24-70mm Blurry Images Horror Stories

Juan, since you're issues seem to come from 'handholdability' , I'd suggest selling the 24-70 and buying either the 17-55 IS or the 15-85 IS

When on a crop camera at 70mm your shutter speeds need to be 1/100 or faster.

Service Details:
Your product has been examined and it was found that the adjustment of the AF assembly was incorrect causing the auto focus to operate improperly. Electrical adjustment were carried out on the AF assembly and product functions were confirmed. Other inspections were carried out.

Wow,..next time I better hold my hands steadly.

Juan Huerta wrote in post #9504683
Service Details:
Your product has been examined and it was found that the adjustment of the AF assembly was incorrect causing the auto focus to operate improperly. Electrical adjustment were carried out on the AF assembly and product functions were confirmed. Other inspections were carried out.

Wow,..next time I better hold my hands steadly.

Don't get pissy. You came asking for advice and you got it.

Sharp images don't come from 1/20 hand held. That's a fact.

edit: love the 24-70, you will too.

Juan Huerta wrote in post #9504683
Service Details:
Your product has been examined and it was found that the adjustment of the AF assembly was incorrect causing the auto focus to operate improperly. Electrical adjustment were carried out on the AF assembly and product functions were confirmed. Other inspections were carried out.

Wow,..next time I better hold my hands steadly.

Or shoot at the appropriate shutter speeds. There's good information provided to you in this thread, but if you don't want to hear it so be it. Good luck to you.

diputs wrote in post #9504541
Juan,

Do you believe that 1/20th of a second with a 70mm lens on a 1.6x crop sensor is a fast enough shutter speed for a 24-70 to produce a sharp image?

This is where part of the problem lies. Juan it looks like you been pushing the capabilities of your lens with IS and have gotten used to it. It sounds like you are mad at canon and or us for your lack of knowledge in this area. As you start using all sorts of different lenses and try to get consistent images at 1/20 of a sec hand held you will realize that it is too slow. What you could learn from this could save you hundreds of images on the future.

You started by asking for help and it was discovered that you were part of the test problem, is not a big deal unless you refuse to look at it.

Side note - once you get used to your 24-70 and where it performs best you are going to like it.

plasticmotif wrote in post #9504707
Don't get pissy. You came asking for advice and you got it.

Sharp images don't come from 1/20 hand held. That's a fact.

edit: love the 24-70, you will too.

Yeap, no fun finding out the hard way, but better than not learning at all!

I'm a hack in that I hate tripods and losing shots to endless set up times especially in cold, dirty hell holes.
Some are keepers, some aren't... and no, I wouldn't use this image to test this lense!

Here's the evil 24-70, with no IS, hand held.
This 24-70L has been calibrated twice, the last time due to a tripod top over during a bird attack. This lense can take a wicked hit and still keep going.

Shoot at 24mm, it's weakest length, f/16 @ 1/125th a second, ISO 200, no adjustments, cam default settings.

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Here's too,...24-70mmm, last week,...before I got mad at it and of course, got tired of correcting everything with CS3.

And yes, I am mad and pissed.

1- I am not happy to learn that this lens can come with such poor quality control tests.
2- Mad to see how Canon can identify the problem but cannot solve it.
3- Mad to see that self called knowledgeable people and self called pro's cannot see it either.

I returned the idiot. But it's not over. I am going to camp at the store and buy me another, and another and another 24-70mm, and I am going to bring my 40D and it's going to be beautiful.

Then I am going to buy the 5D mrk II...right there, and do the same, test, test and test...and get on their last freaking nerves until I see that the programs in all of these items works flawlessly...then I will get creative and monkey with the settings in manual.

Nothing bothers more a self-called, self proclaimed knowledgeable pro to see a digital camera perform flawlessly under Program mode.

Why?

It steals their self-proclaimed thunder.

And I will do just that. get the 24-70mm that works, on my 40D and then on a 5Dmrk II, and all will be beautiful on Program Mode, and then I am going to get funky and satisfy every need for shutter speed, exposure and AV-Drives, ISO's,...etc.

I'll be back with a happy story. I will pull it off. Are you kidding me? That's the story of my life.

Sayonara.

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plasticmotif wrote in post #9504707
Don't get pissy. You came asking for advice and you got it.
Sharp images don't come from 1/20 hand held. That's a fact.

To everyone who tried to help, well done. There's only so much you can do.
Has any one ever heard the line
You can lead a horse to water...
In this case, "You can't put brains in statues" is more apt.

Juan Huerta wrote in post #9505678
Nothing bothers [] a self-called, self proclaimed knowledgeable pro [more than seeing?] a digital camera perform flawlessly under Program mode.

Why?

It steals their self-proclaimed thunder.

I think you minced a few words, but I tried my best to interpret what you said.

To begin, I am a self-proclaimed novice in all respects. That being said, I have absolutely no problems with anyone using Program mode on their camera. If that's what you want to use for any specific situation in which you want it, more power to you. If you understand what the mode does and how to use it correctly, then I have absolutely no issue with someone using it 100% of the time and achieving success.

Your issue at the moment seems to be that you don't understand what you're doing, and you're lashing back at everyone trying to help you. If you're shooting your camera in Program mode at a low ISO and achieving blurry pictures due to a slow shutter speed, you're naturally going to draw some flak from "professionals" when you start to proclaim that your equipment is faulty. It doesn't matter if the L lens costs more than your 17-85, the latter has an image stabilizer built in. So when everyone tells you that you have to brace yourself or use a higher shutter speed in a low light situation, you should listen to them instead of getting angry, justifying that because of the price you paid you shouldn't have to follow old and proven photographic advice.

No one on here is getting mad at you because you're not using your camera like they think you should - they're getting mad at you because you don't understand what you're doing and you're blaming the camera for the problem.

I have this lens, and when I first got it I noticed that all of my shots were fuzzy. The problem was that I was simply not used to shooting with such a heavy lens.

Let's say it was a lighter lens.. on the 40d/50d, you'll want to use a shutter speed of 1/120s at 70mm. Because it's a bit heavier, bump up your ISO and shoot at 1/160s instead. Of course, this is all if you're handholding it. As others have said, don't even bother shooting test shots like this handheld at slow shutter speeds.

In my case, while I got used to the lens, I simply sped up my shutter and voila! Sharp shots.

EDIT : Just read through this thread, which I should have done first -- wow.

A lens with a problem is not that big a deal get it corrected or return it.

However, how you are handling all of this from the lens to our responces seems to be a much more complicated problem that no lens can fix.

good luck

Juan Huerta wrote in post #9505678
3- Mad to see that self called knowledgeable people and self called pro's cannot see it either.

I am an idiot, and my pictures suck, but I know there a very small chance of getting a tack sharp image handheld at 70mm with the 24-70 at 1/20 on a 1.6x camera.

It's just physics.

Should have gotten the 24-105 f4 IS!!!! Wouldn't have been through all that!

Juan Huerta wrote in post #9497704
So far, I am inclined to believe that either lots of good reviews about this lens are fake or one really has to get lucky and win the lottery getting a good copy of this lens...


-- Juan

Or, perhaps, you just have a bad copy.