7D Mark II - Focus Discussions

If I was into mfa and suspected canon may have done something to the focus other than just the announced 70-200' I'd go back to 0 and try it. If it needed it then I would mfa again even if the original mfa settings did not change after the update - which they should not have.

McNeese72 wrote in post #17557414
I don't think you are understanding his question. I think he means, if you have MAF'd your lenses and if Canon snuck some unannounced changes into the firmware update to fix some of the focus problems some people were having, will that throw off your present MAF settings and will you have to redo the MAF to new settings for your lenses?

In other words, will your present MAF settings still be good or will you have to change them.

I for one will double check my MAF settings for my lenses.

Doc

That is exactly what I was trying to say as well.

Considering that the MFA has entirely to do with corrections for physical tolerances in the manufacture of the camera and lens which have not been compensated by the existing lens calibration / setup (if any), why would a firmware change which does not alter MFA settings require you to reset MFA settings? Sure, MFA settings may change with time, temperature, wear, etc. so it might not be a bad idea to check them, but I doubt very much that the firmware update itself would have any effect - especially since MFA was not called out in the description.

GregDunn wrote in post #17557471
Considering that the MFA has entirely to do with corrections for physical tolerances in the manufacture of the camera and lens which have not been compensated by the existing lens calibration / setup (if any), why would a firmware change which does not alter MFA settings require you to reset MFA settings? Sure, MFA settings may change with time, temperature, wear, etc. so it might not be a bad idea to check them, but I doubt very much that the firmware update itself would have any effect - especially since MFA was not called out in the description.

But we like to tinker with MFA.

Updated to 1.0.4 a couple days ago and image previews on the back LCD looked promising. Now that I have put a few files through LR 6 it feels almost like a new camera to me (as far as output) ... thus

.... a duck

McNeese72 wrote in post #17557414
I don't think you are understanding his question. I think he means, if you have MAF'd your lenses and if Canon snuck some unannounced changes into the firmware update to fix some of the focus problems some people were having, will that throw off your present MAF settings and will you have to redo the MAF to new settings for your lenses?

In other words, will your present MAF settings still be good or will you have to change them.

I for one will double check my MAF settings for my lenses.

Doc

I fully understand his question, all my images are razor sharp after the 1.04 update, no change to MFA, my MFA settings are still good. My camera was front focusing and still is, no physical changes whatsoever.
Give some credit to Canon, if the Firmware update necessitated doing an MFA on all your lenses again they would have said so.

I updated to the 1.04 and my results were less than promising. So much so I ended up ordering a second body to see if the new one will be better. Ugh

I had the same experience the update didn't seem to change anything I took about 30 pictures this morning and all were soft that's why I just brought home my third body. The sales guy tried about 4 different L glass lenses and he couldn't get a sharp picture either one of them was the 70-200mm f2.8 listed in the FW update. I'm not sure if I'm going to update immediately or wit.

I did the same thing and the telephoto setting which I had to originally set to a + 9 changed to a +4 I ran the calibration 3 times to verify.

software is not going to do anything - if you are having major problems it is a hardware and / or assembly problem

there are way too many cameras taking sharp images at an acceptable rate for it to be software

return the camera and try again - there is clearly a bad batch of 'something' or an early assembly issue which hasn't been ironed out yet

digital paradise wrote in post #17557430
If I was into mfa and suspected canon may have done something to the focus other than just the announced 70-200' I'd go back to 0 and try it. If it needed it then I would mfa again even if the original mfa settings did not change after the update - which they should not have.

wallstreetoneil wrote in post #17557678
software is not going to do anything - if you are having major problems it is a hardware and / or assembly problem

there are way too many cameras taking sharp images at an acceptable rate for it to be software

return the camera and try again - there is clearly a bad batch of 'something' or an early assembly issue which hasn't been ironed out yet

Zactly. Canon Rumors stated the canon engineers were not happy with the focus. That could have meant they wanted to enhance something across the board which was not listed or it may have been specific to the 70-200. Maybe some got out with a FW glitch that they caught early during production Who knows..

There have been mixed results all over the place from super improvement to nothing at all. A lot of this is subjective but if someone feels it made a difference I believe it. Perhaps any that were already dialed from correctly from Canon may not show very much. Some that were a tad off due to programming might be showing more and ones like you said have a serious issue will not help..

Since it was not formally announced we will never know. Since my canon tune up I don't expect too much but they may have snuck in a few Changes that improved AF lock, tracking or something like that

I know if I ran canon I would avoid formally announcing any focus issues unless I had no choice.

GregDunn wrote in post #17557471
Considering that the MFA has entirely to do with corrections for physical tolerances in the manufacture of the camera and lens which have not been compensated by the existing lens calibration / setup (if any), why would a firmware change which does not alter MFA settings require you to reset MFA settings? Sure, MFA settings may change with time, temperature, wear, etc. so it might not be a bad idea to check them, but I doubt very much that the firmware update itself would have any effect - especially since MFA was not called out in the description.

Canon-Chas wrote in post #17557605
I fully understand his question, all my images are razor sharp after the 1.04 update, no change to MFA, my MFA settings are still good. My camera was front focusing and still is, no physical changes whatsoever.
Give some credit to Canon, if the Firmware update necessitated doing an MFA on all your lenses again they would have said so.

You just never know. I refill my own ink cartridges for Canon printers and they've sent updates to disable this. Again, you never know, which is why I asked.

After the firmware upgrade, I chose to reset MFA to zero on my lenses (only had a couple of adjustments anyhow). I'll do some shooting over the next couple of weeks and see if I need to put some MFA back.

With the 7D2, I found that MFA was somewhat erratic. Sometimes -3 would do, other times -7. I hope to find that the new firmware establishes consistency.

Regards, Jim

After updating firmware to 1.04, I checked my MFA, which was +4. It looked to be back focusing so I changed it to +1 which produced front focus. I settled on +3. This slight change could be the update or could be my poor eyes. I've had enough fun for today. Time for a wee dram.

+-3 are very reasonable numbers to me. There is going to be normal manufacturing deviation in the lens and camera.

Greg,
Theoretically, the reason you state is true, but it isn't at the exclusion of other reasons. Any calculation that might have been used to determine initial focus position and was found to have an error, could require new/differemt mfa value.
I read elsewhere that after update, the photos needed different values for his lenses.