (not as good as the Canon 70-200 but I suspect that is a completely invalid (& unfair) comparison. However once I start using the autofocus my problems start - I'm just waiting to find out how to upload an image (format etc) and will then take a few images to upload and see if you guys can see where I'm going wrong. I can perhaps accept that, using the AF centre point, albeit in servo mode is not necessarily the best way to go for dynamic shots but it doesn't explain why my still shots (AF centre point, one shot) are not sharp.

I'm not trying to knock the Tamron (and other lenses). It (the Tamron) has received rave reviews from dpreview; hence the reason I purchased it in the first place to replace an original kit lens. I want to solve the problem and if it is my lack of skill rather than the equipment, I'm very happy to learn. That is infinitely more preferable than coughing up shed-loads of cash only to find out that incorrect use of equipment/lack of knowledge is my problem.

Physioz said:

Hi - comments/advice/opinions please!

I currently use a 70D (previously 60D). I am concerned that I miss 'focus' on a lot of my shots although this has improved significantly since I acquired a Canon 70-200mm IS II which is brilliant (even with a 1.4x converter)! My other main lens is a Tamron SP 24-70mm F/2.8 Di VC USD (an excellent lens according to dpreview). I also, less frequently, use a Sigma 18-35mm F/1.8.

At present my photography primarily consists of ,what someone referred to in an earlier post as, hyperkinetic kids (often outside in relatively low light); school and sports shots of self-same kids and their mates, holiday snaps (general interest - anything)and off camera flash with Canon 600 RT. Clearly at this point I'm an amateur and part of getting more 'keepers' is learning to use your equipment properly. That said, I am considering upgrading and this is a bit of a how long is a piece of string question. My primary issue(s) are the "best" autofocus possible /IQ.

I am not concerned about video, Wifi, (GPS) massive ISO, and I suspect as I improve I won't need to crop out as much unnecessary detail as I currently have to do. Assuming, Ive got a reasonable exposure/DOF/ISO etc , and everything else being equal, which Canon camera would you recommend for "best" auto-focusing (i.e. sharp and accurate)/IQ (7D2/5DMkIII/other)? I can't justify the very top of the range but could stretch to a 5DMkIII or similar if the IQ improvement is significantly better than the 70D. Help please! Dave

Click to expand...

My rule of thumb is that if you shoot sports, kids, or much with telephoto get the 7Dii. The images will be plenty good and the reach and focus fantastic.

Physioz said:

Hi MTM, Walkaround et al. Thanks.

Point taken, it seems that I need to invest in more practise first. Can somebody explain the mechanics of uploading an example to this forum. I need to know:

- what format (jpeg/raw)

- what resolution (original?)

- minor adjustments in Lightroom (Sharpening)?

anything else that might be useful for this Cheers

Click to expand...

Original, jpeg, and you use this menu in your post to insert it:

Thanks for the speedy response! I'm away for a fortnight but will upload an image(s) to illustrate my problems when I return. Cheers

Physioz said:

Photosen

It's not that I can't obtain a sharp shot at all. It's just that it seems like too many of my shots are not sharp. With a tripod and the 70D + Canon 70-200mm IS II the images are incredibly sharp (manual focus = 100% perfect; well focus/sharpness at least, composition, colour, merit perhaps not

With the 70D and the same lens on autofocus whether still (single shot AF with centre point) or moving subject with servo mode (generally also centre point for AF), I get 'enough' sharp shots that I wouldn't have even considered changing the camera. My focusing/sharpness problems seem to be with the other lenses (mainly Tamron 24-70mm which is the lens I have on the camera most of the time).

Click to expand...

Now for long focal lengths, rule of thumb is shutter is equal or greater than focal length. Double if you can! In general all longer focal lengths are much harder to nail hand held, so IS helps for hand held. Note the 70D has the same AF system for stills as the 7D, so any tips on the 7D can apply.

Physioz said:

With the Tamron on a tripod and manual focusing, I can get acceptably sharp images (not as good as the Canon 70-200 but I suspect that is a completely invalid (& unfair) comparison.

Click to expand...

Most serious birders use tripods to nail shots with long focal lengths. The hit ratio drops for hand held shots.

Physioz said:

However once I start using the autofocus my problems start

Click to expand...

