How long did Canon have your camera?

So I have been following this Focus issue with great interest. I however didn't think my body had any such issue. Thing is I always shoot at f11 and I wasn't seeing any problems whatsoever. Last night I shot a friend's college graduation. As the sun set I had to boost the ISO and open up the aperature. When I got home and opened the files I found that any image at f8 or lower had significant back focus. Obviously my shooting style had been masking the problem. With a large depth of field, focus problems are far less pronounced. So I did a couple of focus tests with the 50mm1.8 using the ruler at a 45 degree angle placed 2.5 yards away correct light all that good stuff. With the camera confirming focus on the 5inch mark I was getting a sharp zone of focus at the 10 inch mark. I tried different set ups in different rooms with different lights. All results were approximately 5 inches of back focus. Damn! I thought I had dodged the bullet. That'll teach me to only shoot stopped down.....

So how long did Canon have your cameras? Were they truly fixed?

Just to make sure, you might want to read this. There are some interesting experiences and theories there. I had myself convinced that I had a problem for a few days by trying a ruler-style test at 4.7 feet with a 35mm. Now I believe that test was probably beyond the limits of current autofocus technology. (When I put a supposedly trouble-free EOS film camera in place of the 10D, it performed far worse.)

There's also a theory there about people sending their gear to Canon with complaints based on this sort of test, Canon not being able to find a problem, and tweaking everything in the direction the customer desires.

Sometimes I miss my split-image and microprism.

Thanks, I have read that article which is why I have been so hesitant to believe that I do indeed have the "Dreaded" focusing problem. I do own several EOS "pro" Film bodies that I have shot with for a decade without any such focusing problems. I would gladly dismiss a focus error +/- an inch or so but 5inches+ is not acceptable to me. I can't believe 5inches+/- is the benchmark of acurate autofocus for digital. The images in that article are in far closer focus than any I have been able to produce with that test.

I am with you Daveh, I'll always miss my microprism......

For what it's worth, mine were frequently beyond 5 inches (beyond the edge of my focus test page) until I adjusted the test conditions - ie focal length or distance to target. Notice that Bob's Test was at .45m but you and I tested from MUCH further back leaving a finer target for the focus sensor.

The EOS film camera I tried under the same conditions left the lens literally anywhere in it's focus range but it also left the focus light blinking which is good. The 10D might be a little more aggressive in this sense, however, I suspect that if I did more testing, I could find a range somewhat closer to the target at which the film camera would think it had it right too but didn't. I'm just theorizing though. Once I saw how easy it was to adjust this test for in spec and out of spec results, I gave up. I think the test design is still a work in progress.

I have two 10D cameras, tested them both at home and found one to be not auto focusing properly. My nearest sevice center is in Irvine Calif. and I decided to send it in.
They got my camera on a Friday and returned it to me the following Wednesday! The auto focus is perfect now .

Awesome! That is what I wanna hear! thanks for the reply rickyd.

Howdy, I had a slight focus problem with my 10D and 50/1.8 and 17-35/2.8 lenses. Sent it in to Irvine with a note and CD of sample images. I *didn't* send the lenses.

It was returned (very well packaged) via FedEx 11 days after they rec'd it (and I live in SE Alaska where there's no such thing as overnight mail - more like 3 days).

The focus for the 50/1.8 was dead on and the focus for the 17-35/2.8 was much improved and well within the DOF. I figure that whatever small out of focus problem I have with the 17-35/2.8 is due to the lens not the camera at this point (and it is a *small* - like 1 cm - problem) I bought the lens used and it's a few years old so I figure I should send the lens in for a check-up but I'm just having too much fun right now!

All-in-all I was very happy with the service I rec'd.

well I sent it out yesterday 6/10. canon signed for it today 6/11. I finally got thru to them after several attempts and was told to expect it to take 10-12 work days. GRRRRRRRR.

Well I got my camera back from canon... I immedately set about taking pictures with it and low and behold no improvement. It still exibits poor focus. I'll take it home and run it through the paces again this weekend and let you all know what I find.


