-= 90D owners unite! Discuss and Post Photos

FrankKolwicz wrote in post #19099697
I sent my 90d back to Canon again recently and got it back the other day. I sent it because the AF was still unreliable and it also refused to set different focus points for each orientation, horizontal and vertical, so something was obviously wrong.

even after changing it in the custom functions it wouldn't work? i know out of the box it isn't set up to be different for different orientations.

here's a few of my shots from the last few months.

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/2jqe​nXW

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/2jpB​ndX

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/2jkp​Y9s

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/2jkh​giu

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/2jje​yoh

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/2jie​on1

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/2jhu​2c1

FrankKolwicz wrote in post #19099697
I sent my 90d back to Canon again recently and got it back the other day. I sent it because the AF was still unreliable and it also refused to set different focus points for each orientation, horizontal and vertical, so something was obviously wrong.

There are lots of things that make getting critically sharp images of small birds difficult, having a camera that has a shaky grasp of where the focal plane should be compounds those problems drastically. Errors don't add-up, they multiply: if you lose 1/2 your images due to subject movement and 1/2 of them due to atmospheric instability and 1/2 due to AF problems, you get 0.5 x 0.5 x 0.5 = 0.125 (1/2 of all or 50%, minus half of those, or 25%, minus 1/2 of those is 12.5%) what you have left are only 1/8 of all the images you collected that are critically sharp. That's just a simple example, there are other things that subtract from the number of sharp images, making the situation even worse, and they all have different effects and vary by prevailing conditions.

What does add up is the aggravation. If it weren't for the couple of important improvements that the 90d has over the 5ds and 5dsR, I would have trashed it long before this. But it has such promise for my situation and I'm such a pain in the ass about getting this stuff right that I've had to pursue it.

Canon says that they recalibrated the AF, just as they did for my 5dsR a couple of months ago when it, too, went off in the AF department. Unlike what they did when I sent the 90d in for repair the first time and they said it was OK. There's a lesson there that I failed to grasp when LensRentals said in a blog article a few years ago that they often had to send equipment back repeatedly, not only to Canon, to finally get things fixed.

I should note that I use my equipment (600/4LIS II, extenders and whichever body is favored) almost every day and rack-up more than 100k frames a year.

It will take a while to determine if the 90d is really fixed, as the nature of the problem is that sometimes it works beautifully for a while and it's often difficult to pinpoint the cause of unsharpness in a series of images. And I hate doing tests in controlled conditions for more than a few hours, which can be totally unproductive, if I happen to do it when the camera is working fine.

So, I'd say it's most likely that my 90d really has a defect, like some of LensRentals test models, and it may be fixable and it may be fixed. I'll let you know after I've gathered sufficient images to be meaningful.

Thanks for the report, and kudos for being persistent.

I'm currently using my 7D2 for birds and the 90D for macro, and the 90D sings in macro. As for the 7D2 for birds, I often have the same issues you are describing for the 90D. I blame myself. But maybe there is more to it. I don't know. Keeping an AF point on a bird's eye seems just about impossible for me, no matter whether it is a BIF or a slow-moving bird on the ground.

There is a potential solution in the new R5 with IAF! (IAF = eye auto focus.) Sometimes you have to know when to bail.

DreDaze wrote in post #19099719
even after changing it in the custom functions it wouldn't work? i know out of the box it isn't set up to be different for different orientations.

here's a few of my shots from the last few months.

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/2jqe​nXW p-week30_20_0265 by andre gregoire, on Flickr

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/2jpB​ndX p-week30_20_0183 by andre gregoire, on Flickr

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/2jkp​Y9s p-week28_20_0401 by andre gregoire, on Flickr

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/2jkh​giu p-week28_20_0318 by andre gregoire, on Flickr

https://flic.kr/p/2jje​yohp-week26_20_0216 by andre gregoire, on Flickr

https://flic.kr/p/2jie​on1p-week27_20_0916 by andre gregoire, on Flickr

https://flic.kr/p/2jhu​2c1p-week24_20_1926 by andre gregoire, on Flickr

Wow, great stuff.

Archibald wrote in post #19099722
Thanks for the report, and kudos for being persistent.

I'm currently using my 7D2 for birds and the 90D for macro, and the 90D sings in macro. As for the 7D2 for birds, I often have the same issues you are describing for the 90D. I blame myself. But maybe there is more to it. I don't know. Keeping an AF point on a bird's eye seems just about impossible for me, no matter whether it is a BIF or a slow-moving bird on the ground.

There is a potential solution in the new R5 with IAF! (IAF = eye auto focus.) Sometimes you have to know when to bail.

I am considering that, too, for the more difficult AF situations, but you're not going to get the IQ on the R5 that you'll get with the 90D, when you need a sensor area less than 1.6x, and the 90D does achieve focus (it does not always miss, and rarely does in many situations). The 90D has less high ISO noise than a 1.6x crop from the R5, and almost twice as many pixels on subject. An extra 1.4x TC on the R% will put slightly more pixels-on-subject with the same lens, but the noise will still be superior with the 90D, and it won't have the small extra aberration of the TC. The 90D has the current pinnacle of Canon sensors; it just doesn't come extended to 83MP FF or come with high-end AIServo point selection (or a tight nine-point mode that is center plus helpers, like the 7D2's nine-point pattern).