See my tips below on AF

Physioz said:

- I'm just waiting to find out how to upload an image (format etc) and will then take a few images to upload and see if you guys can see where I'm going wrong. I can perhaps accept that, using the AF centre point, albeit in servo mode is not necessarily the best way to go for dynamic shots but it doesn't explain why my still shots (AF centre point, one shot) are not sharp.

I'm not trying to knock the Tamron (and other lenses). It (the Tamron) has received rave reviews from dpreview; hence the reason I purchased it in the first place to replace an original kit lens. I want to solve the problem and if it is my lack of skill rather than the equipment, I'm very happy to learn. That is infinitely more preferable than coughing up shed-loads of cash only to find out that incorrect use of equipment/lack of knowledge is my problem.

Click to expand...

AF with the 70D has its limits despite all the hype.

1. AF may fail for low light/ low contrast shots. It basically needs something to lock on to. MF is the best for these situations, its not your technique its the limits of AF that you are hitting.

2. AF for landscape or wide FOV, often its best to use single focal point no servo, you can either touchscreen with finger or button place it. When there is a lot to focus on in a shot, its important to specify the focal plane and point (dont let the camera decide as in servo!).

3. Fast action shots, use servo & Facial lock for AF. This will follow your fast moving subject, but again make sure they dont exit out of the light else the lock is lost.

4. Note picture style effects H264/video. The highlights & noise will generally be altered based upon pic style. If you are shooting a low contrast shot (think mist), you may want to use some of the canon pic styles because they tend to be very contrasty. This may improve the AF lock.

5. F-stop, is a rather obvious one, if highlights are blown, again you cant lock AF, so in day light you will generally want a higher setting say 10+. You will find with increased f-stop that detail returns hence AF lock is better.

6. Shutter speed ~ rule of thumb is that it is equal to or greater than the focal length. So adjust your exposure appropriately. This is true for AF & MF, but it will eliminate the blur, especially on the long end of the zoom that you like. If you can double the focal length, especially true for moving objects that you want to freeze frame.

Try if these help improve your keeper ratio. The 70D has great AF, and it does not need more AF points to work.

I'm the guy who referred to the "hyperkinetic" kids, and I happen to have had the 70D as well. I also used mainly the Tamron 24-70 when I used that body. I have a very strong feeling that your issue is the combination of poor light and twitchy children.

SUGGESTION 1: Before launching into that explanation, though, you will want to micro focus adjust the camera to each lens, and in the case of the 18-35 Sigma - which is a miraculously good lens - you'll want to do that on the Sigma dock. I don't think this is the primary issue, but it will almost certainly improve your focus to some degree, perhaps quite a lot.

You likely use the Tamron because of the very versatile focal length range and it is relatively bright at f/2.8 and has VR. But for kids indoors, that's not quite enough. The vibration reduction available on that lens helps you for still objects, which is useful for your children only when they're asleep. The 18-35 Sigma will give you better results because the VR it lacks doesn't help with moving subjects, and it gives you a good 1-2 extra stops of light.

When you get to too high an ISO (say, 800 on the 70D) things start to get mushy via the noise introduced, so my guess - if you're like me - is that you're always fighting the exposure triangle, trying to get away with a longer exposure time than is probably needed, with slightly too high an ISO.

So, what to do:

SUGGESTION 2: Try shooting the kids for a day with exposures no longer than 100th of a second. This will likely require the use of an off camera flash, but for the sake of this test, you can probably use the on-camera 70D flash (the pictures will just look dreadful, but that's besides the point here, as you're just looking for sharpness data). This test will establish the degree to which your softness comes from exposure duration. If this turns out to solve the issue, buying a set of flashes with remote triggers would be very helpful, but isn't a complete solution, as your family will soon tire of dad setting up annoying flashes to capture "spontaneous" lifestyle shots.

SUGGESTION 3: If doing the above does little for you, you could upgrade the body, but I would expect that to do the least good of these three suggestions. Coincidentally, I started a thread comparing the 7D2 with the 5D3 last week. It was closed by the moderators eventually for excessive bickering taking place in the comments, but it's still relevant... http://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/3823181

What the 7D2 would give you:

- The 7D2 will give you another stop of ISO before the mush starts to creep in, which is actually somewhat significant. I go to 1600 ISO on mine with most shots having very acceptable noise, so long as I don't shoot the frame too dark. Exposure compensation of +1/3 is quite helpful for this purpose.

