Is my 70-200 soft??

I have a 70-200 2.8 Sigma EX DG Macro HSM and have a problem with it wide open.
So yesterday I ran down to the creek and took a few test pics all different stops, but the 2.8 wide open stop always seems fuzzy. No matter how hard I try, I cant get any of the wide open pics to come in clear. All were taken on a Tripod.

This is 100% zoom on an unaltered picture.

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It would help if you said what your focus point was. But from what I see the image seems to be sharper as you look away from the center (what I'm assuming as your focus point). My guess would be that your lens has a front focus issue.

Not the best test subject. Try a street scene, stop sign, whatever. How many AF points do you have active?

What sort of shutter speed were you using? Were you using a cable release? Even on a tripod it's possible to introduce a slight amount of camera vibration/shake. I agree about not knowing the focus points.

Mine is slightly soft at 200mm f/2.8 but at f/3.5 it's fine - I assume you were at 200mm, What shutter speed were you using and what did you focus on? At f/2.8 200mm you don't have much dof, and need a fairly good shutter speed handheld (I'd be aiming for min 1/500th)

I stopped along this creek and focused on the left hand side of the big rock there. I used center focus point only, and shutterspeed is 1/320 focal length 70mm.

This is the same Lens, Same focal point, zoomed in at max 200mm, 2.8. I have no problem with this picture becsause I can unsharp mask this to look nice.

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At 70mm (and 200mm for that matter) your lens is not going to be at it's best. You need to find the "sweet spot" for that lens. My guess is the sweet spot on that lens would be somewhere in the range of 120-160mm. All lenses (except primes) have a range in which their optical performance is at it's best...or "perfect" if you want to say that. You just need to find that range. Based on the look of the 2nd photo, and using the big rock in the center as your focus point, I would still say you might have a front focus problem. But the other photos don't look bad at all.

30D,
Thanks for the input. The 2nd pic (fuzziest one) is a 100% crop of the 1st pic. The final pic was to show a difference in this lens. All stops are ok with me except 2.8, which I know is a hazzard on many lenses.

I used a front focus/back focus paper last week and I got mixed results. My battery test showed me ok, but then this pic has me frustrated.

Of course it will seem a bit soft right out of the camera -- you need to do some sharpening with software.

Ok well this last picture does it for me, Im sending it in.

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If you focused on the battery on the right, then you have no problems

What was your focus point for that battery shot? What focal length were you at? What is your distance from the batteries? All those are important things you should include in order to get a better possible solution. The batteries seem to be at an angle. If you focused on the battery on the right, then DOF could be correct.

Gatorboy, I don't think he'd be sending it in if his focus was on the right hand battery.. the whole point of that test is to focus on the center.

if hes focusing on middle battery then his camera is front focusing! its not the lens thats at fault!!