40D Front focusing

Hi All

I had another chance to get my new 40D out of the box again this afternoon ~ still damn awefull weather and light. However a chance to try out & see what sort of results I could expect.

I took a few shots of things seen from my front door such as the neighbours car number plate across the road and the garden wall with ivy poking out.

I looked at them on the LCD and something was just not too right in the "sharpness" department. I know that the LCD is not for critical analysis but after 2 years with my 350D I hope I have developed the "feel" of knowing if something is not quite right.

Set up my test chart and discovered that compared to my 350D both my 18-55 and 70-300 were giving me front focused images on the 40D, not by much approx 25mm i.e. about an inch. Now a couple of mm say max 5mm should not matter too much as I rarely shoot wide open but 25mm can make the diiference between very sharply focused and crap whether I stop down or not. I have yet to chart test my 60mm Macro but that gives spoton focus with the 350D and as such is the most demanding lens wide open with a razor thin DoF.

I advised the shop and their fresh stock is due on Tuesday, I said I am happy to take a replacement in the hope that this is a one off.

When I bought mine, it showed the same problem. It was doing about an inch front focusing, +/- with different lens. Read same complains about it from some new owners, not many but some.
So I quick trip to the store for an exchange solved the problem - and yes, I had to wait a few days for them to get it in stock.
Hope your problem gets resolved as well.

I am glad (I think) that someone else has reported this because I do not recall reading of any other such feedback.

For the record I had another look at the bottle image I posted on my only other thread about my 40D experince to date and though hard to discern the largest type that focused on is 'softer' than the smaller type lower down ~ note here that I was looking down at an angle at the bottle to take the picture so the lower text area was a little further away so there may be a little bit of back focus depending on the focal length - my test chart with the 70-300 was taken at 70mm whereas the bottle was taken at 300mm.

As noted I have not had the same issue with the 350D.