check your camera diopter adjustment

Remember to adjust and recheck your camera body's diopter adjustment. That is the small wheel on side of the viewfinder. What does it do? It will allow you to dial in optical correction so you can clearly see the camera info (aperture, shutter, ISO..etc.) at the bottom of the viewfinder screen....and....more accurately do manual focusing.

I had set mine many months ago. This weekend I was doing macro work on flowers using manual focus. I could not get it spot on. Then I double checked the the manual focus against the AF. Sure enough AF even looked soft. I check the diopter and sure enough it was out just enough that when using AF, especially on large subjects, I did not see that my display was off as the images back at the computer were fine. But doing macro manual focus means you need to see the subject as clearly as possible.

So this is just a friendly reminder, especially for those of us who are old enough to have presbyopia and us reading glasse,.....check the diopter setting.

good advice

Good call

I have to adjust mine almost every time I use it. Wish they had a locking feature.

I found the same thing and left the same advice on another forum. If you're manual focusing, a properly set diopter is vital. Plus it makes it *so* much easier to focus with the Eg-S screen.

90c4 wrote in post #15957659
I have to adjust mine almost every time I use it. Wish they had a locking feature.

your diopter wheel must be loose

No - I just bump my camera bodies a lot when I'm wearing them. Until Canon had mode dial locks those would get switched constantly as well.

watt100 wrote in post #15959173
your diopter wheel must be loose

I usually hack mine to provide 30% faster boot times

Mine gets bumped all the time, but usually when I'm doing manual focusing, I'm using live view, so am not so badly affected by it.

watt100 wrote in post #15959173
your diopter wheel must be loose

I guess this is systemic then, as every Canon DSLR I have owned must have had a "loose" diopter adjuster.

90c4 wrote in post #15957659
I have to adjust mine almost every time I use it. Wish they had a locking feature.

The solution is to carefully put a small blob of adhesive ("GOO" is what I use) on the edge of the wheel to stop it turning after you have it set right. I've used this on several cameras and then just picked it off before selling.

I've never had the problem but you make a very good reminder, especially in threads where people believe they have a camera or soft/OOF lens issue

I gave my 40D to my oldest son, and a couple of days he calls me to ask me why the subject looks like it's out of focus when he is looking through the viewfinder, but that the photos look sharp.

I forgot to tell him about the camera's diopter. I told him, "look at the very small wheel by the right upper corner of the viewfinder. Turn this wheel just like you do with the eyepiece diopter of your riflescope."

The diopter adjuster on the 7D is tight, but not the one on the 5DII. I just checked my cameras, and the 5DII was off.

I wear my glasses for distance and my diopter on my XTi was never perfect on my 50D I adjusted it and my viewfinder is now tack sharp so my images are exactly what I see through the VF

Adjusting the diopter is always a good idea, but why use the VF when shooting macro? It's so inaccurate to begin with even when adjusted properly. For macro live view and 10x zoom is the only way to go.