Blurry Focus in 50d

Can anybody maybe explain what I am doing wrong with my 9 pt. option for focusing? Whenever I want to use all 9points, only a few will light, and when the image comes out, 95% of the time, the center is always out of focus and the outer edges are completely clear. How do I get a full image in focus w/o having to go manual?! Thank you!

pics would be useful

First, you're much better off selecting the focus point yourself rather than let the camera trying to figure out what it is you want in focus. Second, you need to realize that depth of field also controls how much of your image will be in focus and that aperture controls depth of field.

increase your f-stop to f/16 and or f/22 and then a lot of things will be in focus!

i considered the fstop... however, was confused that the center was out of focus and the sides were in focus! i usually use the center point focus... so, using that along with a higher fstop would make sense!! thank you.

As mentioned, a sample pic, one that you consider to show the effect your describing would help. Don't strip the EXIF, that info helps as well.

As to why the focus points are doing what they do, that's normal, the points that light up are the ones that have achieved focus. The others are outside of the focal plane. If you have been shooting a point and shoot type camera before, keep in mind that a SLR will have a much narrower depth of field, it can at times be very thin indeed depending on the settings. But post up a pic and we will help however we can.

You have to manually select your focus point in order to get what you want in focus. There's really no way around it. The computer in the camera really isn't smart enough to "know" what you want in focus. When you have all 9 points selected, it just gives you its best estimate based on the points that light up. I would say 90% of the time it guesses wrong.

Especially since you have a 50d and the nice joystick, shouldn't be too hard to pick center point.

ingraman wrote in post #10372071
You have to manually select your focus point in order to get what you want in focus. There's really no way around it. The computer in the camera really isn't smart enough to "know" what you want in focus. When you have all 9 points selected, it just gives you its best estimate based on the points that light up. I would say 90% of the time it guesses wrong.

Especially since you have a 50d and the nice joystick, shouldn't be too hard to pick center point.

+1

Set Custom Function III-3 to 1: Multi-Controller direct, and then you can use the joystick to easily select your focus point.

karijcrossphotography wrote in post #10372061
i considered the fstop... however, was confused that the center was out of focus and the sides were in focus! i usually use the center point focus... so, using that along with a higher fstop would make sense!! thank you.

Will you didn't instruct the camera to focus in the center of the frame. By using "All 9 focus points", you are telling the camera "Hey, I really don't care where you focus, so go nuts...."