FOCUS PROBLEM-ME OR CAMERA???

[Pollyolly]

This is the first image that I have posted on this forum so I hope all is well with it and that I have not broken any rules.

I am having focus problems with my MarkIII. It has been in for its fix so I am really hoping that you can reassure me that it is my shaking that is the problem or the set up of camera and lens.

The camera was set on manual on one shot.

I used a 70-200 1:2.8 L IS on AF

I am having this problem all the time. Sometimes worse than others.

I did not use a tri or monopod.

Looking forward to hearing your wise words.

[Pollyolly]

Forgot to add that the human was not supposed to be in focus as he will be cut out for the finished picture.

[joedlh]

Well, you'd better get rid of his hand too.

I have the same lens that you used, I could see individual filaments of the feathers of a peregrine falcon 50 feet away in broad daylight taken with a 20D. Your shot should be sharper than it is.

Your image did not have any EXIF information in it, so it's difficult to say what might be the problem. I'm guessing that this was an indoor shot with natural light. It doesn't look like you used a flash. The man being out of focus is a giveaway that you had the lens wide open. This will make it less forgiving of something off focus. The low light suggests that you also had a slow shutter speed. IS is good, but will not fix everything. Apart your camera movement, if your subjects were jittery, IS would not stop that. Without further data, I'm speculating that perhaps all of these factors were at work. Get a tripod and sedate the dogs.;)

[chauncey]

You stripped all the exif data. Without it, dx is difficult.

[Pollyolly]

Ok. Thanks for the replies.
It was shot inside an open fronted barn. Cloudy day. No flash. Shutter 1/200. Apt.f2.8
ISO 640 Focal length 135.00mm

The dogs were rigid as I was making cat noises. :o)

[Zansho]

Your aperature might be the problem with this photo. 2.8 has a pretty shallow Depth of Field, and it's usually very soft. It's great for portraits where you want to soften the harsh wrinkles of people or make skin look more pleasing, but in this case, you lost sharpness in your subjects. I'd try to step down a bit, perhaps to around 4-5.6 to bring out more detail in your subjects.

[Meaty0]

There's no doubt that the 1D MkIII seems to be having issues handling the 45point focussing, but with the aperture wide open and at 135mm you are going to have a very narrow depth of field. Even so, I'm having trouble finding any really sharp points in this image. Do a couple of test shots with the IS turned off and the lens/camera on a tripod...and use mirror lock up and remote release or timer release and see what the sharpness looks like then.

[S.Horton]

If I take your shot and adjust the highlights, then sharpen it mildly, it looks about like what I'd expect from that combination handheld at that shutter speed.

Are you post-processing your photos and, if so, how?

BTW, you'd need to turn on EDITING OK for me to post the result; trust me, it looks fine.

You do need at least a monopod, better still a tripod, to get this sharp. You can also try moving your ISO up to 3200 in that kind of light to get more shutter speed, which will also improve sharpness.