Canon 100mm 2.8 USM Sharpness Issues

-Sharpness Issue Fixed-

Thanks!

But does anyone else's manual focus ring make clicks when you turn it to the left? Not loud but noticeable, and makes turning the ring to the left less smooth... I can actually feel the clicks. Does not happen while turning to the right.

Even though you are on a tripod I wouldn't use 1/5th of a second shutter speed as the best judge of sharpness. You may be getting some shake from your tripping the shutter or from the mirror slap. Also pay close attention to where you focus as when you get into the high magnification close-up range the dof is very very thin and it is easy to misfocus. Mine does not exhibit the noise / click you mention.

There are points in the photos that are sharp. I don't know how close you were to the subject of the shots, but when you're shooting a 100 @ macro distances, f:3.2 doesn't give a very large DOF. Try the same shots with a smaller aperture.

ETA: The aperture was around f:10 for this shot. Note how shallow the DOF is when you're up that close.

^ I think I've got the sharpness issue fixed now, thanks! I was using a tripod and I had it on timer.

The issue that still stands is the clicking. It isn't very loud but noticeable because it causes turning the ring to the left less smooth...I wonder why that is?

Not sure about the noise - mine's pre-USM. Do you know what kind of motor is in that lens?

Randy is right on, but he is if anything understating the problem. At minimum focus distances, the depth of field with all macro lenses is very thin, and at 3.2, it is razor thin. If your lens is functioning perfectly, you should have an extremely narrow range in focus, and the rest not.

In addition to using a reasonable aperture, you should set up a test shot in which you know which portions should be in focus. For example, here's an 100% crop from an f/5.6 shot taken with the Canon 100m f/2.8 L macro, when I was testing out the image stabilization. YOu can see that only the ridge closest to the camera is in focus and that it goes out of focus quickly as the edge gets farther from the point of focus: http://dkoretz.smugmug​.com …90/738396106_UF​TXp-XL.jpg Here you can see the same thing with the coin on its side; I focused on the 8: http://dkoretz.smugmug​.com …91/738397304_S8​zcD-X2.jpg

Thanks a bunch guys, I have the sharpness issue solved, I am just bothered by the ticking sounds when I turn the manual focus ring to the left. I can even feel the clicks. All I know is its a USM, not which specific motor.
Talk about anal.:o

Good idea to set up test shots paddler -

Maybe take some shots of a ruler @ different apertures so you can see for yourself how small DOF is at wider apertures.


ETA: Sorry - I missed where you said you had the sharpness bit hammered out. FWIW - I don't know how loud the clicking is, but certainly it shouldn't be making that kind of noise. Is that on both auto & manual focus? How about if you take it out of AF and focus it?

Only when I turn the focus ring to the left, I hear and slightly feel the clicking inside. I don't hear/feel it when I turn it to the right or when the lens is auto focusing. It makes a sound when it is turned the left on both auto and manual focus.