7D Mark II - Focus Discussions

It may have been a number of things. But since then, I tweaked my AF tune by a value of 2. So now it's +6 instead of +8.

Today I was getting very good/excellent results, in mixed lighting and very dim/overcast skies.
In many cases, I was shocked it locked focus, since I gave it only about 1 second sometimes.
Locking onto a duck flying at me, landing in the pond like 30ft away or so.

But, I'm using Canon glass again, instead of the Tamron, which is probably a big part of it.

The Tamron 150-600 has been "ok", but not near the Canon in terms of AF speed/accuracy. I think the 7D II likes Canon lenses for AI Servo imo.


When I say excellent, it really was. I had a great time, and it was nice to have things just "work" again.

Kickflipkid687 wrote in post #17474809
We'll see. Maybe i'd switch to a 5D III yet, but I really do like the extra "reach" from the 7D II as well, and the overall speed boost.
I haven't had any major focus issues lately, but still that "softness" when in AI Servo sometimes.

Maybe its from the focus points being quite a bit larger/offset from the viewfinder as well, and it's slightly off the plane of focus I intended.
I'm still learning it/trying to figure that out. My 60D AF points were much smaller, at least in the view finder.

This seems a little soft to me at 100%, but not bad, and will sharpen up fine. But maybe it's from the focus point being slightly off/not on the eye.
I was using the very edge AF point, and it was over the Neck area.
I know the outter points aren't as good as the center, and the edge points I think are actually working more towards the center/adjacent points.

Ive used Dot Tune and did focus chart tests a few times, and I think my lens/setup is as good as it's gonna get. Unless things are changing at different distances.
But between manually focusing/live view and repeated AF tests, it seemed right on, with a static target.

The Wigeon here was about 30ft away.

All in all, it might be user error or something else yet.

That looks not bad to me, but not fully sharp.

I note the fp is on the neck but you show the eye detail. My normal experience with duck shots is ones needs the fp over the eye to be sure of the best sharpness particularly at 400 to 600mm, even then it could be a little variable due to tiny movements, perhaps of the subject.

In all the eye looks a little sharper than the neck where the fp was so perhaps some fine tuning is in order. Is this the standard single point or spot AF?

I may have missed the message where you listed the lens and EXIF, I take it this is not the Tamron?

I am very interested in this as I am using the Tamron fine now with the 7D, and am interested in peoples experience with the 7DII. Some of the happier users have said the AF is faster on the 7DII, I take it that is not your experience?

The AF is faster on the 7D II. But maybe too fast for the Tamron sometimes. It can get twitchy, although I noticed that and so did others after we updated the firmware.
Which may be part of the issue. Not settling in. Or it's the opposite. The Tamron is too slow or just does nothing for me sometimes.

As I posted above you, after going out yesterday, I was getting very good results overall. Mainly slightly outta focus/blurred from user error/too slow of shutter speeds.

I'm using Canon glass again, which I think makes the difference. I tried the 100-400 II recently with and without the 1.4x III extender, and it worked great as well.

But I still do think my first body had issues, and I'm sure some others have body issues as well.

On the canon glass, using Case 2 with all settings of 0, its still almost too fast to AF sometimes, heh.
I was able to see a duck landing, pan to it, find it in the viewfinder, and lock focus/take a shot in about 1-2 seconds.

Kickflipkid687 wrote in post #17475845
The AF is faster on the 7D II. But maybe too fast for the Tamron sometimes. It can get twitchy, although I noticed that and so did others after we updated the firmware.
Which may be part of the issue. Not settling in. Or it's the opposite. The Tamron is too slow or just does nothing for me sometimes.
.

I used a Tamron 70-200mm f/2.8 once for a monster truck show, I had nothing but autofocus issues with it and that was using the 60D, now it might've also been because it was 28 degrees outside but I highly doubt that was the issue. I also own a 70-300 f/5.6 Tamron lens and it is decent at focusing but slow.

I'm thankful that I haven't had (knocks on wood) any focus issues with my 7D2 but I know I wasn't a fan of case 4 and have been using 5 since then. I know with 4 it wondered around a bit with my Canon 70-200 f/2.8 but it majority of the shots weren't out of focus.

Case 2 worked for me with BIF, but it is a bit slower to initially acquire, but holds better I think.

I'm still experimenting. I've used Case 4 though just fine as well.

Right now I have BBF using Case 2 and 1 point focus. My AE lock is set to Case 2 or 4, sometimes 6, and 4 point expansion.
But I'm also experimenting with that as well.

Luckily a place I go to, I can practice on BIF pretty often, moving across diff backgrounds and lighting.

Had some business on the phone today with CPS, I then asked about the focus issues with the 7DII, to summarize from agent, there's nothing wrong with the camera, the majority of issues are user error..

With Canon's stand like that, I don't see anytime soon, am I willing to try another body..

Bianchi wrote in post #17478212
Had some business on the phone today with CPS, I then asked about the focus issues with the 7DII, to summarize from agent, there's nothing wrong with the camera, the majority of issues are user error..

With Canon's stand like that, I don't see anytime soon, am I willing to try another body..

To be fair to them, I think there is a bit of user error out there - especially on the consumer end - and Canon's not going to take the blame. Hell, I don't blame them as I would guess the percentage is pretty low. Even among users on here, the percentage of good to bad cameras would be pretty low.

