1D Mk11 problem??? Help!!!

Right all, at a ends meat of this situation on the verge of just binning the blinking camera as i am convinced its at fault

basically i'm having some problems with the images the camera is producing, they are no longer very crisp and sharp

The problem i am getting is hard to explain but basically it is as if the apertures are not working tidy kind of thing but this is not the case, for example on this subject of shooting cars which i have done for 6 years i am now getting some shots where shot at f6.3 giving only the bonnet of the car sharp and crisp and leaving the top very soft almost out of focus see the pics attached below, but its not consistant for example the two pics attached are a split second from each other the first is acceptable nice and crisp etc but the second you can notice on the crop that the top has gone very soft almost out of focus :s i've eliminated the lens no problems as it is giving me smack on images on my 40D i have noticed the problem more of late since the lens went off for a new is unit and the camera also went off just incase but i was told nothing was done to the camera. I just find it very strange as to how this is starting and doing it like it is.. Any ideas please folks?? is the camera dying, is this common the camera is 3 years old and has seen around 96k shots. Just wanted some advice etc before it goes to Canon for them to rip me off!

(before it starts with user error etc i've been taking photos for at least 6 years do a search for my posts)

All exif should be in tact Shot at 1/640th @ f6.3 I would expect the shots to be like the first all crisp and sharp as they usually are well were!

Decent shot

Where was the focus point in these frames? Assuming the centre point was used, I would say that these shots are exactly what you should expect. There are many different points of good contrast right near the centre of the frame, but the one smack in the middle is the hood --> grill transition. The Ford logo is sharp in both shots, which suggests that the camera was focusing on the grill, which it did perfectly.

The sharpness discrepancy is due to the car being in a different position relative to the DOF, but the camera (focused on the grill) doesn't know that. Hopefully that makes sense. I wouldn't go ditching the camera just yet. And as an aside, I would have no problems printing that second shot at A3 after a bit of sharpening. I doubt anyone aside from you would ever notice the "softness" if the first shot wasn't there to compare.

Also, I'm assuming you just upgraded to the 1DII from the 40D -- you have to understand that the 1DII has the strongest AA filter of any Canon DSLR, and is thus the softest straight out of camera. The recommended baseline sharpening (from Canon) is unsharp mask of 300% 0.4 radius. That first shot you posted is as sharp as things will ever get without sharpening.

I'm not really seeing a big problem here, it looks like just a little extra glare from the light outside. And I don't think it would take a "silly amount of sharpening" to fix either.

I have a 300/4 non IS, it's like 16 years old. 1993. I have shot in High Speed Burst with both the old 1D classic and my 40D, and saw something similar. Here's what it was. In AI Servo, the camera will fire if it's out of focus. In One Shot, It won't. I always shoot in High Speed burst and AI Servo. So what's going on, is the AF is watching the object the center focus point is pointed to, changing focus continually. The camera is firing as fast as it can, whether the damn thing is in focus or not. You can see where this is going. 5 out of 8 shots it might be in focus, 3 out 8 it isn't quite.

All I can figure out is, the lens is getting sloppy inside there, or, it's acting the way it should, but the design is flawed, allowing firing when not in focus. Probably a design flaw.

canonloader wrote in post #7678574
All I can figure out is, the lens is getting sloppy inside there, or, it's acting the way it should, but the design is flawed, allowing firing when not in focus. Probably a design flaw.

It's not the lens. It's the camera. And it's not a design flaw. Custom Function 21:0 will set the camera to prioritize focus in AI Servo.

On what body?

canonloader wrote in post #7678674
On what body?

The one OP has problems with.

nope didnt step up from the 40d owned the 1d for many moons bought the 40d because of these problems and it whips the 1ds bum in image quality.

centre focus was used yes and i see what you mean regarding the contrast etc and the AA filter but it does it with any subject i am shooting for example stationery cars people anything. i have shot many times at f2.8 for example and had the whole car in a burst spot on but upping the aperture a bit should give me more d.o.f to play with but it doesnt appear to be working like that, just checked cf21 and thats all spot on, i just found it very strange that the quality in my shots has dropped all of a sudden only when using this camera but can not seem to pin point to as why :s

The camera neva used to go off to that extent when shooting at around 6.3 the whole car would be pin in all shots. i have many 0000's of shots to proove that lol

Maybe it is just me being to critical on my work but i am certainly noticing something bad?

Regards,
Jon.S

Do you happen to have AF point expansion turned on?

DDCSD wrote in post #7679773
Do you happen to have AF point expansion turned on?

C.Fn 17? this has always been set as 0 Single Af Point

Regards,
Jon.S