10D focus issue demystified

Hmm......before I read this thread I was really getting close to buying a 10D. Now I think I should put it off until we see an end to this focusing issue.

It appears to me that this is a wide speaded issue. I am quite disappointed at Canon for not issuing a statement to either admit or dismiss it. This is what is said at luminous-landscapes.com:

http://luminous-landscape.com …canon-controversies.shtml


quote:
UPDATE:

In the few days since the above was first published I have received a huge amount of mail from readers who claim that the 10D focus issue is much worse than what I have written would lead one to believe. Many of these e-mails are from people who claim to be professional photographers with extensive experience, rather than the newbies who fret unnecessarily over what they read on web forums.

Given the shear number of such e-mails I have no reason to doubt them, or their concerns. This of course raises the specter of a cover up by Canon. Given that Canon in the U.S. has not made any official statement on this issue, and that there are now a large number of apparently knowledgeable and honest photographers who are seeing this problem, one can only conclude that there is more here than meets the eye.

An open request to Canon ¡ª tell us what's going on! If there is a problem, let us know what it is and what steps are being taken to remedy it. If there isn't a problem, or if it's as minor as some Canon representatives are telling us it is, then provide us with the reassurances needed to rebuild confidence in this product and your company. At the moment, and until something is said publically on this matter, both remain in doubt.

I suggest all of you who have problem with autofocusing write to your state's attorney general's office. Usually you can find the email address for consumer complaint on the state's website. The state attorney general will forward your complaint to Canon, and Canon is obliged to contact you, provide a solution satisfying to both parties, and report back to the state attorney general in order to have the case closed. Sometimes the state needs a person's name to complain against. In this case I think Canon USA's president and CEO Kinya Uchida would serve the purpose well.

I believe with sufficient amount of complaints to the state attorney general, we can force Canon to make a public statement to admit the problem or even a recall.

In doing some research I found that there has been a call in the Korean photo community to boycott Canon due to these issues. And, a Sigma rep is mailing a French to English translation of an article from a french magazine where, as I understand it, Canon French (?) admit to the issue.

I am not sure what all is in the article but I will let you know when I know more.

It's a Korean photo club, not the whole Korean photo community.

It is not just one club. It appears that more Korean consumers are involved.

When I called Canon today (1800-ok-canon) the person I talked to admitted there was a problem and told me to just send it in, and I should have it back in 5-10 business days. I hope this is the case since they do not have to order any parts for me and I am going on vacation in a couple weeks.

I am an engineer. I cannot have a peace of mind unless I understand what the problem is. If someone tells me he can fix something I need to know how before I put my faith on his claim. The fact that some people sent the camera in and got it back without any improvement and Canon so far refuses to explain the problem further strengthens my disbelief on Canon.

So what exactly is the root cause of the issue? Is it a software or hardware problem? If hardware, is it a optical design problem like the Hubble telescope or is it a manufacturing QC problem? Is it electronic or Mechanical? Is it bad component like the early Pantinum chip or it's bad calibration? If Canon says they can fix it with confidence, then they must know the root cause, so why the secrecy on the root cause? I absolutely resent being patronized by Canon this way. Don't ask why, you won't understand, just give it to me and I'll fix it.

When they "fix" the problem, why do they need the lens? The lens is supposed to be calibrated to fit every camera. When they do the fixing, are they fixing the camera or are they adjust the lens to fix the eccentric camera body? If the lenses are tuned to fit this particular camera, are they going to be off when used on other cameras which doesn't have any focus problems?

When I spoke with them today all they asked for was my Camera (No Battery, No Flash Card, No Lens), a copy of my warrenty card, a copy of my receipt, and a detailed letter explaining the issue.

I am also going to include some prints of my test pictures to further illustrate the problem.

They said it would be 5-10 Business days.

I have just completed a set of tests. 50mm, 16 -35mm and 400mm f5.6

AF on all lenses front focus but ithe rear end of the DoF is just in.

MF on all but the 400 was bad even after a dioptre check. On the 400 MF was spot on. I have a print to show but I do not know if or how I add it to this reply.

bump

What makes you think Attorney Generals would do anything? They have far more important things to handle, than the autofocus issue. They won't lift a finger.

