Front focus on the 450D

Hi everyone,

A friend of mine is seeking for a first DSLR camera.
While taking advices on the Internet, He found that there has been some buzz about a front focus issue with the 450D. He asked me what I thought about it but I had to answer I had no clue about that.

I think that buzz started ~2 yrs ago. Is there some final conclusion that came out of it ? What Canon finally said ? and you guys ?

Thanks.

My conclusion is that, although with many thousands of cameras and even more thousands of lenses sold there must be a few with genuine flaws, there are many thousands of people with many thousands of perfectly fine cameras and lenses that work as they should.

OL9245 wrote in post #7176334
Hi everyone,

A friend of mine is seeking for a first DSLR camera.
While taking advices on the Internet, He found that there has been some buzz about a front focus issue with the 450D. He asked me what I thought about it but I had to answer I had no clue about that.
I think that buzz started ~2 yrs ago. Is there some final conclusion that came out of it ? What Canon finally said ? and you guys ?
Thanks.

I've had no problem with my XSi, maybe the "buzz" was created by people unfamiliar with the AF points

My Sigma lenses (and rented ones too) front focus on my XSi, but my EFS and L glass is rock solid as is my Tamron glass.

The whole issue of 'front focusing' and 'back focusing' is blown completely out of proportion by pixel peepers....

I suspect Canon including micro adjustment in their latest pro-sumer models (50D and 5D Mk II) is mostly a defensive move on their part... They are probably sick and tired of their service dept. spending so much time on minor adjustment non-issues. They probably figure 'let the pixel peepers micro adjust their own damn lenses!'

Let's face it, there's such a thing as 'factory tolerances' and that means that AF will vary a little. And we're talking millimeters here!

Besides, anyone who takes the time to learn about hyperfocal distances and depth of field may realize that a wee bit of front focus could be the best thing possible.

Tell your friend to stop fretting over silly stuff, get the camera they like and get busy shooting with it. If he's so obsessive compulsive that he wants to be able to micro adjust each and every lens, then he'll just have to step up to the 50D instead of the 450D.

Thanks everyone for your comments.

My friend is a noob, not a pixel peeper. There is a rumor. He tries to check it out: myth or facts? This is good practice before engaging on a significant expense. I'd like to respond him with facts. I'd like to have more to tell than "the rumor on POTN says the rumor is untrue".

If some one has facts to share, this is what I need. Otherwise, I'll use my common sense to explain him it has been exagerated.

Alan front/back focus is not a trivial issue. It is not fun coming home from a photoshoot finding every single photo is out of focus. My personal experience has been that 4 out of 4 items I have taken to Canon needed calibration. It is a very real problem

OL9245 wrote in post #7176334
Hi everyone,

A friend of mine is seeking for a first DSLR camera.
While taking advices on the Internet, He found that there has been some buzz about a front focus issue with the 450D. He asked me what I thought about it but I had to answer I had no clue about that.

I think that buzz started ~2 yrs ago. Is there some final conclusion that came out of it ? What Canon finally said ? and you guys ?

Thanks.

Well, call me a skeptic. Since the XSi/450D has only been out for about 10 months the buzz was just the trolls finding fault with everything Canon produces. Every Canon camera introduction has a "big" flaw according to a handful that primarily post on DP Review. Amazingly the issue vanishes as soon as the next model is introduced.

I'd suggest your friend check out the XSi/450D thread here at POTN and look at the 1000's of excellent pictures in the 3800+ posts to get a sense of what the camera can really do.

Things I've observed about this hobby or profession for some:

There are 1000's more poor photographers than there are out of spec cameras.

The OCD and level of anal retentivness is amazingly high.

The percieved issues seem to strike the same people over and over and over....

The XSi is an excellent camera that is far more capable than the majority of owners. Yes, that includes me.

Jim

Jim Holtz wrote in post #7189629
Well, call me a skeptic. Since the XSi/450D has only been out for about 10 months the buzz was just the trolls finding fault with everything Canon produces. Every Canon camera introduction has a "big" flaw according to a handful that primarily post on DP Review. Amazingly the issue vanishes as soon as the next model is introduced.

