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Live view focusing works 100%

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Dimitris Mitrovgenis

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I have made a test to check if my 7D is faulty..I use a 50mm 1.8 and a velbon tripod i tried all modes and i couldnt get sharp focus but...when in live mode i was getting 100% tack sharp all the time!!!!!Whats the deal here?
Whats wrong with Auto focusing system?

How we can get 100% sharp pictures when in live view mode and not in any other mode?

I am pretty sure this is firmware related...If anyone can help about this please do so...I am interested if anyone can confirm this behaviour.
I used One shot mode and spot AF..
Tell me what you think about this...
I also did the hard reset today as suggested.
 
I have not got my 7D yet. I do seem to recall reading that you can switch between contrast mode and phase detect. If so you might try and see if it makes the difference.
--
Thanks to you all for what you share so freely, It's my hope to be able to help
others as
well.
 
So what you people recommend to get sharp photos?

I have two lenses 28-135(kit lense) and 50mm 1.8.Do they really suck?or i have to get the famous L lenses to get proper results?It seems i get inconsistent focus I haven't tried zone focus yet.I am trying to get sharp pics with still objects.
Is the soft focus related to the 18 megapixels?i am confused.
My previous dslr was a D40.Do i expect too much from my 7D?
 
I don't have a 7D, but it should behave similarly to the other Canon DSLRs.

First, your previous camera may have had a much higher level of sharpening built in by default. So you may be accustomed to seeing much more heavily sharpened images.

Next, the autofocus done in live view is contrast detect AF. It is slow but very sure because neither the body nor the lens needs to be calibrated for it to work. So live view contrast-detect AF should work well at the expense of it being very slow.

The phase detect AF that is performed in "normal" shooting is designed to be extremely fast, but for it to work properly, both the body and the lens must be precisely calibrated. It is possible that either your body or your lens (or both) are somewhat out of calibration.

Also, you must be very careful when using autofocus. You need to have a good "target" for the AF to lock onto, and you need to be sure that the AF sensor is really "looking at" your desired AF location.

If you post a few examples with the full EXIF intact, that will help to diagnose things.

Jim H.
 
So...are you saying that actual photos taken using the viewfinder are not in focus when played back on the camera or viewed on a computer or printed? Or just that they appear out of focus when viewing through the viewfinder, yet when viewing in Live View they appear sharp?

If it is the latter, and the actual resulting photos are not out of focus when taken, but do appear to be so only when you are looking through the viewfinder, I would then say that your diopter has shifted from the default zero setting. This would be the most likely scenario and the easiest to correct.
Dimitris Mitrovgenis said:
So what you people recommend to get sharp photos?

I have two lenses 28-135(kit lense) and 50mm 1.8.Do they really suck?or i have to get the famous L lenses to get proper results?It seems i get inconsistent focus I haven't tried zone focus yet.I am trying to get sharp pics with still objects.
Is the soft focus related to the 18 megapixels?i am confused.
My previous dslr was a D40.Do i expect too much from my 7D?
Click to expand...
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Mark Currier
 
Live view AF and viewfinder AF use different techniques. Contrast detect AF is often more accurate and doesn't require calibration.

Your lens or/and body calibration is likely off. Just try different micro-adjustment values until your viewfinder shots look as sharp as liveview shots.
 
My 50D did the same thing - I didn't like the camera enough to send it back in for calibration, so I sold it and got the 7D, the 7D doesn't need calibrating thank God! But I would either return it or have it calibrated.

Bill
 
I had the same problem. Almost every photo was off when taken in any AF mode with any of my lenses. Yet Live Mode Contrast Detect was 100% accurate. My cheap T1i was 100% accurate in focusing in any AF mode. So the $800 beat the $1800. I exchanged it for body #2 and so far, it's much much better. I have to do a few more tests before I'm convinced that this body is 100%.

Steve Hong
 
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