They are among us !

John Sheehy wrote in post #19100008
I am considering that, too, for the more difficult AF situations, but you're not going to get the IQ on the R5 that you'll get with the 90D, when you need a sensor area less than 1.6x, and the 90D does achieve focus (it does not always miss, and rarely does in many situations). The 90D has less high ISO noise than a 1.6x crop from the R5, and almost twice as many pixels on subject. An extra 1.4x TC on the R% will put slightly more pixels-on-subject with the same lens, but the noise will still be superior with the 90D, and it won't have the small extra aberration of the TC. The 90D has the current pinnacle of Canon sensors; it just doesn't come extended to 83MP FF or come with high-end AIServo point selection (or a tight nine-point mode that is center plus helpers, like the 7D2's nine-point pattern).

Yes, all good points. The 90D occupies a humble rung in Canon's hierarchy of camera bodies, but nevertheless has many things going for it. I did a little comparison chart, and it looks like this.

[QUOTE=DreDaze;1909971​9]even after changing it in the custom functions it wouldn't work? i know out of the box it isn't set up to be different for different orientations.

Right, even after going into the settings and verifying that different orientations was selected it wouldn't do it.

Archibald wrote in post #19099722
Thanks for the report, and kudos for being persistent.

I'm currently using my 7D2 for birds and the 90D for macro, and the 90D sings in macro. As for the 7D2 for birds, I often have the same issues you are describing for the 90D. I blame myself. But maybe there is more to it. I don't know. Keeping an AF point on a bird's eye seems just about impossible for me, no matter whether it is a BIF or a slow-moving bird on the ground.

There is a potential solution in the new R5 with IAF! (IAF = eye auto focus.) Sometimes you have to know when to bail.

Thanks, but I'm not looking forward to trashing my current system and spending $20+k for that one improvement and getting a laggy, battery-eating R5 or 6.

The latest:

The orientation linked AF point now works properly with the optical viewfinder, hooray!

The PDAF system is still marginal for my extreme conditions (f/8 max aperture; low light; low contrast subjects), booooo! The CDAF is much superior, but harder to use on small, active, birds. In comparison, the 5dsR works about as well either way and limits on image sharpness are more likely to be ambient conditions.

The 90d will remain my preferred camera with EF600/4 because it gives me an extra stop of aperture at a slightly longer effective focal length, which allows me to use multiple AF points (5dsR only has the center point with 2x converter) and it has the articulated LCD screen. The smaller files are a benefit when editing, too.

Now I just have to get used to using LiveView most of the time, I still have a tendency to use the optical viewfinder and ignore LV after 35 years of training.

FrankKolwicz wrote in post #19101898
The latest:

The orientation linked AF point now works properly with the optical viewfinder, hooray!

The PDAF system is still marginal for my extreme conditions (f/8 max aperture; low light; low contrast subjects), booooo! The CDAF is much superior, but harder to use on small, active, birds. In comparison, the 5dsR works about as well either way and limits on image sharpness are more likely to be ambient conditions.

The 90d will remain my preferred camera with EF600/4 because it gives me an extra stop of aperture at a slightly longer effective focal length, which allows me to use multiple AF points (5dsR only has the center point with 2x converter) and it has the articulated LCD screen. The smaller files are a benefit when editing, too.

Now I just have to get used to using LiveView most of the time, I still have a tendency to use the optical viewfinder and ignore LV after 35 years of training.

The Live view AF on the 90D is much more solid than OVF except for one thing - when you start out way out of focus, especially with high open f-numbers, it takes a while before the AF drive speeds up. When you are already fairly close to focus, though, Pop Pop Pop right into focus. The green squares show up as soon as I half-press the shutter, with the 400/4DO II and the 2xIII. I've used a Hoodman to emulate an EVF, but if feels a little weird to hold the camera like that to follow anything active, and I would prefer if it locked solidly into place instead of having some play.

I use high magnification half-glasses so that I can look over them for birds in the distance and immediately focus on the LCD. I tried the Hoodman, but found it to be clumsier and too much of a break in eye-contact from the distant bird, it was real easy to lose sight of it in the bush.

Now it's just a matter of repetition to train myself to use LiveView.

90D + 600L, cropped another 25-30% in pp

Naturography wrote in post #19103374
90D + 600L, cropped another 25-30% in pp

Hosted photo: posted by Naturography in
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forum: Canon Digital Cameras

Looks real good!

Archibald wrote in post #19103382
Looks real good!

Not for the Bluegill!

After shielding; not leaving house since 11 March 2020, I am now allowed out. To celebrate my wife bought me a Sigma 105mm macro lens and the picture below is my first attempt with it attached to 90d in my garden. No flash used, just natural sun light. It's about 50% cropped. EV: +1:67