There's something really going wrong here. 7D

[Riggers]

Re: There's something really going wrong here. 7D

The eye looks nice and sharp but the DOF is quite shallow on that one Paul- all as expected with that lens.

With mine above the eye just doesn't look as sharp. It's not far off but I'm just underwelmed. I think I'm suffering form the same issues you were with regards to losing confidence in the IQ from the camera. I've kept persevering but my next outing will defo be with the 6D where I'll try and take some similar shots and do a direct comparison.

[Paulstw]

Re: There's something really going wrong here. 7D

Spot AF is a right funny one to use Lee. I stayed well clear of it. Someone said to me to use it for sharp focus on the eye, but I never got the result I wanted with it. I just always used single point focus and nothing else. Even expansion AF didn't wash well with me. I think spot AF would have just seen the pupil of the pigeon and nothing else meaning that there was no real contrasting edge to take a reading off. Without knowing the exact area that AF points or settings use it's hard to diagnose.

My problems started in AI SERVO and because I was tracking fast moving subjects zipping about all the time. I think I was using the wrong AI SERVO speed cause when I changed it, the blooming thing worked. That was the day I sold it so there was no turning back.

Funny though, I've read loads of tutorials on how the 1D3 AF system works, what settings to use when and thought, if I had this when I got the 7D I'd have understood it more. Never mind, I still love my decision to move.

[CountDavid]

Re: There's something really going wrong here. 7D

I was within about 10 feet ..... What does everyone else think?

Lens EF300mm f/4L IS USM +1.4x
Focal length 420 mm.
Shutter Speed 1/8000 s.
Aperture f/5.6
ISO Speed Rating 800

The DOF for 400mm lens working at f5.6 at 3 metres (call it 10 feet) is about 0.014 metres - I think about 1/2 inch in old money. If you were inside the 10 foot distance then the DOF will be narrower. So you have little space to work with to get the sharpness across the image that you may be looking for.

David

[wayne2418]

Re: There's something really going wrong here. 7D

Riggers I reckon that pidgeon would be a lot sharper without the teleconverter ...

[Paulstw]

Re: There's something really going wrong here. 7D

Whats the closest focussing distance of a 300+1.4xTC? I know my 400 5.6 is 12ft.

[CountDavid]

Re: There's something really going wrong here. 7D

Riggers I reckon that pidgeon would be a lot sharper without the teleconverter ...

..all other things being the same the DOF would increase to a little over 1 inch.

David

[the black fox]

Re: There's something really going wrong here. 7D

Whats the closest focussing distance of a 300+1.4xTC? I know my 400 5.6 is 12ft.

its pretty close paul my old nikon one was around one metre even with tc's .i think the canon ones about the same .but there is a way round it ,for butterflies etc in the summer a cheap set of auto-focussing extension tubes will give that close focus ,i just got a set off of e/bay about £22 ,work o.k .the only trouble is you lose distance focus when there on ,but they do work .
are you aware as well that you can now fit a 1.4 t.c on your lens and it will work with the 1d3 ?????

[Riggers]

Re: There's something really going wrong here. 7D

Whats the closest focussing distance of a 300+1.4xTC? I know my 400 5.6 is 12ft.

I'm not sure and can't remember if I was using servo with BBF or one shot. With Servo it gives you no in-camera feedback to say if it's focused but in OneShot it does so if I try this again I'll try with One Shot.

Looking in DPP (an application I don't usually use) it does show the AF point as a red square on the eye. I'm not sure if this confirms it had AF or if it's just telling me that's where the AF point was aimed.