Photographers- Your Images Are NOT That Sharp AND This Is Why

Photographers- Your Images Are NOT That Sharp AND This Is Why

[WARNING PHOTOGRAPHERS] If You Haven’t Taken The Time To Do This,ย Your Camera Is NOT Focusing As Well As It Should!

Are you getting less than tack sharp images? You’ve made sure your lens is clean, as well as your camera sensor.

Your shutter speed is fast enough to avoid possible motion blur, or you’re using a tripod and a remote trigger to eliminate even the slightest possibility of camera shake.

And still, your subject isn’t that sharp.

I am a Canon shooter. I shoot with a Canon 6D and my favorite lens is the Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM Telephoto Zoom.

With the price tag associated with this body and lens and the fact they are both Canon you would think no adjustments would be necessary right? Think again.

 

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If you’ve done everything you can think of to get rid of this problem and you’re still not getting good results, it may be time to check if your camera and lens aren’t working together in perfect harmony, so to speak. I don’t mean you should get a new lens – instead, there is a simple procedure that will make your gear produce the sharpest possible images. Check out the following video to learn more about it.

About Johnny Yakubik

Johnny Yakubik is the Founder- Editor- Publisher- Chief Cook and Bottle Washer at Modern Lens Magazine. He's a professional family and portrait photographer living in Southern California. You can see some of his work at http://californiabeachphotography.com

44 comments

If you are using either the Tamron 24-70 or 70-200mm even though your D7200 says it will save 12 lenses these two are not compatible with fine focus and you cannot save them. If you ask Tamron they will first tell you they are 100% compatible with Nikons and second time they will tell you the problem is Nikon’s. If you push even further they will admit that these lens are not only not compatible wth Nikon, but also are not compatible with their own new console and they have no intention of making them compatible!

just go out and shoot . . . don’t waste your time in some anal way twerking your focus forever . . . this is as bad as pixel peepers . . . AAAArrrrrgggg!

dig that tim!! dont forget to have fun, and still serious, its photography!! never heard pixel peepers!!ha! ha! thats cool

Hi Eddie , thanks for replying. It’s the term you have mentioned in your video. Anyway , I might heard it wrong . I’m very interested in this spider lenscal , does t really help? Do I need to adjust it every time to take my lens out ? Or once for all ?

Hello Helen. Front focusing is when the lens is setting it’s focus in front of the subject instead of actually on the subject. Back focusing is the opposite. In either scenario your subject will be out of focus. The way your adjustments work will vary from camera to camera so be sure to consult your manual. For example the Canon 6D will set the profile for each lens you adjust then save it in memory moving forward. The only reason you might adjust again is if you somehow felt the camera and lens got out of tune. Kind of like a tune up on a car.

There is usually slight differences between the camera body and lens. Some lenses require a small adjustment and others a very noticeable adjustment. If you are shooting at f 1.4 then you want your calibration to be perfect.

You really should check each lens yes…..

However……regardless of what the creator of the video says……you may very well find that some, most or even all of your lenses are already perfectly focussed on your camera and don’t need any micro adjustments at all.

Some cameras and some lenses are further from manufacturer’s tolerances than others…..but it’s not at all uncommon for a person to test their lenses using this procedure and find that they require no adjustments whatsoever.

Kerry Pittenger….Exactly……that’s all it takes is a rule set at a 45 degree angle where some number exactly corresponds to the plane of focus of your target.

I’ve taken a heavy book that will stand up straight up and down and had a metal ruler placed at a 45 degree angle right next to it…..and it works exactly the same way.

For the record, the creator of the video exaggerated and overstated the issue.

Maybe on a cheaper camera like the Canon 6D every single lens is off…but I have nearly 2 dozen lenses and on my Nikon D3s I only have two lenses that needed any micro focusing at all.

Talk about a false, fear tactic headline! What’s the point of trying to scare people into this false nonsense? How about something true and potentially helpful like, “Your Images MIGHT NOT be as sharp as they could be.”

First there is a wide variety of bodies and lenses. Each and every one falls into a low end, mid grade or professional category. If you are shooting professional quality gear, the factory tolerances are extremely tight. There MIGHT be some gain if the lens and body happen to fall at the opposite ends of the tolerance, but even then, the chance that the user is the real cause of out of focus shots, if far more likely than the equipment being out of adjustment.

You’d better serve the readers by offering up the valuable information for micro focusing as something you MAY want to consider, if you are experiencing consistent, focus issues, after first assuring that you are properly using your equipment.

The only lens I think I have a back focus issue with would be the 80-200. I don’t use it very often and it’s at 200mm I believe which I rarely use as well.

Good information, I don’t have to worry about my mirrorless. If something was wrong with the Canon’s or their lenses, they have to be sent in and calibrated at a service center. Funny I just had a friend who got a Canon that was back focusing and it was a brand new T5, but it was the lens. Canon gave him a hard time about it, but he just ended up taking it back to where he got it and it had a 30 day no question return. But he knew it was the lens that was having problems, he tried a identical lens from a buddies on it and it focused fine.

BTW, you can save yourself $64 plus tax, shipping by doing a google image search on “micro focus adjustment chart” and just printing one off.

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