- It will give you 10 frames per second, so you are increasing the odds by about 40 percent that some shot in a series will coincidentally be focused correctly. You will also discover upon blasting your kids with 10fps that you discover they have facial expressions that can change completely in a 100 milliseconds. It's quite funny. Never stops being entertaining.

- Uses the pro-level set of autofocus modes, which lets you tell the camera what sort of subject to expect, which allows it to do better on autofocus. The 70D is actually really good at this, so I'm not sure how much improvement to expect from this.

What the 5D3 would give you:

- The headline on this one is the fact that it's full frame. There is just a huge IQ gain here, and if you don't need the crop factor for reach, full frame is really a more appropriate camera type for your purposes. I just got the 5D3 not long ago, and I was shocked at the IQ improvement generally, and especially for low light shots. I also found that the autofocus was at least as good as that of the 7D2.

- The 5D3 will give you TWO stops of ISO. As above, shooting to the right with +1/3 exposure compensation will help..

- You will lose a frame per second, depending on your various settings. I find the 5D3 is more apt to slow its fps based options I have selected, where the 70D was pretty reliable at 6-7 fps.

- It also has the pro-level autofocus modes.

- It has a dramatically louder shutter, which factors into that whole dad-being-annoying-with-the-camera issue you run into. It does have a silent shutter mode, which is quiet enough, but further reduces your fps.

THE UPSHOT:

- Try items 1 and 2 first. You may well find the issue is MFA or shutter speed, and you'll adapt your settings and technique to fix.

- If you opt to upgrade, I highly recommend you go with the 5D3 for your stated purposes. The Sigma 18-35 still works great as a 28-35 lens on the full frame sensor, and I highly recommend keeping it for that purpose.

- I'd probably try the first two items initially and experiment with off-camera flash for a while before upgrading, as you might manage to get the best of both 5D3 and 7D2 worlds by waiting for the 5D4.

Good luck and have fun with this!

Hi Tig - thanks for the extremely detailed response - much appreciated!

TigTillinghast said:

I'm the guy who referred to the "hyperkinetic" kids, and I happen to have had the 70D as well. I also used mainly the Tamron 24-70 when I used that body. I have a very strong feeling that your issue is the combination of poor light and twitchy children.

SUGGESTION 1: Before launching into that explanation, though, you will want to micro focus adjust the camera to each lens, and in the case of the 18-35 Sigma - which is a miraculously good lens - you'll want to do that on the Sigma dock. I don't think this is the primary issue, but it will almost certainly improve your focus to some degree, perhaps quite a lot.

Click to expand...

MFA is a potential problem - don't know much about it and will have to follow it up.

TigTillinghast said:

You likely use the Tamron because of the very versatile focal length range and it is relatively bright at f/2.8 and has VR. But for kids indoors, that's not quite enough. The vibration reduction available on that lens helps you for still objects, which is useful for your children only when they're asleep. The 18-35 Sigma will give you better results because the VR it lacks doesn't help with moving subjects, and it gives you a good 1-2 extra stops of light.

When you get to too high an ISO (say, 800 on the 70D) things start to get mushy via the noise introduced, so my guess - if you're like me - is that you're always fighting the exposure triangle, trying to get away with a longer exposure time than is probably needed, with slightly too high an ISO.

Click to expand...

Definitely an issue - I suppose because up to ~ ISO 1600-2000 on the Canon 70-200mm I don't have this problem I figured the Tamron would be OK at ISO <1250 or so. Attitude readjustment required here.

TigTillinghast said:

So, what to do:

SUGGESTION 2: Try shooting the kids for a day with exposures no longer than 100th of a second. This will likely require the use of an off camera flash, but for the sake of this test, you can probably use the on-camera 70D flash (the pictures will just look dreadful, but that's besides the point here, as you're just looking for sharpness data). This test will establish the degree to which your softness comes from exposure duration. If this turns out to solve the issue, buying a set of flashes with remote triggers would be very helpful, but isn't a complete solution, as your family will soon tire of dad setting up annoying flashes to capture "spontaneous" lifestyle shots

Click to expand...

