Any such thing as an all in focus camera lens?

I take photos mainly of moving trains, often in a big landscape. I have had probably all sorts of focus problems including occasional shutter delay and shots missed or not in sharp focus. I have two Canon 60D and mainly use a 24-105 L USM IS lens but problem occurs with both cameras and any lens so is mainly user error I suspect. I find the the focus troubleshooting recommendations overwhelming and likely to take many hours of testing. I don't want to even have to focus! I find photos generally lack the depth of field that human vision has. What I think is the ultimate solution is a lens with full-time sharp focus from close up to infinity. I don't want anything out of focus in photos that I take (including portrait photography.) Does such a lens exist? If not, is manually selecting AF points likely to help achieve even focus? Also I have few related queries about sharpness. Is there a way of increasing sharpness before shooting using camera settings? Are "soft" images due to market preferences or limitations of digital photography? I have been told that the Canon 24-105 L USM lens is particularly soft I so wonder what the sharpest lenses might be.

Get any ultrawide shot, and just about everything is in focus. For example put a Canon 18-55 STM IS lens on the 60D, and just about everything in your scene should be in focus. Just make sure you up your ISO enough to be able to stop motion, etc.

Use this site to plug in different focal lengths and where you think you will be focusing to see what should be in reasonable focus.
http://www.dofmaster.c​om/dofjs.html

Use a phone camera.

John Russell - NZ wrote in post #17896120
I take photos mainly of moving trains, often in a big landscape. I have had probably all sorts of focus problems including occasional shutter delay and shots missed or not in sharp focus. I have two Canon 60D and mainly use a 24-105 L USM IS lens but problem occurs with both cameras and any lens so is mainly user error I suspect. I find the the focus troubleshooting recommendations overwhelming and likely to take many hours of testing. I don't want to even have to focus! I find photos generally lack the depth of field that human vision has. What I think is the ultimate solution is a lens with full-time sharp focus from close up to infinity. I don't want anything out of focus in photos that I take (including portrait photography.) Does such a lens exist? If not, is manually selecting AF points likely to help achieve even focus? Also I have few related queries about sharpness. Is there a way of increasing sharpness before shooting using camera settings? Are "soft" images due to market preferences or limitations of digital photography? I have been told that the Canon 24-105 L USM lens is particularly soft I so wonder what the sharpest lenses might be.

Judging from your comments look for photos that meet the standards you are trying to achieve and get the same lens. Seriously though, what mode are you shooting in? Do you understand the exposure triangle? Or the part that the Aperture and depth of field plays? If not the issue you are having may be related more to your lack of skill and experience rather than your equipment. Can you post some examples of pictures that demonstrate the issue? We need to see the Exif information attached to the images which might shed some like on why you are not getting the shots you want. Depending on what you want, you may have either set unrealistic expectations or you are unaware of the techniques that will allow you to reach your goal.

Stop the lens down sufficiently.

Frodge wrote in post #17896181
Stop the lens down sufficiently.

I suspect from the general nature of his questions and comments he may not understand your suggestion or know how to do it.

Maybe you're right, but he owns two 60ds and l glass.....

Another thing to consider is focus stacking, that is a composite of several shots with various focus planes.
Pan-focal images are a curiosity and style choice that's interesting to achieve. One way as mentioned is to use a small aperture like f/39, but your details will be soft. With enough field of view and distance you won't have to stop down as much, also as mentioned, by using a wide or ultra wide.
You may also use sharpening or deconvolution to nudge softer areas toward the perception of sharpness.
There are other techniques which yield other styles that are also fun to experiment with, like panning.
I know that's a load of jargon, but don't be hesitant to research and experiment.

Welcome to the forum, John.

When I want "everything in focus" (which really means "almost" everything . . . if I'm not planning on focus stacking) and nice and sharp, I use my manual focus 21mm Zeiss Distagon at a narrow aperture.

I can "set it and forget it." There is no focus hunting if I accidentally hit my focus button, or if I've got the shutter button set to focus as well.

You can see how the 21mm Distagon and the 24-105 4.0 compare here:

http://www.the-digital-picture.com …omp=0&FLIComp=0​&APIComp=4

I was concerned about purchasing a manual focus lens, but the lens is easy to focus, and if the focus button is held (or shutter is half pressed . . . depending on your camera set up) while focussing the active focus point blinks red and there is an audible beep when focus has been achieved. It is still a "smart" lens, despite the manual focus.

John Russell - NZ wrote in post #17896120
I have been told that the Canon 24-105 L USM lens is particularly soft I so wonder what the sharpest lenses might be.

this lens is fine for what you are wanting to achieve. As said, you want to have a small aperture like f/11-f/22 and once you have stopped down that much, most decent lenses will all be pretty darn sharp.

Go here and get a good idea of what DOF can be achieved with what lens/distance combos. Start out at 24-35mm then plug in some different distances. Do a little research on hyper focal distance and you will see that focusing toward the middle of the closest and farthest things you want in focus will help dramatically.

http://dofmaster.com/d​ofjs.html

Great minds post alike

F/22 and pray you don't have sensor dust

Maybe f/22, but if the OP wants in-focus from front to back, then he should use a small sensor camera. Smaller sensors give more DOF. Look at a compact camera or a phone camera.

Not needed, a wide angle at f8 to f16 on an apsc should be sufficient.

TeamSpeed wrote in post #17896681
Great minds post alike

ah yes, and i bet some of them even read the thread before posting, but i usually don't.

Mr, Russell, according to the website TS and I posted, a crop camera, 50mm lens, at f/11 and hyper focal distance of 38.3 feet gives the following Depth of field:

Near limit - 19.2 ft
Far limit - Infinity

35mm, f/11, hyperfocal distance of 18.8 feet:

Near limit - 9.4 ft
Far limit - Infinity

You really should be fine with those numbers and plenty of margin of error. If you want a longer lens, and the same wiggle room you'll just have to stop down a bit more, f/16 or f/22