Personally, I think anyone who throw in the towel after one try wasn't really that interested in the camera to begin with or you would have simply exchanged it. For those that have stuck with it until they got a working body, we're all now pleased with our decision, even if it meant we had to deal with some headaches. I know it was worth it to me.

At the risk of being shot by the canon fanboys I went back to the first page in this thread and have tried to catalog what is going on. I've managed to get as far as the end of December after 89 pages. If the camera was returned to the place of purchase it is deemed bad. If sent to canon for repair then returned apparently working it is good and bad. If comments indicate no problems then it is counted as good. There are a lot of posts with helpful suggestions etc that don't indicate even if the poster has the 7D2 camera. Entries like this were ignored for counting purposes. Not scientific but I'd like to think not biased one way or the other either. The numbers represent this thread only. Some here may be suprised.

Counted as good = 24
Counted as bad = 34

It is more than likely that this ratio has moved to good side by now. After all this is only up to the end of December and very few people here knew how to use the camera at that point in time or at least that is what some would have us believe. My own camera is not in the count as my wtf moment wasn't until mid February.

Rod

Welp.... 90 days into this adventure I took possession of body number 4 today, serial # 210 5212 1000 454. The first body on loan was excellent, the second sucked bad (210 5212 1000 035) and the third was so-so.

Straight out of the box with a couple hours under my belt I'd say it's a keeper, slight front focusing, but AF locks on pretty quickly and hangs on. More importantly, my shots are consistent.

What a ride..... what a relief. Otherwise there is a lot to like about this camera.

Rest assuredly for the time being your mileage will vary, but if you make it out the other side you will be rewarded.

Bianchi wrote in post #17478212
Had some business on the phone today with CPS, I then asked about the focus issues with the 7DII, to summarize from agent, there's nothing wrong with the camera, the majority of issues are user error..

With Canon's stand like that, I don't see anytime soon, am I willing to try another body..

Until this get straightened out, I'd say your reasoning is sound.

itw wrote in post #17478313
Welp.... 90 days into this adventure I took possession of body number 4 today, serial # 210 5212 1000 454. The first body on loan was excellent, the second sucked bad (210 5212 1000 035) and the third was so-so.

Straight out of the box with a couple hours under my belt I'd say it's a keeper, slight front focusing, but AF locks on pretty quickly and hangs on. More importantly, my shots are consistent.

What a ride..... what a relief. Otherwise there is a lot to like about this camera.

Rest assuredly for the time being your mileage will vary, but if you make it out the other side you will be rewarded.

This is the part that suggests that, sometimes, there are problems inherent with the 7D2. Some work straight out of the box as, in my opinion, they should. Others are 3 and 4 bodies into their nightmare journey which, in my opinion, is uncalled for. There are issues that Canon is unwilling to own up to.

Bianchi wrote in post #17478212
Had some business on the phone today with CPS, I then asked about the focus issues with the 7DII, to summarize from agent, there's nothing wrong with the camera, the majority of issues are user error..

With Canon's stand like that, I don't see anytime soon, am I willing to try another body..

Given that people are having issues with some bodies and not others... yeah. The thing is, CPS will never say there's an issue unless there's an official acknowledgement from Canon first. Asking is pointless.

LonelyBoy wrote in post #17478904
Given that people are having issues with some bodies and not others... yeah. The thing is, CPS will never say there's an issue unless there's an official acknowledgement from Canon first. Asking is pointless.

The numbers I posted yesterday are from this thread, namely 'focus issues' so there is already a large bias towards problem cameras. I was just curious what the numbers were.

As for canon it becomes a matter of scale. Say nothing and lose a few sales or go public and potentially lose hundreds of sales.

Rod

RodS57 wrote in post #17478967
The numbers I posted yesterday are from this thread, namely 'focus issues' so there is already a large bias towards problem cameras. I was just curious what the numbers were.

As for canon it becomes a matter of scale. Say nothing and lose a few sales or go public and potentially lose hundreds of sales.

Rod

Sure... I'm just saying there's a 0.0% chance of a CPS tech speaking out of turn and saying "oh yeah, a bunch of those have come back, we had some issues at the factory" if Canon hasn't publicly announced so first. I don't know why people keep asking the techs.

I've got to say when I was happy I didn't make a peep. It was only when I was having difficulties with AF that I started to squawk.
I think that's the way it goes with most everyone and so the numbers will be skewed. I wonder how many 7D2's have been sold ?

I too am of the thought that they should work straight out of the box though without all the other shenanigans.

LonelyBoy wrote in post #17474468
How, if you don't mind? I don't see that on CPW.

I used Greentoe. Not sure if you can still get one for $2000. But you can submit your offer and see if it works.

My new 5D MKIII is pretty awesome. Seems to hit focus 100% of the time even in either Single Shot or AI Servo. It's like I can't make it misfocus. I haven't had a chance to play with the settings in AI Servo yet but it still hits focus 100% on moving targets of time even with the default settings.

Although it was still pricey compared to the 7D MKII, the confidence that my camera will AF correctly is worth it. And the FF factor is an added bonus.

I could have bought a 7D MKII and keep exchanging until I get a good copy but I can't take that aggravation after the fiasco I had with my 7D classic.