Opening a can of worms, 40D front focus, return/exchange or Canon calibration???

Long story short. This is my 2nd 40D. The first was front focusing as also giving me Err99 codes.

Now, my second body is front focusing. When using the focus chart and my 50 1.4, at a few feet, it's about 10mm off.

I can also see it in my real life photos. Over the weekend I was taking pictures of my little sister lying on the ground. I was using center-point focus on her eyes and they were OOF and her arm, which was a few inches closer to me than her head, was sharply in focus.

Any help please? Please not, I have tested the 40D with multiple lenses on the focus chart and in real life, and I'm farily sure that it's the body and not my lenses.

I'm torn between having to leave it at Canon for who knows how long and it possibly not coming back corrected and getting another copy from the store which might have the same exact problem.

get another one if you can-your paying for a top spec camera so why should you have to waite for it to be fixed .
Rob.

I've had the same front-focus problem and have returned two copies of the 40D. The first had severe front-focusing with each of my lenses, all of which focus very well with my 3-year old 20D. The second front-focused slightly with my Canon lenses but provided severe front-focusing using my Sigma 18-200 OS. In careful tests using center focus on high-contrast targets, the 20D consistently provided more critically focused images.

Many folks here seem to be happy with the focus of their 40D. Maybe you and I are just unlucky or maybe others don't want to look too closely. I liked all the other features of the 40D so I'm going to try again and if this third copy does not turn out to be a charm I'll bite the bullet and send to Canon, Irvine for calibration. By now they should have plenty of experience fixing the front-focus problem on 40D's. Best of luck.

What are the odds of getting two front-focusing 40Ds? Out of curiosity, can you post the focus chart results?

Anyways, assuming the camera is actually front-focusing and not the lens(es), from my own experiences, I would say you might be much better off exchanging the camera.

Which lens did you use? I had the same problem but only with 3rd party lens - 30mm sigma which focused spot-on with xti but front-focused on 40D. My canon lenses focused good on xti and muuuuuuuuuuuuch better on 40D.

But to answer your question, I would exchange it just for err99 alone.

JackProton wrote in post #4212788
What are the odds of getting two front-focusing 40Ds? Out of curiosity, can you post the focus chart results?

Anyways, assuming the camera is actually front-focusing and not the lens(es), from my own experiences, I would say you might be much better off exchanging the camera.

I can post them later. Not to disagree what you're saying, but in my research I've found LOTS of folks having front focus issues so 2 in a row doesn't seem that impossible to me. Also, I used a 50 1.8 lens that I KNEW was focusing 100% dead on with my old XTi.

swidjaja wrote in post #4212811
Which lens did you use? I had the same problem but only with 3rd party lens - 30mm sigma which focused spot-on with xti but front-focused on 40D. My canon lenses focused good on xti and muuuuuuuuuuuuch better on 40D.

But to answer your question, I would exchange it just for err99 alone.

I have done tests with my 50 1.8, 50 1.4 and 28-135.

For what it's worth, my 40D is in Irvine right now being (hopefully) calibrated. I experienced focus problems with various lenses (most notably, Tammy 17-50/2.8, 400/5.6L and 70-200 2.8 IS L). I blamed myself ("user error") and listened to the "just get used to the camera" voices right on through the merchant's return period, so I have no choice but to rely on Canon to fix it at this point. Funny thing is, I am now getting two to three times the keeper rate with the same lenses on my "backup" XTi.

I love the features and I know that a 40D in good working order is a hell of a camera. My best friend has a "good" one, plus I have seen fine sample photos posted here and elsewhere. Good luck with yours, and I will let you know how my situation unfolds. If you can still exchange it, that's what I would do...

It sounds like the Canon QC person might be near sighted & is calibrating it manually.

JD

JD1476 wrote in post #4213214
It sounds like the Canon QC person might be near sighted & is calibrating it manually.
JD

You don't understand how it works, JD: we are Canon's QC people.

-js

Lets see pics and also with another camera would be good to see if it's user error or the camera.

cowboylife,
Sorry to hear about that
I have been very lucky and all my Canon DSLR's have been great from the start, no focus issues at all with them. I personally would return it to the store you got it from.
It seems they are selling returns as new?
Good Luck with it

John_B wrote in post #4213363
I personally would return it to the store you got it from.
It seems they are selling returns as new?
Good Luck with it

After the first 40D, they store was out of them, so I decided to go to a 30D and use the extra money for something else. I got out to my truck and just had a funny feeling about the box, I opened it up, there were scratches and fingerprints on the LCD. The normal canon "digic" tags were missing. The body was NOT in the normal soft white bag and the camera had obviously been used and returned.

cowboylife wrote in post #4212970
I can post them later. Not to disagree what you're saying, but in my research I've found LOTS of folks having front focus issues so 2 in a row doesn't seem that impossible to me. Also, I used a 50 1.8 lens that I KNEW was focusing 100% dead on with my old XTi.

Thanks. I'd be interested to see the test shots. As another test, see how the camera does when shooting something like book spines at, say, 30-50 feet or so with a wider aperture.

I'm not saying its impossible that you could get two front-focusing 40Ds in a row, just that its not something I'd expect to happen very often. I know for a fact that some Canon camera bodies come off the line with front-focusing issues but I can't say it appears to be all that common. (When I had a horribly front-focusing XT, I certainly felt very alone. :P) So, let me say that I'm completely prepared to not entriely disbelieve you.

cowboylife wrote in post #4213382
After the first 40D, they store was out of them, so I decided to go to a 30D and use the extra money for something else. I got out to my truck and just had a funny feeling about the box, I opened it up, there were scratches and fingerprints on the LCD. The normal canon "digic" tags were missing. The body was NOT in the normal soft white bag and the camera had obviously been used and returned.

Well that does seem like my original thought
"they are selling returns as new"
might be right
Good luck with it...