blurry EOS 1Ds Mark II pictures

[susan_thomas1]

No, I forgot to turn it back on.

[j.kivekas]

:) That's really the curse of these DSLRs - there are so many switches, menus and set up possibilities that you always forget something on or off.<p>

Nadine, thank's for laser pen tip. I'm gonna try that and do some R&D.<p>

This thread has made me think about the anti-alias filter in front of the CMOS. Over how many pixels does an actual edge get diffused and what the shape of the diffusion profile is? This would be good to know for unsharp mask settings in post processing. I am gonna ask it from the importer.

[picturesque]

Well...the fact that you got sharp(er) images handheld, and you got unsharp images with all your lenses at slow shutter speeds on your tripod seems to point at either mirror vibration or tripod vibration, so I'd do some tests in those directions. Also, check what the load maximum is on your grip action ballhead. That was one of my problems--the total weight of the gear I was putting on my tripod was very close to the maximum load for the quick relase system I was using. This is unlikely to be the problem if you still got blurry shots with the 50mm lens on the camera, though. Any chance you can borrow another tripod with a different head to test?

[susan_thomas1]

But I also got blurry pictures handheld when I was trying for greater depth of field. The clear pictures were only because they were focused on a very limited range.

[picturesque]

So does that mean your shutter speeds were shorter on those?

[susan_thomas1]

The 3 sharp ones were all F5.6;1/160.I also have hand held F5.6; 1/250 ones that were quite blurry and I was propped against a tree and there was no movement. The shot I put up here that was on a tripod was F11;1/8, but I tried many other combos (F13;1/10, F16;1/6, F20;1/4, etc.) and all were blurry.

[susan_thomas1]

Also, I tried the MLU, but the shutter stayed open MUCH longer than it should have. The manual says MLU turns off automatically after 30 seconds, but it actually stayed on until I cleared all custom function settings the next day.

[picturesque]

I'm not familiar with MLU on your camera, so you'll have to sort that out for yourself. I'd test so that the response you are getting from your camera is what is expected, based on the manual. Otherwise, you might be operating it incorrectly.

 

It also sounds like you may be having front/back focus issues as well. You would have to do a series of tests to rule out first one thing and then the other. Who knows--it might be that you have several issues going at once, including some of the ones mentioned above. It is hard for any of us to give advice without actually "being there". I would first be sure you are operating MLU correctly. Then I'd go out one more time, set the camera and lens up on the tripod as before, use manual focus (focusing very carefully), and test MLU (after having sorted it out). If you are still having the same results, I'd maybe get another tripod head set-up (borrow from a friend?) that isn't at it's limit for your load capacity and test further. Lots of testing, but it is the only way to figure things out.