20D Misaligned Focusing Indicator

I've not been able to get consistently good results with focusing on

my 20D - but not consistently bad either.

 

After a few test shots yesterday, I think the main problem is that

the center focus indicator is actually below and a little to the side

of where the actual center of the focus sensor is.

 

Is that something that can be adjusted relatively easily?

No, at least not by the user. Not sure if Canon service would consider it a "fixable problem".

 

The focus zone indicators are indicators are just indicators. They actual focus zones are always somewhat sightly different in size and position, though normally the differences are pretty small.

You may find better results if you select one focus zone as your primary, and always use it to capture the focus, (hold shutter release half way down). What happens tomany is that the auto focus chooses a point that was not intended at times. Jeffrey

I think he's asking about the alignment of the screen graphics or little rectangles that

indicate AF sensor position, not the usefulness of the "fuzzy logic" algorithms in auto AF

sensor selection.

 

You may be able to improve alignment by reseating the screen. However it's a lot of

trouble for very little gain. Every EOS body I've owned locks AF slightly outside the little

rectangles. It's easy to remember the sweet spot with a little practice...

<p>In the 20D, at least, the actual areas covered by the AF sensors are substantially larger than the boxes in the viewfinder. And, as others have noted, it's not uncommon for the positions of the boxes and the actual sensors not to line up perfectly.</p>

A company that can't align the display on a $1500 camera (or seem to figure out how to put a spotmeter in it), shouldn't be making cameras. I don't see why I should be memorizing sensor positions for all three of my cameras.

 

The middle sensor also is cross-type sensor, so if you don't know where the actual center is, you'll have problems.

You have a misaligned focusing screen. Since the 20D does not allow to exchange screens, you have to send it to Canon. They will fix it.

 

Simple.

The solution to this is to decouple the AF from the 1/2 press shutter button to the * button CF4 - set to 1.

The way that AF works is that its not a closed loop system , it can lock on something slightly outside the box and you wont know about it as it's a "one shot" system. what I mean is that the AF system will tell the lens how far to go and thats it , it does NOT check at all whether focus has been achieved after the lens moves. In terms of using the * button , you can do multiple continual presses. What this does is "confirm" that focus is achieved and the movements of the lens subsequent to the first press are very small and thus no such stuff as motor error or inertia is significant. This also makes it more likely that one will get what you want in focus in focus as you are focussing multiple times in the same general area. It costs nothing to try it and you might find it helps a lot.

"A company that can't align the display on a $1500 camera (or seem to figure out how to

put a spotmeter in it), shouldn't be making cameras. I don't see why I should be

memorizing sensor positions for all three of my cameras."

 

So stop buying Canons and ditch those lemons! Of course Canon can put a spotmeter in a

20D if the amateur market required it. Heck the 10% partial is overkill for most owners as

they rarely depart from evaluative. Plus the actual coverage of 10% in a 1.6x crop is pretty

darn close to a spot in a FF viewfinder. Lets see, the N70S has an even smaller peephole of

a viewfinder and the spot is actually much larger than claimed by Nikon, the Oly Evolt is

2.0x with a tiny squareish viewfinder and the Pentax iST D has a great viewfinder but is

weak in the battery area. For the bucks, you'd be hard pressed to do better than a 20D.

If I could afford to dump my equipment I would.

 

The 20D is just the world's most expensive point-and-shoot. And they're screwing their customers for everything they can get on their high-end ones.

 

Look at the 5D if you want to see further proof of their total disregard for their customers - they didn't even bother to redo the finder to match the larger sensor, so all the focusing points are clustered in the middle.

 

Canon's technology is great - their marketing development is a joke.

What would you buy instead that's better?

Uh, do you own a 20d? And a point and shoot?

 

Try comapring them and see how many shots you miss with the point and shoot.

 

The 20d can be an super-expensive point and shoot if you want it to, but that justmeans you bought the wrong camera. I know a guy who is deeply dissapointed with his digital rebel because he dosn't understand why it isn't like a point and shoot. Is there anything wrong with it? No. Is it the right camera for him? No.