5DMII Performance Issues?

I am starting to think my recent image quality issues are not just a fluke and that there may be a problem with my 5DMII. I was hoping that maybe someone out there who has a 5DMII could take a look at these shots and let me know if you think the quality behavior I am seeing is on par with your 5DMII shots. If I put this in the wrong place, I am very sorry. Please move it to the appropriate location.

Environment and Set up:
The pictures were taken in our basement to simulate the lower lighting of some of my recent weddings. It has light gray walls, white ceilings and incandescant can lighting. I had the white bounce card on the 580EX II extended with the flash head pointing up. The flash was in ETTL mode using a flash extender cord as the flash is on a flash bracket. The 5DII is in standard configuration, with the exception of back button focusing. It is set on evaluative metering. All pictures are straight out of camera, with the exception of Photo 4, which I cropped to show the lack of detail/crispness in the eyes. Any thoughts help are greatly appreciated.


Handheld P Mode, ISO 800, F4.0, 1/60s
Photo 1:
[URL="[URL]http://www.​flickr.com/photos/5305​3671@N03/4896306006/"]​[URL] [URL]http://www.flickr​.com/photos/53053671@N​03/4896305582/

Tripod Mounted P Mode, ISO 800, F4.0, 1/60s
Photo 2:
[URL] [URL]http://www.flickr​.com/photos/53053671@N​03/4895710735/

Tripod Mounted with 2 second shutter delay. P Mode, ISO 800, F4.0, 1/60s
Photo 3:
[URL] [URL]http://www.flickr​.com/photos/53053671@N​03/4896305822/

Tripod Mounted with 2 second shutter delay. P Mode, ISO 800, F4.0, 1/60s
Photo 4 (Photo 3 Cropped Tighter to show lack of detail, crispness):
[URL] [URL]http://www.flickr​.com/photos/53053671@N​03/4895777281/

Tripod Mounted P Mode, ISO 800 F2.8, P Mode, ISO 800 F2.8, 1/60s
Photo 5:
[URL] [URL]http://www.flickr​.com/photos/53053671@N​03/4895710921/


Tripod Mounted P Mode, ISO 800 F2.8, P Mode, ISO 1600 F2.8, 1/60s
Photo 6:
[URL] [URL]http://www.flickr​.com/photos/53053671@N​03/4896306006/

what lens are you using, are the iq issues recent or do you believe you have always had them with this camera.
You might need to MA the lens.

i'd suggest you to MA the lens and use DPP to make sure that your focus point is accurately focused on the part that you feel lacks the crispiness.

secondly, check if your expandable points are enabled, disabling it will make the spot you focus on even more accurate.. from my recent experience.

The lens is the 24-70 F2.8L. MA is Manual Adjust? I was using the center focus point on all the shots.

EOS mE wrote in post #10728860
i'd suggest you to MA the lens and use DPP to make sure that your focus point is accurately focused on the part that you feel lacks the crispiness.

secondly, check if your expandable points are enabled, disabling it will make the spot you focus on even more accurate.. from my recent experience.

As per EOS mE comment, Perhaps run a focus test to see if the lens requires a micro adjustment..

Looks like it's front focusing..

MA is "micro adjust", have a look at this process as one way to do it.

http://www.birdphotogr​aphers.net …AF-microadjustment-tricks

I have noticed the IQ issues when using with the 5DMII in low light. I don't seem to notice or have as much of the issues in brighter light. I had the lens and used it with the 40d without trouble.

lannes wrote in post #10728369
what lens are you using, are the iq issues recent or do you believe you have always had them with this camera.
You might need to MA the lens.

ekrizo wrote in post #10729967
I have noticed the IQ issues when using with the 5DMII in low light. I don't seem to notice or have as much of the issues in brighter light. I had the lens and used it with the 40d without trouble.

Can be that the lens will act diffrently on a different body, takes only a few minutes to carry out a focus test..

It looks fine to me, you just a little more light in the eyes. WHERE did you point the flash?

It's also a tad underexposed.

I believe you just need to work on understanding lighting. Judging by the "crispness" on the face, I think your gear is working fine.

There is nothing wrong with these pictures, you are using the camera with the lens wide open, they are sharp,It is an obvious depth of field issue, in fact if you look at the tip of the nose it is tack sharp.
Try shooting these at f8 rather than f4 then post those pictures.

I think you need to come out of "P" mode and experiment with different shutter speeds and aperture. I am a bit confused by the shot settings as it is stating that flash was used on your flickr site. You don't need ISO 800 when you are using flash. I would use AV mode, ISO 100 and sync the flash at 1/200s. You can then achieve better DOF by stopping the lens down.

Ianfp wrote in post #10730106
I think you need to come out of "P" mode and experiment with different shutter speeds and aperture. I am a bit confused by the shot settings as it is stating that flash was used on your flickr site. You don't need ISO 800 when you are using flash. I would use AV mode, ISO 100 and sync the flash at 1/200s. You can then achieve better DOF by stopping the lens down.

In P mode with flash, the shutter pretty much defaults to 1/60s. BUT you also have control over the ISO.

Av mode with shutter locked at 1/200s is OK, but I prefer to go to Manual and lock the shutter speed at 1/200s (or whatever I want for the ambient). I then can use Av mode for fill-flash where the shutter speed will ALWAYS be set to expose the ambient.

egordon99 wrote in post #10730037
It looks fine to me, you just a little more light in the eyes. WHERE did you point the flash?

It's also a tad underexposed.

I believe you just need to work on understanding lighting. Judging by the "crispness" on the face, I think your gear is working fine.

i was thinking the same too. especially the photo where it lack the crispiness, at 100% crop, it looks pretty good.

To answer some of your comments/questions:

- I will try to do the micro adjustment when my husband gets home tomorrow and I have someone to test with again.
- As I said in the original post, the flash was pointed straight up with the white bounce card extended.
- My understanding was that P mode used the flash to expose the scene, where as Av and Tv use the flash to expose the foreground and the exposure to capture the background. I used P mode in this case as I didn't really care about the background and didn't want the long exposure time that usually results in Av mode in low lighting. I have never heard anyone say to use ISO 100 just because I was using flash, as I would think that it would underexpose significantly. I will try it though.


Thanks for all your help!

Erin

These images look fine to me. As an example, for the first one the focus looks like it's on the cheek on the rhs of the image but the aperture was wide enough at f/4 that much in front of and behind the cheek is outside the depth of field. I wouldn't bother with MA based on these.

I agree with egordon99 that you need more light in the eyes.