Not sure where to post this. . .

Hiya Martin,

That's using a 50mm f/1.8. although it happens on all lenses. The first image is from my 55-250mm

Both of which never had a filter on at the time of the images being taken.

The same thing also happen on my Kit Lens.

Bugging the hell out of me. Its easy saying just change the angle but surely that's not good enough. Would mean I wont be able to point my camera in the direction of any lights.

I did phone Canon yesterday and the guy on the phone checked out my last image here. He said he will be passing it on to another team as he has never seen anything like it before and he also said its NOT lens flare. I am just saying what the Canon technician said. I am not saying anyone here is wrong, As its not very often that happens.

When I hear back from them I will be sure to update this post and let you all know.

Interesting....I would get rid of any filters until you figure this out...especially for night time photography (did you have a filter on that last photo?) Flare is a normal occurance and some lenses handle it better then others so that may be some issues (but I would agree not in the last photo....that looks more like reflection from a filter to me). I'm grasping at straws here but have you maybe cleaned your lenses with anything that may have left some residue on them? I would suggest giving them a good cleaning with a lens cloth and lens cleaning solution. Other than that, let us know what you find.

Do let us know. Do you have a friend / neighbour with a (any) Canon DLSR? try comparing variety of combinations (at least you/his lens on each body, same subject, ie. 4 images. Perhaps you can the deduce if your camera or your lens or ??. I'm beginning to suspect your camera, despite unlikelyness, I can't believe these lenses would be that different from mine - I tried f/2.8 16-55 (with filter!) and Sigma 30mm f/1.4 on my 500D.

Unfortunately I do not know anyone else with a Canon DLSR.

My brother 'The Traitor' recently bought a Nikon D5000. with also the equivalent to my Kit lens. He was with me taking photo's of the same thing as I was from the same location as I was and he had no reflections at all.

@jra
No filters was on the lens at the time of the last photo shown here was taken. Also, no cleaning has taken place to cause this problem.

neilwood32 wrote in post #9042679
Just plain old lens flare.

Basically every time light hits a lens surface, it gets bent and over a series of these it can show up as flare.

Some lenses take care of it by way of coatings, others by using different lens materials. Others just dont handle it well at all.

You are correct, Apparently its called Secondary Reflection or better known as ghosting.

Canon phoned me back today and told me basically to suck eggs and spend on better lenses. lol. The better lenses have better coatings on them.

So, Well done to just about everyone that posted, you was all correct. Guess I kind of wanted it to be something that can be fixed rather than an expense.

I'm really sorry you didn't get a better outcome. A very interesting post, thanks for letting us know how it ended up.

Im just curious how old are your lenses that do that?

Sorry it didn't work our for you Data - Canon customer service really talk to you like that? We see this from time to time here with uncoated glass... be it filters or lenses. They generally work fine until "stressed" in demanding lighting situatioins.

Data wrote in post #9078616
You are correct, Apparently its called Secondary Reflection or better known as ghosting.

Canon phoned me back today and told me basically to suck eggs and spend on better lenses. lol. The better lenses have better coatings on them.

So, Well done to just about everyone that posted, you was all correct. Guess I kind of wanted it to be something that can be fixed rather than an expense.

Photoform wrote in post #9079252
Im just curious how old are your lenses that do that?

My Kit Lens and the 55-250 are about 1 year old and the nifty fifty is about 2 months I guess.

What you have here is ghosting, rather than lens flare. Ghosting produces a secondary image of the bightest object(s) in the shot. Flare produces either an overall reduction in contrast or an aperture-shaped spot reduction in contrast (or both).

Ghosting is caused when light passes through the lens, is reflected off the sensor back into the lens, and reflects off one or more elements and back to the sensor again. While it happened with film cameras, it is much more common with digital cameras because the sensors are much more reflective than the emulsion side of film.

Filters are notorious for causing ghosting because they are flat. Flat surfaces reflect better.

Digital-grade lenses (all Canon and EF lenses manufactured in September 2000 or later and all EF-S lenses , Sigma DG and DC lenses, Tamron Di and Di-II lenses, and Tokina D and DX lenses) have special coatings to reduce ghosting. No lenses completely eliminate ghosting.

Ghosting always occurs, but is virtually invisible when the ratio between the brightest areas and the background is low, as with most daytime shots. When you have a high contrast ratio, however, the ghost appears.

Techniques to prevent/minimize ghosting include:

-- A careful choice of lenses (some are much worse at ghosting than others).

-- A careful choice of angles so the ghost misses the sensor, or is cast where the background is brightest.

-- Removal of all filters. If a filter must be used, be sure it has anti-refelctive coatings, which help prevent ghosting—somewhat. There are special anti-ghosting filters with curved surfaces, but the are very expensive and rarer than hens' teeth.

-- Use a polarizer. Yeah, I know a polarizer is a filter, but in some cases it can help with ghosting. This is especially true when the bright source causing the ghost is itself a reflection, i.e., polarized light.

-- Use as low an ISO as you can. This can often place the ghost in or near the "mud" at the bottom of the sensor's sensitivity range, rendering it invisible (or very neary so).

-- Shoot wide and crop narrow. By shooting with a wider angle of view than needed, you get a lot of extraneous material around you subject. Often, the ghost can be manipulated to be in this extraneous material. Then, when you crop the image to your subject, voila! No ghost!

20droger wrote in post #9082243
What you have here is ghosting, rather than lens flare. Ghosting produces a secondary image of the bightest object(s) in the shot. Flare produces either an overall reduction in contrast or an aperture-shaped spot reduction in contrast (or both).

Ghosting is caused when light passes through the lens, is reflected off the sensor back into the lens, and reflects off one or more elements and back to the sensor again. While it happened with film cameras, it is much more common with digital cameras because the sensors are much more reflective than the emulsion side of film.

Filters are notorious for causing ghosting because they are flat. Flat surfaces reflect better.

Digital-grade lenses (all Canon and EF lenses manufactured in September 2000 or later and all EF-S lenses , Sigma DG and DC lenses, Tamron Di and Di-II lenses, and Tokina D and DX lenses) have special coatings to reduce ghosting. No lenses completely eliminate ghosting.

Ghosting always occurs, but is virtually invisible when the ratio between the brightest areas and the background is low, as with most daytime shots. When you have a high contrast ratio, however, the ghost appears.

Techniques to prevent/minimize ghosting include:

-- A careful choice of lenses (some are much worse at ghosting than others).

-- A careful choice of angles so the ghost misses the sensor, or is cast where the background is brightest.

-- Removal of all filters. If a filter must be used, be sure it has anti-refelctive coatings, which help prevent ghosting—somewhat. There are special anti-ghosting filters with curved surfaces, but the are very expensive and rarer than hens' teeth.

-- Use a polarizer. Yeah, I know a polarizer is a filter, but in some cases it can help with ghosting. This is especially true when the bright source causing the ghost is itself a reflection, i.e., polarized light.

-- Use as low an ISO as you can. This can often place the ghost in or near the "mud" at the bottom of the sensor's sensitivity range, rendering it invisible (or very neary so).

-- Shoot wide and crop narrow. By shooting with a wider angle of view than needed, you get a lot of extraneous material around you subject. Often, the ghost can be manipulated to be in this extraneous material. Then, when you crop the image to your subject, voila! No ghost!

This is exactly what I was told on the phone. Maybe it was you I spoke with? haha.

Anyway, Thank you for posting to let others know exactly what it is.