Soft focus problem

I tried to search this forum for a subject related to my problem but it was a little overwhelming. So please bear with me on my problem.

I have a 300d using a Canon 28-90mm ef lens. The sharpness is very acceptable to me in the AF mode, this is the problem. I switched to a Canon 18-55mm efs lens and it's terribly soft focusing. No matter if its tripod mounted, hand held, fast iso, fast shutter speed, I shoot in apriture priority mode most of the time with a setting of 640/sec. If I focus with the lens manually it's fine but I can't do that when it's in the helicopter I use. Is it the lens or me or the camera?

Walter

www.RPVaerialphoto.com

If you can manually focus and get acceptable results with the EF-S lens, then it's definately a focus problem with the lens. I would send it to canon for calibration.

Looked at your web site.... Wow - cool business concept. I can see how manual focus wouldn't work. Anyway, if the lens is brand new, see if you can exchange it with who ever you bought it from. If not, send it in to canon. Good luck.

My advice is, have the Canon service calibrate the lens, then sell it and buy a 17-40L. For the business you're doing, why risk getting less than perfect images with a mediocre lens?

Edit: I've checked out your site. Very interesting approach Just wondering, why don't you buy a prime lens instead of a zoom? I mean, you can't zoom in/out when the camera is airborne, right?

Hi
I had the same problem as you with that lens, Just could not get on with it so i did the above and upgraded to a 17-40 L and its the biz hope this helps Steve

heres a picture i took with the 17-40 on a very cloudy day in London

HTTP response: 404 | Byte size: ZERO

Thanks for the help everyone, I appreciate it. I think I'll send the camera and lens to Canon to see if they can solve the focus problem.

I am now looking at some prime lenses. I know there is 1.6x factor on the digital slr. which means the 50mm prime isen't really a 50mm lens on a digital camera unless it's full frame, which mine isn't. So maybe I need to got to a 28mm prime. What do you think? I do mostly aerial shots from under 200 feet from subject.

Regards,
Walter

I have the 28/1.8 USM from Canon and highly recommend it.
However, to save money, you could look at either the 28/2.8 or 35/2.0.
These two lenses dont have the build or ultra quiet USM motor of the 28/1.8 USM, but I doubt that is going to matter for your use. They are both still built better than the 18-55 kit lens.

Quick tip for your website - resize the images from the full size image down to the actual size you want to use on your web page. Right now you're using variable sized images (ie some are 1000 wide, some are 600 wide) and you're telling the browser what size to make them. The image quality is suffering as a result - photoshop is much better at resizing images than a web browser.