I'd suggest your friend check out the XSi/450D thread here at POTN and look at the 1000's of excellent pictures in the 3800+ posts to get a sense of what the camera can really do.

Things I've observed about this hobby or profession for some:

There are 1000's more poor photographers than there are out of spec cameras.

The OCD and level of anal retentivness is amazingly high.

The percieved issues seem to strike the same people over and over and over....

The XSi is an excellent camera that is far more capable than the majority of owners. Yes, that includes me.

Jim

I share you overall opinion. I'm just surprised that nothing serious (I mean published facts) have been done to counter this rumor. Canon is not very good at crisis-communication.

BTW, as you are a 450D owner. Ca you compare the 450D with 40D. My friend is balancing between the two and I know none of them. Thanks.

OL9245 wrote in post #7194401
I share you overall opinion. I'm just surprised that nothing serious (I mean published facts) have been done to counter this rumor. Canon is not very good at crisis-communication.

BTW, as you are a 450D owner. Ca you compare the 450D with 40D. My friend is balancing between the two and I know none of them. Thanks.

Honestly, I can't compare the 450D to the 40D. I've owned a XT, XTi and now a XSi but none of the xxD series canons. I'm in the US so I have the US versions. I can say, I think the XSi is the best of the Rebels. Image quality is excellent, focusing is fast an accurate and the features are exactly what "I" need.

That said, the 40D is reported by 1000's to be excellent and many like the larger size with the wheel on the back. I don't care for the ergonomics of the 40D over the XSi and I have big hands so it becomes a personal preferance thing.

Your friend won't go wrong with either camera.

However, your friend should be aware that images straight out of either camera with default settings will not have a lot of "pop" and will have a softer look. I'd suggest a custom picture style if he shoots jpg or use DPP 3.5.2 for RAW images. Then they'll look great!

Jim

As has been said, there's no way for a rumor to start ~2 years ago regarding a camera that's been out for less than a year.

As has also been said, no mention of any such problem was brought up in the thread dedicated to that camera, on this very popular forum until recently, and that quickly died off.

I own an XSi, and I've had no complaints. I've never shot images of batteries in a row, because I don't need to, at least for the lenses I have. When I nail the focus, it's as perfect as the equipment I have (and I'm talking lenses here) can muster. I have shots from the 50/1.8 that are nearly as sharp as almost anything I've seen here on POTN, and you've got to remember that there are a lot of people here shooting >$1000 lenses.

I know people don't like to hear it, and some may actually have a problem with their body/lens, and there are calibration issues with all photographic equipment, but some of this comes down to the user. I went for a day shoot, ~200 shots, and probably 5% weren't properly focused. I blame that on myself. There's no way the camera nailed focus on 190 shots and missed it 10 times...it was me. I recomposed at shallow DoF and wasn't still enough, my grip was bad, it was cold and I was hurrying, etc. This shoot took place with a couple (rented) >$1000 lenses, and the majority of razor-sharp images tells me it's clearly not my camera.

Tell him to get the XSi and ignore internet rumors. If he has a problem, he'll figure it out quickly (with your help) and can always return it.

Oh, and it's also the top DSLR on Amazon, so people are still buying them, despite all these perceived issues.

Thanks everyone for your input.
You have helped him to make his own opinion about the rumor.

My XSI with a white box 28-135mm has front focus bias.

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drdiesel1 wrote in post #7211552
My XSI with a white box 28-135mm has front focus bias.

How about some actual images that show front focus bias rather than a test chart?

Here is the only reasonably accurate focus chart I've seen and it's still subject to user error that gives false results if they don't do it exactly right.

http://focustestchart.​com/chart.html

Here's an excellent article that addresses concerns about XSi focusing.

http://www.learnslr.co​m/?page_id=244

Jim

When the XSi first came out, many newcomers to SLRs freaked because their shots were out of focus. In my research, I came to the conclusion that if you let the camera pick the AF spot, then there is a tendency of the camera to AF on a closer object with lots of contrast.

However, if YOU pick the AF point (you are smarter than the camera, right?) you're not likely to have any issue at all.

I shoot 99% using the center AF point, and out of my 24k shots none have been front focused.