I do off-camera flash already - perfectly sharp with Canon 70-200mm; and Sigma 18-35 and previously-owned Sigma 50mm (prime). Still slight mushy with Tamron whether normal flash or high speed sync. This is getting technical for me but it seems, on balance, that the Canon 70-200mm and the Sigma 17-35 shots are generally reasonable to very good (and when they're not it's more likely related to my skill level rather than camera). So the problem would seem to be the Tamron 24-70 and Canon 70D combination and not the 70D per se. Given that the 70D is fine (actually excellent with the Canon 70-200) it would seem then that the problem narrows down to auto-focusing the Tamron (what I need for about 50-75% of my shots).

I need to find out (a) how to MFA and if that makes no difference (b) get the Tamron checked out.

TigTillinghast said:

SUGGESTION 3: If doing the above does little for you, you could upgrade the body, but I would expect that to do the least good of these three suggestions. Coincidentally, I started a thread comparing the 7D2 with the 5D3 last week. It was closed by the moderators eventually for excessive bickering taking place in the comments, but it's still relevant... http://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/3823181

Click to expand...

Thanks for your help. I saw your other post - unfortunate the way things develop. I wonder how many people would say the things they do if they were face to face with the person concerned?

Member said:

Physioz said:

Hi - comments/advice/opinions please!

I currently use a 70D (previously 60D). I am concerned that I miss 'focus' on a lot of my shots although this has improved significantly since I acquired a Canon 70-200mm IS II which is brilliant (even with a 1.4x converter)! My other main lens is a Tamron SP 24-70mm F/2.8 Di VC USD (an excellent lens according to dpreview). I also, less frequently, use a Sigma 18-35mm F/1.8.

At present my photography primarily consists of ,what someone referred to in an earlier post as, hyperkinetic kids (often outside in relatively low light); school and sports shots of self-same kids and their mates, holiday snaps (general interest - anything)and off camera flash with Canon 600 RT. Clearly at this point I'm an amateur and part of getting more 'keepers' is learning to use your equipment properly. That said, I am considering upgrading and this is a bit of a how long is a piece of string question. My primary issue(s) are the "best" autofocus possible /IQ.

I am not concerned about video, Wifi, (GPS) massive ISO, and I suspect as I improve I won't need to crop out as much unnecessary detail as I currently have to do. Assuming, Ive got a reasonable exposure/DOF/ISO etc , and everything else being equal, which Canon camera would you recommend for "best" auto-focusing (i.e. sharp and accurate)/IQ (7D2/5DMkIII/other)? I can't justify the very top of the range but could stretch to a 5DMkIII or similar if the IQ improvement is significantly better than the 70D. Help please! Dave

Click to expand...

Don't buy more gear. You've got a camera with a super nice AF system.

Very likely, you simply need to find the right AF settings to match your situation. For example, focus/recompose using only the center point may work great for still subjects, but will create all sorts of limitations when shooting action. That's when servo mode may work best. You'll also need to determine how many focus points to use.

If you tell us something about the settings you're using when you get so many out-of-focus shots -- as well as the situation you're shooting in -- we'll be able to help you much better. But again, it's way too early to be getting rid of a really nice camera.

Click to expand...

Excellent advice

Physioz said:

Hi Tig - thanks for the extremely detailed response - much appreciated!

TigTillinghast said:

I'm the guy who referred to the "hyperkinetic" kids, and I happen to have had the 70D as well. I also used mainly the Tamron 24-70 when I used that body. I have a very strong feeling that your issue is the combination of poor light and twitchy children.

SUGGESTION 1: Before launching into that explanation, though, you will want to micro focus adjust the camera to each lens, and in the case of the 18-35 Sigma - which is a miraculously good lens - you'll want to do that on the Sigma dock. I don't think this is the primary issue, but it will almost certainly improve your focus to some degree, perhaps quite a lot.

Click to expand...

MFA is a potential problem - don't know much about it and will have to follow it up.

Click to expand...

I recommend spending the $60 to get the Sigma Dock. That'll set you up with a reasonable protocol for doing MFA on the 18-35. It will not work on the other lenses. With the Sigma Art lenses, you need to make a series of adjustments (16, rather than just one or two for Canon/Tamron lenses). It'll waste an hour easily, but you won't regret it.

