Rebels and focus microadjust

[Panet]

I was considering a Tamron 150-600mm to use with a T4i. Talking about with some mates, I heard some tales about bad performance in getting sharp focus with this sort of combo. is focus microadjust a must?


Dum senesco, addisco.

 

[Digirame]

I think it may depend on the copy. I have successfully used the Tamron 150-600mm lens with a Canon T3i (600D) camera and Canon T7i (800D) camera without MFA. Lately, I have been exploring whether the images are soft at 600mm FL. It seems if I don't hold the camera steady enough at full focal length, then it's been my fault. I know when I get sloppy by moving the lens too much even at fast shutter speeds, then I noticed the soft images when I zoomed up to look at them in detail. This past weekend, I concentrated on holding the lens more steady, and I got positive results; that is the images were much sharper.

Here's one example at 600mm FL. I show many more examples of photos with that lens weekly on the Show Your Snaps thread.



You could take a chance to see how that lens does with the Canon T4i (650D) camera. If it does look like it needs MFA, then you might look at something different like the Canon 80D or 90D.

 

[adventurer69]

I was wondering the same thing , all of my T3i images are are lightly out of focus regardless of what lens I used

 

[Digirame]

Have you determined why? Is it "user error" (like in my case) or a depth of field issue with the camera? Normally, I can hold the smaller lens steady, but that large Tamron 150-600 lens is a "beast" and it's easy to not hold the camera/lens steady. I noticed if I'm not careful, that I'll drop the lens ever-so-slightly because of the weight when I'm taking the picture.

 

[adventurer69]

I don't have the issue with any other of my cameras .

 

[benjilafouine]

I was wondering the same thing , all of my T3i images are are lightly out of focus regardless of what lens I used

The best way to know is to shoot at 1/1600. If it is still blurry, it may be an out of focus issue and then MFA is a good tool (if you are very very patient). I used to follow the rule of speed equals to 1/focalsize but in the end, most of my issues were shutter speed. For example, if you have a 400 mm lens on a crop sensor camera, your shooting speed should be at least 1/640 for static scenes. For moving targets (birds for example), you have to be at least 1/1000 and even 1/1600 if you want to freeze the action or otherwise, you may end up with some motion blur.

Also, for a small bird at close distance, f5.6 may not be enough, you may have to go f6.3 if you want the whole bird to be in focus. This page is interesting to calculate DOF: https://www.dofmaster.com/dofjs.html

Since I adopted these two rules, my pictures became much better!

 

[adventurer69]

Thank you Benji , I'll look into it .

 

[Ad12]

I was considering a Tamron 150-600mm to use with a T4i. Talking about with some mates, I heard some tales about bad performance in getting sharp focus with this sort of combo. is focus microadjust a must?

Dum senesco, addisco.

Don’t quote me, as my rebel and Tamron 100-400 seem good out of the box, but i read that you can tweak focus in the Tamron tap in console, but it costs to buy. Not sure if that’s true, but maybe look in to it.

 

[Duckman21]

I was considering a Tamron 150-600mm to use with a T4i. Talking about with some mates, I heard some tales about bad performance in getting sharp focus with this sort of combo. is focus microadjust a must?

Dum senesco, addisco.

Don’t quote me, as my rebel and Tamron 100-400 seem good out of the box, but i read that you can tweak focus in the Tamron tap in console, but it costs to buy. Not sure if that’s true, but maybe look in to it.

If OP is talking about the G1, then no, you cannot use the Tap-in Console. Only the 150-600mm G2 works with. In my experience, there are inconsistencies with the AF, often a tendency to front-focus on objects about 20m away. The Tap-In should work in theory but it is a tedious process to calibrate and I haven't had much success - I find the built-in microadjustment of the 80D much more effective (albeit it must be constantly adjusted).

I shot with a Rebel while my 80D was under repair and it occassionally struggled to get objects in focus but worked fine for the most part. I used the back button for manual override (the opposite of back-button focus)

 

[adventurer69]

can rebels be micro adjusted , I have a T3i that can't seem to focus right at anytime .

 

[benjilafouine]

No, unfortunately. Only 80D, 7D, 5D and up can. I am 100% sure about your cam. However, if you want to help it, close down a bit your aperture, this will augment the depth of field. Did that and it really helps!

 

[adventurer69]

I think I would just give up on it altogether .:-(

 

[stevet1]

I have a side question:

If you have an AF button on the back, do you keep the button pressed while you manually micro adjust your focus, or do you release the button and then manually adjust?

Steve Thomas

 

[Duckman21]

I have a side question:

If you have an AF button on the back, do you keep the button pressed while you manually micro adjust your focus, or do you release the button and then manually adjust?

Steve Thomas

You need to first set the AF button to AF-OFF. After you do this, you must keep the button pressed to continue manual override.

Many people resort to back-button focus. If you have disabled the shutter half-press for AF, then having no buttons pushed means full-time manual focus.