-= 7D2 owners unite! Discuss and post photos!

Is anyone noticing focusing issues with the 7D Mark II? Front/ back focusing especially when using the center point?

took several bird pictures with my 5D Mark III and then on Sunday with the 7D Mark II; same place, same lighting situation. Camera settings quite similar although I left the AF tweaks on the 7D2 at defaults.

90% of the shots on the 5D were tack sharp; 90% on the 7D2 were soft and it was focusing in the front. All that was with the Tamron 150-600. I thought it was perhaps my inexperience with the 7D2 but was concerned that 90% were out of focus when the previous day 90% on the 5D were sharp.

I used the center point because I've always shot that way. The birds I was shooting were not flying birds - Heron, ducks and geese around a local lake; so movement was minimal - all were at 1/1000th or faster.

I came back, read the manual carefully and am now better familiar with the AF tweaks (thanks to Keyan and TeamSpeed) - I was waiting to go take bird pics with the 7D2 again but it's gotten very cold here in Dallas so I did not get a chance to go out.

Today I was taking pictures of my kids on the 7D2 - Canon 50/ 1.4. Settings were 1/125, f/1.4 and ISO at auto. Noticed about 90% shots were soft and, on further scrutiny, found them to be front focusing. Tried those exact same shots with the and it was consistently sharp.

I then took shots of various objects in the room (making sure each object was at a different distance than the other) with both the 7D2 and the 5D3 and found the same results.

I had the 70D and had center point focusing issues. With my experience on the 7D2 so far, I am wondering (and worried) if the 7D2 has the same front/ back focusing issues like the 70D.

I am not a professional but I am not inexperienced either. I love everything about the 7D2 except the focus issues I've had. I am still within the 30-days and I hope this is a bad copy.

Any thoughts/ comments?

Thank you

nsnqst wrote in post #17270979
Is anyone noticing focusing issues with the 7D Mark II? Front/ back focusing especially when using the center point?

took several bird pictures with my 5D Mark III and then on Sunday with the 7D Mark II; same place, same lighting situation. Camera settings quite similar although I left the AF tweaks on the 7D2 at defaults.

90% of the shots on the 5D were tack sharp; 90% on the 7D2 were soft and it was focusing in the front. All that was with the Tamron 150-600. I thought it was perhaps my inexperience with the 7D2 but was concerned that 90% were out of focus when the previous day 90% on the 5D were sharp.

I used the center point because I've always shot that way. The birds I was shooting were not flying birds - Heron, ducks and geese around a local lake; so movement was minimal - all were at 1/1000th or faster.

I came back, read the manual carefully and am now better familiar with the AF tweaks (thanks to Keyan and TeamSpeed) - I was waiting to go take bird pics with the 7D2 again but it's gotten very cold here in Dallas so I did not get a chance to go out.

Today I was taking pictures of my kids on the 7D2 - Canon 50/ 1.4. Settings were 1/125, f/1.4 and ISO at auto. Noticed about 90% shots were soft and, on further scrutiny, found them to be front focusing. Tried those exact same shots with the and it was consistently sharp.

I then took shots of various objects in the room (making sure each object was at a different distance than the other) with both the 7D2 and the 5D3 and found the same results.

I had the 70D and had center point focusing issues. With my experience on the 7D2 so far, I am wondering (and worried) if the 7D2 has the same front/ back focusing issues like the 70D.

I am not a professional but I am not inexperienced either. I love everything about the 7D2 except the focus issues I've had. I am still within the 30-days and I hope this is a bad copy.

Any thoughts/ comments?

Thank you

check out the other thread here 7DII focus problems

Have you micro adjusted the lens for AF? I would start there to make sure that you have the af locked in first.

Interesting to hear that some folks may be having some focusing inconsistencies. I've only used mine a little after calibrating using dot tune. My gut feeling is that the focusing is missing sometimes when it shouldn't. I'll pay more attention and try some tests.

Here's was a shot that came out well in gorgeous morning light.
1200mm f8, iso 640, 1/1000

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/q3mw​kY

TeamSpeed wrote in post #17270991
Have you micro adjusted the lens for AF? I would start there to make sure that you have the af locked in first.

I have not and never needed to on the 5D3 with any of my lenses; I am not talking about minor the images on the 7D2 are really very soft. Also the focusing issue is erratic; some are back focusing as well; very few have good focus and most are front focusing so not sure if MFA will help.

Bianchi wrote in post #17270989
check out the other thread here 7DII focus problems

I will; thank you.

