Cameras/Lenses - very poor AF performance

Ok, so looking for some help here all.

I'am a wedding photographer covering about 60 weddings a year, last March 2012 I bought a 70-200MK2 and was amazed by the sharpness, not long after I bought a 5D3, again the focusing system impressed me a lot compared tom 5D2.

Now after about 45 weddings use I have noticed a steady decline in focus performance to the point now I'am starting to have to bin nice images instead of relying on sharpening so I thought I should conduct some tests.

I tested the 70-200MK2 on both my 5D3 and 5D2 and I also tested both cameras with a 135mm f2.0, each camera lens combo I used the outer left and right focus point and also centre point.
For consistency I shot 3 images for each focus point and waited to hear the beep of locked focus, one shot focus was used and all images were taken at 135mm - 400/sec @ f2.8, medium RAW and no editing other than dropping the exposure slightly.

Dont want to bore you all with loads of images so I have just added what I deem to be the average/in the middle sharpness pic for each focus point @100% crop, here goes for 5D3.
5D2 in next post due to limited pics per post -

5D3, 70-200 MK2

left FP

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5D2 images with above lenses and settings -

5D2 , 70-200 MK2

left FP

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Several things come to mind ...
But Commodity manufacture for the masses is a big part of it.
Lens -
Back in the 80's - 90's they started non stop {no quality control stops in manufacture}.
They also went to plastic and glued retaining rings.
Nikon did it before Canon with E series {circa '1980}.
Camera -
Digital - too much problem with Fast lens Wide Open.
F/2.8 or slower for me.
I always use Center Point for the reasons above.
Also made in a non stop robot line.
Film was thick and accepted more slop.

They just don't build them like they use to ... you can try to get them to realign elements sensors but ...

mate just wondering have you tried mounting camera on tripod and trying manual focus via 10x zoom in live view?

the reason i mentioned this is because i myself just very recently bought the 70-200 II and while the lens performed beautifully after some testing i noticed image went soft quickly as it moved away from the centre of the frame towards the left and results were all the same with normal and live view af as well as manually focusing through 10x zoom in live view which says to me there is something wrong with the lens itself in terms of sharpness as opposed to af issues...therefore i sent it back to canon for evaluation

maybe that is one way to completely rule out whether or not it's af or something else...

bit hard to tell what's happening because sharpness seems to be a bit all over the place with your sample pics (eg 135 consistently sharp across the frame on the 5d2 but not 5d3, 70-200 right side sharper than left on 5d3 but on 5d2 it's other way around but still overall soft compared to centre)

edit: also you mentioned you are with cps so turnaround will be quick anyway, might be quicker to just send them everything now with sample pics while you have time nowinstead of letting people guess what might be wrong and waste more time...

Let's see, both 70-200II and 135L seem to perform poorly with the 5D3 except using the centre point.

Only 135L looks fine with 5D2 which means they are ok.

Therefore the 5D3 and the 70-200II are stuffed somehow?

Have you by any chance dropped them??

I would send the 5D3 and 70-200II to Canon.

basketballfreak6 wrote in post #15514920
mate just wondering have you tried mounting camera on tripod and trying manual focus via 10x zoom in live view?

Well i have tried tripod/manual focus etc but when it comes down to it i need to know it will perform correctly during a wedding and the 10x zoom method would give me false results here i think as i need the AF to lock quickly and accurately, shoot and onto the next shot.

Thing is all focus points using 70-200 and 5D3 are so inaccurate I cannot now trust my kit, I even tried the auto AF adjustment but this is also flawed.

Personally, I think when kit is new its all nice and tight and accurate but with lots of use just like anything mechanical it wears and loosens up and drifts out of tolerance and for that reason the 5D3 & 70-200 are all going back to Canon as its still in warrantee.

i know what you mean, but what i am saying about live view mf is that if the pic comes out sharp with mf then you know it is af that is playing up, such as in my situation the softness was not because of the af but rather lens itself as both af and mf gave the same softness so i can rule out any af issues due to the lens or the camera

kin2son wrote in post #15514924
Let's see, both 70-200II and 135L seem to perform poorly with the 5D3 except using the centre point.

Only 135L looks fine with 5D2 which means they are ok.

Therefore the 5D3 and the 70-200II are stuffed somehow?

Have you by any chance dropped them??

I would send the 5D3 and 70-200II to Canon.

No, I always look after my kit so haven't dropped them but you are right the 5D3 & 70-200 are way off and really need to be sorted, like I said before it could be that lots of use has loosened it all up and drifted out..

There have been several reports of the 5DIII AF points not being accurate in relation to each other; the centre point might be dead on, but the right hand points might need MFA etc... This could be what is going on here. I might give Canon a call if I were you.

basketballfreak6 wrote in post #15514962
i know what you mean, but what i am saying about live view mf is that if the pic comes out sharp with mf then you know it is af that is playing up, such as in my situation the softness was not because of the af but rather lens itself as both af and mf gave the same softness so i can rule out any af issues due to the lens or the camera

Understand where you are coming from now, I tested with 135mm as its a extremely sharp lens, as the 5D3/135mm images are soft then that says the camera needs a trip to Canon and as the 5D2 with the 70-200 is also way off but fine with the 135mm then the 70-200 can also go back to Canon for a service..