Questions of Your Preferences and Front Focus Issues

Hello, I'm yet another new 40D owner. I bought the camera with the Tamron 17-50/2.8 lens, but as i did the battery test today it seems I'm having front focus issues.

1. Full manual, because I always have, always will, and I am a control freak

2. I have enabled the extended ISO (so I can reach "H" now, which is 3200 ISO) I have enabled live view, and AF during live view, and then I have the noise reduction option ready on my custom menu tab, ready to be enabled when I hit 3200 ISO.

i think i would try another lens /focal lenth first as you could fix this FF only to find another lens is then put out .
Rob.

In my experience, this is far more likely to be due to the lens than the camera. There have been many reports of poor (mostly front) focussing from the 17-50 in low light. Mine did that quite often, and the type of test you have shown (very poor light, short distance) was where it was most likely to happen.

I'd suggest:
- Try testing in much better light (preferable outdoors on a sunny day!)
- Try testing at a longer distance
- Try another lens

Normally it's stuck on 'M' mode.. used that from day one and never really weaned myself off it..

If I am doing something where I have less time to think then I'd probably say Av so that I can keep my aperture as I want it and not have to faff around getting my shutter speed right.. mainly for outdoor journo style stuff more than anything... tend to keep it at around f/9 and see what happens..

As for custom settings.. ISO expansion on, safety shift enabled, Long Exposure noise reduction off, high ISO speed noise reduction off, highlight tone priority disabled, SET button changed to picture style, Live View exposure simulation on, think that's about it...

Tend to keep the noise reductions and highlight tone priority off as they seriously chew into the burst rate, in fact I thought my camera was screwed until I figured that turning them off would give me a shot speed identical to that of the specifications..

Like the others, M for static situations, Tv for events. RAW only therefore no intermediate ISO or expansion, no NR or HTP. UniWB set as CWB.

Thanks everyone, I'll test the lens in better light before taking it back to the shop. If it's a feature rather than a real problem I'll just have to live with it.

Thanks for the mode info! I guess I'll first learn full manual fast & accurate, along with Tv when I need to be fast. Another thing I have to figure out is how to set-up the AF-button vs. shutter half-press the way I like it.

Gottdammerung wrote in post #5603308
Tend to keep the noise reductions and highlight tone priority off as they seriously chew into the burst rate, in fact I thought my camera was screwed until I figured that turning them off would give me a shot speed identical to that of the specifications..

Have you also changed the burst rate to "High" (rectangle boxes with the H on it). Might seem an obvious thing to do but some people forget .... for eg: LightRules. Which reminds me .... I need to check that thread out

riyazi wrote in post #5604048
Have you also changed the burst rate to "High" (rectangle boxes with the H on it). Might seem an obvious thing to do but some people forget .... for eg: LightRules. Which reminds me .... I need to check that thread out

First thing I checked since I'd had a 30D prior to this..

It was more the buffer size than confused me, getting nowhere near what I should have on a Extreme IV CF card... I usually get about 14 images before it starts slowing... I was getting something like 5 then having to wait...

Do you have access to another lens? I'd retry the test in better light but I cant see how a lens would affect the bodies ability to focus as all calculations are done in the body but it's worth a shot. I went through the same process with a front focusing 40D. I ended up sending the body back to Canon for recalibration but after this weekends shooting am still not happy with it. Sometimes it hits spot on but it also misses a whole bunch. This happens with multiple lenses.

I tried shooting outside today, all pictures were out of focus even though the weather was sunny. I'll definately take it back to the shop and have them do something with it.