On the work order they merely said that I claimed a back focus issue and they adjusted it as per my request. If they had just admitted that it was incorrect from the factory I wouldn't be so angry. This is really starting to frustrate me. Do they really think that not admitting there is a problem will make it go away?


Pekka if you are reading this, what did you have to do to get canon to replace your camera? I really don't want to play the send it back three or four times before they make things right game...

daveh wrote:
Just to make sure, you might want to read this. There are some interesting experiences and theories there. I had myself convinced that I had a problem for a few days by trying a ruler-style test at 4.7 feet with a 35mm. Now I believe that test was probably beyond the limits of current autofocus technology. (When I put a supposedly trouble-free EOS film camera in place of the 10D, it performed far worse.)

There's also a theory there about people sending their gear to Canon with complaints based on this sort of test, Canon not being able to find a problem, and tweaking everything in the direction the customer desires.

Sometimes I miss my split-image and microprism.

Hi,

The test referred in your link is not the best one out there because to test autofocus lock distance you need to rule out all three-dimensional data to that camera has only one possible focus plane to see: the Canon test does exactly that.

The "slanted one-paper with graphs" -tests and "ruler tests" are more like tests for autofocus' intelligence than analytical front/back focus evaluations. They may tell you the truth, but then again they may not.

Please read https://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthre​ad.php?t=10526 if you have not already done so.

Actually they told me that they can not fix the one I had so they ordered a new one.

Usually in all cases like this I have had very good results when you are very polite and really make clear that you need total functionality from the device. Listen to what they have to say but be stubborn in your needs.

And the most important thing: find and talk to the actual person who takes care of the calibration. When he understands that you really require precision and have done all you can to see that problem is probably not in your skills (give them a CD of test shots) there should be no misunderstanding in what shape you'll need that camera to be.

If you can persuade the repair guy to agree that replacement saves your time, your business and his time then it is most likely that he fills out the papers for getting a replacement camera. But in the end decision is his and you should honor that.

Here in Helsinki Canon repair is 15 min. drive from my house and I could talk to the engineer face-to-face and visit his desk to see the test results and stuff. I did not push him in any way, just made it clear that I am flabbergasted by this problem and I am very glad if it could be fixed so that I could trust the camera. In return the guy was very nice, professional and fast and so I got excellent service and a good camera as replacement.

PS. It's totally wrong that you will need people handling skills to get good service. But that is a fact of life and you should make the most out of it.

I'll vounch for that. I work in the service industry for notebook computers and digi-camcorders, and this regularly involves speaking to the end user about the problem. If I speak to someone and they are polite and courtious then they are bound to (and do) get better service than someone who is rude and impolite. That is human nature for you
The service industry for any product requires a good fault description to be able to make accurate repairs, and if you are polite to the service guys, they will not only hear what you say - they will listen.
As Pekka says, if you go that bit further with your people skills the people you speak to will go that bit extra in resolving your problem.
Not quite off topic but hanging on with a thread Just giving a point of view from within the service industry

I have no argument with that. I don't know if you read my posts there but the test made it appear that I had a problem but on further analysis, the "problem" was that I was 4.7 feet back from the target and people who were getting good results were more like 2 feet back. At that distance the target was unreliable with my 10D which seemed bad but then I found out it was even more so with an older Canon film camera. Moving the camera up gave me the same results as everyone else.

The reason I brought it up was that justme_dc originally said he was 2.5 meters back. Based on my experience, it could easily fail that test. It seems to depend on the scale of the target vs the distance. Anyway I went back to normal shooting until anyone provides a fool-proof test

So I took out my "repaired" 10D to do a bit of real world testing this weekend. All the images were of people, all shot with single shot AF. Half were motion half were stationary. I shot 80 images, after pulling any image I felt could be a "flier" I ended up with about 60 images. Of those sixty,about half were what I considered to be back focused. There are points of sharp focus in most of the images but they are almost always 6-12 inches back from the point of focus. The focus on my EOS-1 from 1990 is better and it's 13 years old. I am really frustrated at this point. Time to call canon agin.

Canon had mine for 5 weeks !!
They couldn't find anything wrong