Aressem wrote in post #17270177
Here's a burst of a knock out from Friday night (since no one would click on the link and leave comments earlier)

Nice shots & nice to see examples of the burst rate! Really cool knockout action when scrolling through the pics holding the down arrow

However, with all the focus issues I've been seeing, I am happy with my decision to hold off on the purchase.

nsnqst wrote in post #17271000
I have not and never needed to on the 5D3 with any of my lenses; I am not talking about minor the images on the 7D2 are really very soft. Also the focusing issue is erratic; some are back focusing as well; very few have good focus and most are front focusing so not sure if MFA will help.

IME with the 70D which some claim has similar issues, I found that MFA has been necessary with all my lenses, and without it I had the same erratic focusing.

People seem to think that if focusing is erratic with both front and back focusing, then MFA can't cure it.

But my experience was that without MFA then the 70D would struggle to get the best focus lock and yes the result might be either focusing to the front or to the rear, because it couldn't find the correct focus point. so just picked whatever it thought was best - front or back.

I know that might not sound correct - surely if it was front focusing then it would find the correct focus at the front - or vice versa at the back... but this was my experience. But once I had spent a fair amount of time doing accurate MFA, using FoCal, then everything was fine and dandy on the AF front. I was on the edge of returning my 70D until I got the MAF right.

It is interesting that this is happening first with the 70D and now with the 7D MK II. I also notice that many folk report that their lenses require greater MAF settings on their 70D or 7D MK II than the same lenses have done on other bodies.
Perhaps something has changed with the AF algorithms in both these latest cameras and the way they are detecting focus. Both have the newest dual pixel sensor too, not that this should affect PDAF, but who knows, it could be the algorithms that can take both PDAF and CDAF into account are not optimal. It could simply be that Canon's QC on the AF module calibration is not up to scratch!

I did some focus testing yesterday. Dog running straight at me is usually more challenging than anything I face when I go out to shoot BIF. The hit rate for me was just as good as my Nikon D810 with 300 f/4.

This was shot with the 135mm at f/4. Default case 1 with single point.

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/q1RX​SC

Aperture/iPhoto now supporting 7D Mark II raw files.

dgrPhotos wrote in post #17271180
I did some focus testing yesterday. Dog running straight at me is usually more challenging than anything I face when I go out to shoot BIF. The hit rate for me was just as good as my Nikon D810 with 300 f/4.

This was shot with the 135mm at f/4. Default case 1 with single point.

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/q1RX​SC 7D Mark II Focus Test by dan@dgrphotos.com, on Flickr

How are you going to be using the two (D810/7DM2)? I also have the D810 and love it but I'm feeling an itch for the 7DM2 as well. If I do get the M2, not sure I'll keep the D810, it's a fantastic camera no doubt, but doesn't seem to motivate me at all to go out there and shoot.

nsnqst wrote in post #17271000
I have not and never needed to on the 5D3 with any of my lenses; I am not talking about minor the images on the 7D2 are really very soft. Also the focusing issue is erratic; some are back focusing as well; very few have good focus and most are front focusing so not sure if MFA will help.

You won't know for sure unless you do controlled testing -looks like it's focus chart time. So far, my informal testing hasn't shown a need for MFA, but different camera-lens combinations may have different requirements.

TMaG82 wrote in post #17271209
How are you going to be using the two (D810/7DM2)? I also have the D810 and love it but I'm feeling an itch for the 7DM2 as well. If I do get the M2, not sure I'll keep the D810, it's a fantastic camera no doubt, but doesn't seem to motivate me at all to go out there and shoot.

I still have my Df as well. It's really the difference in using crop vs full frame. I plan on using my 7D Mark II 90% of the time for BIF. Maybe 10% for my kids sports. The rest will be my Df/D810 combo especially where lighting might be poor.

With that said BIF and my kids sports is a majority of my photography. I might end up ditching my D810 but it depends on the performance of the 7D2 when the eagles migrate down here in about a month. With my Df, I did try selling but got no interest so at the very least I will use it for low light shooting and a "walk around" body. I would definitely always want one full frame, I wouldn't get rid of both.

nsnqst wrote in post #17271000
I have not and never needed to on the 5D3 with any of my lenses; I am not talking about minor the images on the 7D2 are really very soft. Also the focusing issue is erratic; some are back focusing as well; very few have good focus and most are front focusing so not sure if MFA will help.

Due to manufacturing tolerances MFA was programmed into higher end bodies so the users could adjust their lenses themselves instead of sending their whole kit in to Canon to get them to work together at their best. You were very lucky that your kit matched well enough with the 5D3. I encourage you to MFA your lenses with the 7D2. I just did mine and found a difference of around 10 points between my 7D and 7D2.

JJD.Photography wrote in post #17271008
Nice shots & nice to see examples of the burst rate! Really cool knockout action when scrolling through the pics holding the down arrow

However, with all the focus issues I've been seeing, I am happy with my decision to hold off on the purchase.

Focus issues? Mines great. I'm gonna take a stab in the dark and assume it's user error.