What the......

I just noticed if I take a shot in live view, my pictures are tack sharp; if I take a picture through the eye piece, shots are blurry, and both are with a tripod. What is happening? Also , the auto focus struggles more through the eye piece. I'm stumped!

What camera? What settings? What lens? What lighting? What target?

Perhaps and example with EXIF would help.

anitaw2 wrote in post #18494007
I just noticed if I take a shot in live view, my pictures are tack sharp; if I take a picture through the eye piece, shots are blurry, and both are with a tripod. What is happening? Also , the auto focus struggles more through the eye piece. I'm stumped!

Need a TON more details. And samples.

Very best,

Sorry canon 7D, canon 85mm 1.8, Spot AF, spot metering, ambient light, I targeted the little pic of the cup. The first shot was in live view, the second I looked through the viewfinder. didn't change a thing. Even the brightness of the pictures are different.

With the first picture (Live View) it appears the focus box was on the cup, also note the shutter speed was 1/400 (less light as all other settings were the same). In the second shot, it appears the focus was set on the corner of the laptop on the left. It is also brighter as the shutter speed on the viewfinder shot was 1/250th.

1) Focus point was not on the same spot.

2) Spot meter is based on the focus point, so it metered differently since you were on a different focus point which was over something else.

Not a good test as it allowed you to make differences which are user error in this case.

Shoot in manual mode and set the values yourself, don't let the camera do anything you're not telling it to (so they both produce the same exposure, same settings, so they're not different). Meter it yourself. Shoot in One Shot focus drive. Do this from a tripod, tightly set. Make sure there is PLENTY of light, and not just dim indoor light. Shoot wide open (F1.8). Set the focus point to be the center point only. Your subject matter needs to be something with lots of contrast (print a focus board on white paper for example). When you go to focus, rotate your manual focus so its out of focus so that the AF system has to find focus, both in phase detect (your viewfinder) and contrast detect (Live View) to see the difference. Use a remote shutter release, not your finger to trip the shutter as you're touching the camera and moving it (unless you have butterfly touch, maybe you do).

Very best,

ok, I did exactly what you said, first shot in live view, second in eyeview. I didn't change anything

You need to use the focus adjust mechanism built into the camera to adjust where the focus plane falls while using that lens.

Good, now you have a good test setting.

Now you simply adjust MFA on your lens until it's the highest contrast.

Contrast detect (live view) will be accurate.

Phase detect (view finder) is where the probably always is with a dSLR when it comes to adjusting focus to get sharp focus under good test conditions.

So now you're set to MFA it until you're happy with the results. It's close so it shouldn't take major adjustments to get it sharp.

Very best,

Suggest you do the MFA adjustment in daylight.

We've had cases when tungsten light led the 85/1.8 to a MFA setting that wasn't optimal for daylight later on.

When you are done doing MFA you may want to read this.

http://www.learn.usa.c​anon.com …ticles/2014/spo​t_AF.shtml

agedbriar wrote in post #18494152
Suggest you do the MFA adjustment in daylight.

We've had cases when tungsten light led the 85/1.8 to a MFA setting that wasn't optimal for daylight later on.

There is no warning by FoCal which I use but I purchased two daylight balanced studio CFL's to light my target. Even using that I try to do it in a daylight environment.

sidknee wrote in post #18494110
You need to use the focus adjust mechanism built into the camera to adjust where the focus plane falls while using that lens.

I'm not sure what you mean, can you explain

Check this out.

https://www.youtube.co​m/watch?v=Gb-aoqH6I7o

The presenter states to do this at different distances which you can do and find a happy medium. Most don't. Pick a distance that you normally shoot at. I picked the video because he showed how to get to and use the settings. It is trial and error. Try +10 and -10 and see which way is trending and then fine tune.