Canon EOS 50D producing soft, blurry & hazy photos- help!

 

 

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<p>Have you considered sending it to Canon for repair..? I have used countless copies (I'd say at least 20) of that lens and have never seen aything even close to what you are describing. Yeah, shit happens and you may have indeed gotten a dud but the EF 50/1.4 is great optically by design so cart it off to Canon Repair and enjoy it: whining will not fix it...</p>

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<p>I'm not whining about it. Merely recalling how bad it was. What a turd. I mainly used it on an Elan 7E and A2 back in the day. AF was actually worse than its optical performance and the 50 1.4 suffered terrible barrel distortion focused at 2 meters or closed. A truly horrid design compounded with poor QC. I ditched that sucka many moons ago. If it were modern times I probably would have sent it to Canon for calibration (I had a 70-200 4L with left side softness fixed in 2006), at least the sharpness would have improved (nothing they can do about the barrelling and funky AF). I bought an EF 50 2.5 CM in 1990 and it still is one of the sharpest and distortion-free lenses I have owned. Also have a 50 1.2L. It's my newest optic at only 3 years old. AF is 10 times better than the 50 1.4 and is amazingly sharp wide open. Stays on my 5D2 for months at a time. Also have a Nikkor 50 1.4 AI which is excellent optically if I'm in the mood to torture myself with manual focus and aperture...</p>

<p>Brandy,</p>

<p>Your lens has some of the worst aberrations I've ever seen, but that's already been covered.</p>

<p>I can add this:</p>

<p>The 50D focuses on the closest object under the active sensor(s). It almost never does what I want when all sensors are enabled. I typically have mine set to use only the center point. I also use the back AF button to focus. So, it really isn't all that different from what I did with my old MF cameras... focus and recompose. In the case of the woman on the horse, I think using a single point and then recomposing would fix it, baring an issue with the lens.</p>

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<p>Sorry my last post was rather confusing - when I said my 50D needed Micro focus adjustment - I meant my 50 F1.4. I don't have a 50D and have never used one!. If you do not know how to do this just search on google or this site.</p>

<p>[[i think using a single point and then recomposing would fix it, baring an issue with the lens.]]</p>

<p>In some cases, focus and recompose when shooting wide-open will make the problem worse. Because the recompose can move the subject out of the very narrow area of focus.</p>

 

<p>Rob,</p>

<p>You make a good point. But in the horse shot, I think it would work. Her head isn't far off center. Certainly all points won't work in that one. </p>

<p>Brandy,</p>

<p>What is your perceived issue with the Tamron horse and rider shot? </p>

<p>The little girl image is back-focused, in the crop her hair under her ear is tack sharp.</p>

<p>You can't accurately manual focus fast lenses through standard DSLR focus screens. The focus screen has an effective aperture of 2.8 ish, below that manual focus is an exercise in futility. </p>

 

<p>My issue with the horse shot is her face is blurry and it focused on the horses face. I dont manually focus anything.<br>

You are right, It appears no matter what lens I use, I rarely get a sharp focus on what was MEANT to be focused on.</p>

<p>Do this with all your lenses, <a href="http://www.northlight-images.co.uk/article_pages/cameras/1ds3_af_micoadjustment.html">link.</a> </p>

<p>You have not had seven bad lenses, you might have one iffy body, but do the micro focus set up first.</p>

Any photos with same problem if focused to infinity? Try white lines on black and vice versa and post if possible.

<p>Again, when you are shooting wide open, there is not a lot of margin for error. Have you tried manually focusing on the face? Also if you are under-exposing there may be more noise.<br>

Shoot RAW so you can recover if shots are under-exposed. Will be interested to see what your test findings are after you try the above suggestions :)</p>

<p>Brandy, I think the answers here are on the right track, your camera and lenses are ok but you are using them in a very critical manner at f1.4. For this you need to use the camera with a bit of extra care, firstly make sure your lenses have been Micro Adjusted to the camera, this process is explained in the camera manual. This should fix any front/back focus issues you have. Then see how the shots a of a subject lit from the front go at a smallish f No., say f5.6, and then graduate to more difficult situations. Each step should give your equipment a bit more of a challenge, and enable you to clearly define where the problem lies.</p>

<p>With the second photo of the kids in the tree,<br>

(Canon 50D with Canon 50mm 1.4 using at 1.4 -- 1050 x 700 photo) <br>

I am seeing an out of focus purple cast along the edge of the tree bark. One of the sensors is not aligned and it is affecting your sharpness. Print out an example of this and send it with your 50d to Canon for repair. You might send along your canon lenses with it so they can calibrate all of them to your 50d.</p>

<p>Have you checked your AF point selection ? I have come across several people with the same issues who had inadvertantly changed the AF point and hadn't realised</p>

<p>Brandy,</p>

<p>Forgive me for cutting to the chase (and not reading all of the posts). You mentioned using MANUAL FOCUS rather than the camera's auto-focus. Have you recently checked the adjustment of your viewfinder's diopter? <br>

If your diopter is off and you only use manual focus, you will only have out of focus subjects (especially with large aperture settings). Use your auto focus to double check. Also check the viewfinder info when it is lit up inside your viewfinder to adjust the diopter and/or first set focus with auto-focus (tripod mounted is best) and adjust diopter this way too.</p>

<p>Hope this helps and that it isn't redundant information. I'm not sure why the examples had such bad CA (purple fringing). Low quality settings, high ISO (or auto-ISO), strong backlighting, over-exposure can all contribute to this as well.<br>

If you are using manual focus and shooting wide open (or close to wide open) and the diopter isn't in correct adjustment, this may be part of the problem.<br>

Good luck!</p>

<p>Joe</p>

<p> </p>

<p>Brandy, I am having the same issue with my 50D however, I was shooting at f3.5 or higher. All my photos are coming out soft and blurry. I even tried to comparing it with another camera (Rebel T3) and I used the same lens but still got the same results. I'm thinking about just upgrading to 60D or 7D. I can't find any other solution.</p>