They are usually understaffed, mostly with less competent lawyers than the average practicing the law.

Just purchased a new 10D last week and my first few shots were very disapointing. The focus was really soft, even after using Photo shop's unsharp mask, the results were not as good as expected.
I looked around and found several sites that discussed 10D focus problems and several offered Focus test set ups. I made up a test set up and shot images in both Manual and Auto with my 50mm , 28-80 zoom and my 75-300 zoom at the widest apertures. Every shot showed marked front focusing. OK so now I have discovered the cause of the problem how do I get it fixed. All of these lenses work really well with my Elan, Elan ll and the Elan llE.
Since I shoot lots of portraits I dont want to be focused on the persons nose, I want the eyes tack sharp. This camera isnt going to cut it withot some adjustments, Who do I contact?
I must add, my Sony and Minolta equipment all focus just fine in the same tests, and so do all my other EOS cameras.
I guess I am very disapointed that Canon didnt recall them all knowing there is a definite problem.
Welcome any suggestions please
Roger

now, this is getting weird..
i'm 300d user, but the problem is similar, only that is back focus. and i'm not the only one with it on 300d series, belive me. this seems to be a lot bigger problem that canon want's to admit. i belive that if all poeple using 10d or 300d would test their hardware a litle bit techincal, there would be somewhere 70-80 % focus problem. why the hell we have to return our brand new cameras back for fixing (even 2 or 3 times). they should calibrated them before the sell, or i'm stupid?
the same problem apply to new nikon model, d70 (backfocus too). for that kind of money (1000+ usd/€) that these cameras costs, i was pretty sure i'm getting something that works .
well i do think that af plate, used in 300d/10d with 7 af points isn't accurate enuogh (maybe for film slr), there are cameras from which af works just like it should be.
i guess that problem lies in factory calibrating, which is not done for every camera (or very quickly), and if u lucky, u get one, which is ok. is this some kind of lottery, or what (i know the name, it's called reducing the costs)?
anyway here's the link, where some russian guy try to fixed by himself. and he did it. the same procedure goes for 300d/10d, only that canon uses squre hole in rotating knob, nikon uses hexagin shape..
http://dvdhelp.narod.r​u/D70_back_focus.html

i hope this would be helpful to someone,
iztok from slovenia, europe

izo wrote:
now, this is getting weird..
i'm 300d user, but the problem is similar, only that is back focus. and i'm not the only one with it on 300d series, belive me. this seems to be a lot bigger problem that canon want's to admit. i belive that if all poeple using 10d or 300d would test their hardware a litle bit techincal, there would be somewhere 70-80 % focus problem. why the hell we have to return our brand new cameras back for fixing (even 2 or 3 times). they should calibrated them before the sell, or i'm stupid?
the same problem apply to new nikon model, d70 (backfocus too). for that kind of money (1000+ usd/€) that these cameras costs, i was pretty sure i'm getting something that works .
well i do think that af plate, used in 300d/10d with 7 af points isn't accurate enuogh (maybe for film slr), there are cameras from which af works just like it should be.
i guess that problem lies in factory calibrating, which is not done for every camera (or very quickly), and if u lucky, u get one, which is ok. is this some kind of lottery, or what (i know the name, it's called reducing the costs)?
anyway here's the link, where some russian guy try to fixed by himself. and he did it. the same procedure goes for 300d/10d, only that canon uses squre hole in rotating knob, nikon uses hexagin shape..
http://dvdhelp.narod.r​u/D70_back_focus.html

i hope this would be helpful to someone,
iztok from slovenia, europe

This is interesting because I had been asking this same problem on my other posting about this very same problem.

https://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthre​ad.php?t=50304

I even went further by purchasing new Camera Lens instead of the cheap Kit Lens just to test this out and it is true that focusing is off. Hopefully Tonight I can do some testing to futher validate this.

hi
great tutorial
but i used the floor of my flat apartment ,i put down the camera on the floor and the box on the floor , and i used a 70-200 ef

does it work?
is reliable use the 70-200 and the floor