Physioz said:

Physioz said:

You likely use the Tamron because of the very versatile focal length range and it is relatively bright at f/2.8 and has VR. But for kids indoors, that's not quite enough. The vibration reduction available on that lens helps you for still objects, which is useful for your children only when they're asleep. The 18-35 Sigma will give you better results because the VR it lacks doesn't help with moving subjects, and it gives you a good 1-2 extra stops of light.

When you get to too high an ISO (say, 800 on the 70D) things start to get mushy via the noise introduced, so my guess - if you're like me - is that you're always fighting the exposure triangle, trying to get away with a longer exposure time than is probably needed, with slightly too high an ISO.

Click to expand...

Definitely an issue - I suppose because up to ~ ISO 1600-2000 on the Canon 70-200mm I don't have this problem I figured the Tamron would be OK at ISO <1250 or so. Attitude readjustment required here.

Click to expand...

I don't think the lens affects the noise issue. The noise is more a product of the sensor in the camera body and to what degree you under-expose the image. You may have found the 70-200 less noisy because you used it in different lighting conditions - likely outdoors due to its longer range. Bring that big boy inside, and it'll show you plenty of noise on a 70D at 1600-2000 ISO.

Physioz said:

Physioz said:

So, what to do:

SUGGESTION 2: Try shooting the kids for a day with exposures no longer than 100th of a second. This will likely require the use of an off camera flash, but for the sake of this test, you can probably use the on-camera 70D flash (the pictures will just look dreadful, but that's besides the point here, as you're just looking for sharpness data). This test will establish the degree to which your softness comes from exposure duration. If this turns out to solve the issue, buying a set of flashes with remote triggers would be very helpful, but isn't a complete solution, as your family will soon tire of dad setting up annoying flashes to capture "spontaneous" lifestyle shots

Click to expand...

I do off-camera flash already - perfectly sharp with Canon 70-200mm; and Sigma 18-35 and previously-owned Sigma 50mm (prime). Still slight mushy with Tamron whether normal flash or high speed sync. This is getting technical for me but it seems, on balance, that the Canon 70-200mm and the Sigma 17-35 shots are generally reasonable to very good (and when they're not it's more likely related to my skill level rather than camera). So the problem would seem to be the Tamron 24-70 and Canon 70D combination and not the 70D per se. Given that the 70D is fine (actually excellent with the Canon 70-200) it would seem then that the problem narrows down to auto-focusing the Tamron (what I need for about 50-75% of my shots).

I need to find out (a) how to MFA and if that makes no difference (b) get the Tamron checked out.

Click to expand...

If your problem is narrowed to this lens versus the others, then you are likely dealing with a lens issue. That might be the easily correctable MFA, or it could be a bum VC unit (you might try turning VC off to see if you get better results just to diagnose this), or it could be a faulty copy of the 24-70, in which case, yes, you should send it in.

I sent a 24-70 in after a fall (sent to NY somewhere) and found the Tamron service to be very, very fast and good.

Physioz said:

Physioz said:

SUGGESTION 3: If doing the above does little for you, you could upgrade the body, but I would expect that to do the least good of these three suggestions. Coincidentally, I started a thread comparing the 7D2 with the 5D3 last week. It was closed by the moderators eventually for excessive bickering taking place in the comments, but it's still relevant... http://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/3823181

Click to expand...

Thanks for your help. I saw your other post - unfortunate the way things develop. I wonder how many people would say the things they do if they were face to face with the person concerned?

Click to expand...

My sense is that most of these guys would be happy saying that to everyone's faces as well. I find it charming, but the moderators are either very sensitive souls, or they've had run-ins in the past with these characters that I'm unaware of (which is likely).

Let us know how you make out with the Tammy. These are nice lenses, and you should be able to get yours up to snuff one way or another.

I tried the MFA method recommended on another blog posting re MFA. The link is


Anyway, I've only tried the MFA with the Tamron but came back with it front focusing (adjustment -4). I need to take a few images to test later. On the LCD raw images "look sharper" already: must be the the photographic equivalent of the placebo effect. When I get the chance to take some shots I'll let you know - cheers