100-400 Soft..or Not ?

I have just upgraded from the 350 XT to a 7D and my 100-400 seems soft to me. First shot at about 30ft on a tripod one shot IS off. ISO 800, 1/800 at F.6
Second shot as above but at 15ft.
Am expecting to much from the lens?. All opinions appreciated

Lens seems ok, might check your sights though as the grouping is not so hot....

Kidding aside I have seen more people complain of softness from this lens when mated to the 7D than other bodies, not sure why though. How was it on the prior body? I don't own a 7D does it have micro adjust capability? Try another subject with better contrast and shoot using varying ISO, shutter and F-stop. The leaf on the left looks pretty sharp as does the dust on the wood. Also remove any filter as they do seem to affect this lens.

The surrounding leaves look just fine

Pump action lens takes shot of shotgun target? What a coincidence!

The leaves to the left looks just fine to me on my crappy monitor

Thank you I also thought the leaves were good but not the target that I focused on? There were no filters on, maybe its just me?
T2i4me I will pass that message (grouping) to my wife but it is not that bad for her seconde time on the range. The first time she was loading a 17 round mag and shouted I can only get five in. When I looked at it she had the rounds in back to front, of course the range was full of guys looking at us.

Capeachy wrote in post #14249829
Pump action lens takes shot of shotgun target? What a coincidence!

The leaves to the left looks just fine to me on my crappy monitor

I am not going to let the wife see this thread

It doesn't look particularly soft for a low res image, kinda need a higher res image to be sure.

But you'd expect a 7D to show more softness than a 350D, but only when viewing at high magnification, as the pixel density is significantly higher. At equal viewing/print size it should look just as good.

cdiver2 wrote in post #14249861
Thank you I also thought the leaves were good but not the target that I focused on? There were no filters on, maybe its just me?
T2i4me I will pass that message (grouping) to my wife but it is not that bad for her seconde time on the range. The first time she was loading a 17 round mag and shouted I can only get five in. When I looked at it she had the rounds in back to front, of course the range was full of guys looking at us.

Haha. But I am jealous of the 17 round mag. 10 is the max for handguns and 5 for rifles in Canada, no limits on .22 though.

Anyways, maybe there's a slight offset focus but probably more due to the image subject itself at this current size isn't rendered as "nice" as the leaves. Got other sample images? Maybe a link to a high res version?

when I first got my 7D, I was having issues with it and my 100/400. I sent them both in to canon. When I got them back it was like a new camera. I now have a 500mm F4 so I dont use my 100/400 much, but I was just on vacation in the Riviera Maya and took the 100/400 with me. I did get some good bird shots that are very sharp. If I was you, I would do some more testing just to make sure.

Here is one at SS 1/250th F5.6 ISO 1600.

Soft. Yes.

But for ISO 800 not surprising. Even at f/5.6.

edit: in response to Cdiver

cdiver2 wrote in post #14249664
I have just upgraded from the 350 XT to a 7D and my 100-400 seems soft to me. First shot at about 30ft on a tripod one shot IS off. ISO 800, 1/800 at F.6
Second shot as above but at 15ft.
Am expecting to much from the lens?. All opinions appreciated

It doesn't look too bad from here, but, as others noted, it's hard to tell with low-res web images. You might want to do the "battery test" (shoot a line of batteries from 45 degrees, focus on center battery, make sure they're far enough apart so camera will only focus on that battery) to make sure you don't have a front- or back-focus issue. Also, looking at an 18MP image at 100% view will make it look soft compared to an 8MP image because it's so much larger; make sure you apply proper sharpening and, if properly focused, the 7D image will be very sharp indeed.

Thank you every one for the input, it seems like it is just me expecting to much. However as time allows I will do a couple more tests thinking the battery test. I am just wanting to make sure everything is working ok before I go on my Serengeti safari

I'd be more inclined to just go out and use the lens in actual shooting situations and judge it that way. The problem with tests is that they are generally poorly set up, and they put you into the mindset of looking for a problem that may not necessarily be there. I'd be more concerned with mastering the 7D and its focusing options.

crn3371 wrote in post #14259542
I'd be more inclined to just go out and use the lens in actual shooting situations and judge it that way.

The problem with tests is that they are generally poorly set up, and they put you into the mindset of looking for a problem that may not necessarily be there

.

I think you may be right on that, new camera not geting the results I want...it must be the camera not the op

This is a shot that I did not a test

The battery test is more for "fine tuning" than to address a real focus problem. It will let you know if you have any front- or back-focusing going on, which you can easily address using the micro adjustment feature in the 7D's custom functions.