60D being sent back, 7D here I come

and all because of Micro Adjustment... I should of stayed away from 100% crop pixel peeping, because I have noticed every single lens having a slight issue of some sort, either back focusing or front (Canon/Sigma/ect...) I realize I need the control of MA.

I'm sure I'll apprecaite all the other benifits of the 7D, but right now, the MA is a deal breaker.

Anybody on the fence between these two, and want exact control over their focus/sharpness - be warned, get the 7D !!!

That's how I was with the 40D. It was a great camera but every lens was just a tad off. No one noticed but me, but that was enough. As soon as the 50D came out I upgraded and never looked back. Enjoy your new 7D.

gjl711 wrote in post #11627492
That's how I was with the 40D. It was a great camera but every lens was just a tad off. No one noticed but me, but that was enough. As soon as the 50D came out I upgraded and never looked back. Enjoy your new 7D.

yup. it dove me insane! I couldn't take it anymore.

I thought you were going to keep the 60D for five years and had no need to worry about resale value.

RobertMang wrote in post #11627658
I thought you were going to keep the 60D for five years and had no need to worry about resale value.

That was before my lenses drove me nutz. One slightly back focuses... the other slightly front focuses.

Resale value is of no object eiither, as I can just walk into B&H tomorrow morning and exchange it for the 7D.

You said in a previous thread the reason you got the 60D was because you didn't want to deal with MA - you're going to go crazy if you keep up with that pixel peeping.

Keep in mind, some lenses will shift focus at different distances and apertures very slightly (my Sigmas did this and very slightly with my L primes). In this case, no MA will fix it. The only thing that will is if you quit pixel peeping!

Anyway, good choice on the 7D.

hieu1004 wrote in post #11627914
You said in a previous thread the reason you got the 60D was because you didn't want to deal with MA - you're going to go crazy if you keep up with that pixel peeping.

Anyway, good choice on the 7D.

Your right, I did. I was nieve. All my lenses before I was deciding between the 60D & 7D didn't have f1.4-f2.8 capabilities, so super precise focus wasnt an issue/desire. Now I see the huge value in MA when dealing with such a small DOF.

^There are other features that are nice to have. Spot focus is one I particularly enjoy as well as the 100% viewfinder. These little things get overlooked, but now that I have used them, it's hard to go to a body without.

hieu1004 wrote in post #11627976
^There are other features that are nice to have. Spot focus is one I particularly enjoy as well as the 100% viewfinder. These little things get overlooked, but now that I have used them, it's hard to go to a body without.

yeah, i'm looking forward to the other features and growing into them. if it wasn't for my friggin lenses driving me insane, i would be perfectly happy with the 60D... but i need precision focusing, so thats the big appeal of the 7D at the moment along with Canon's latest photo processing, otherwise I would of just got the 50D through the CLP.

Like I mentioned in an earlier post, some lenses have focus shift problems and no amount of MA can fix them. You have a couple options at that point.... you can send it in and hope they calibrate to your body or you have to learn to deal with it. The 50L I had was very bad and didn't last long in my possession. My Sigma 50mm did this, but within acceptable range. I haven't really bothered to test my other primes and don't really have any desire to. It hasn't shown up in real world shots so I just don't worry about it. MA is nice to have but don't rely on it as a crutch - because it might not work every time. What I'm getting at is don't drive yourself too crazy viewing at 100%!

hieu1004 wrote in post #11628057
Like I mentioned in an earlier post, some lenses have focus shift problems and no amount of MA can fix them. You have a couple options at that point.... you can send it in and hope they calibrate to your body or you have to learn to deal with it. The 50L I had was very bad and didn't last long in my possession. My Sigma 50mm did this, but within acceptable range. I haven't really bothered to test my other primes and don't really have any desire to. It hasn't shown up in real world shots so I just don't worry about it. MA is nice to have but don't rely on it as a crutch - because it might not work every time. What I'm getting at is don't drive yourself too crazy viewing at 100%!

True, I hear you. The 3 lenses that have consistent mis-focusing are the 85mm 1.8 (front), the 50mm 1.4 (back) & 17-55mm 2.8 (back). They are constistantly doing the same mis-focusing no matter what distance to subject I'm at, and no matter what aperature i'm at... the further away I get from the subject, the more noticable it is with all of them too.

So the focus isn't jumping around & shifting (like one time front, next time back, ect...) they are consistently misfocusing the same way each shot. So I'm confident MA will take care of this.

EDIT: The straw that broke the camels back is just today I brougth my 17-55 to Canon's NJ Service cetner today (lens only, should of brought the body) to have it calibrated. Got it after an hour and brought it home and...... wait for it..... it back focused WORSE than before. I said "Thats it!"

I know down the road my now 3 lens collection will grow, and I just can't deal with calibrating lens after lens, shipping em' out, waiting and so on.... Plus the 7D just dropped in price to $1549 at B&H, so I'm pulling the trigger.

Pixel Peeping is a disease, a mental illness. We need a 12 step programs for Pixel Peepers.

Hello, my name is Bob, It's been 3 weeks since I bought an L lens. I like to look at photo pixels at high magnifications on a fuzzy computer monitor and draw all kinds of wild conclusions about camera and lens quality based on a few pixels. I've been doing it for years, It makes me spend huge sums of money on cameras and lenses that no sane person would ever spend. I've lost my house, my camera is worth way more than my car, which I now live in, but that's OK, it gets me to my favorite shooting locations quicker if I sleep in it, my spouse left me to join the French Foreign Legion to get away from my complaining about back focus. My friends can't stand being around me because all I do is talk about L lenses and Micro Adjustment. They just don't get it. My credit card is maxed out and my bank locks the door any time I come near the building. . .

robtaylor22 wrote in post #11632494
Pixel Peeping is a disease, a mental illness. We need a 12 step programs for Pixel Peepers... . .

I have to disagree. It's a lot like alcohol. Some people are obsessed and drink themselves into a stupor every night while others use it in moderation to temporarily make everyone at the bar look prettied and themselves seem smarter.

Seriously, it can be a disease but it also can be a very valuable tool in insuring that you are getting the most out of your equipment.

Pixel peeping is a problem when you are doing it and expecting things out of your equipment that are not possible. When you do it and you have a verifiable issue such as constant front or back focusing then I don't see what the problem is. With the money some people spend on equipment there should be a level of expectation for it to perform. My cheapest lens (85 1.8) had some focus issues that were not consistent, sometimes it would front focus, sometimes it would back focus, so I knew something was wrong. It wasn't all that noticeable at 50% but at 100% it was very obvious. In the scheme of things a $400 lens isn't much, but it's my $400 and I wasn't happy. I sent it in and they confirmed there was a problem and fixed it. "Close enough" doesn't have to be acceptable if there is an actual problem.

The lack of MA is the one feature that kept me from considering the 60d; its sad that Canon left this feature out of an otherwise very capable body.