5D MK III Soft Images Even When Changing Settings in DPP

[awinphoto]

That is cool. Is there anyway to make just the points that catch focus light up in the camera's viewfinder? Mine just all light up when focus is achieved.

Menu -> AF5 -> AF point display during focus -> Selected (focused)

You can also do

Menu -> Playback -> AF point disp -> Enable

And you'll get that DPP like view when you review images in the viewfinder, but certainly in One-Shot mode it show the point that I locked focus on, not whether that point had focus at exposure time.

So I did this, but no matter what I change, I still only see the center focus box and when It achieves focus, it disappears on the viewfinder? Any suggestions?

Are you shooting in zone AF? this is what it sounds like you are doing? If you shoot single or expansion, you will only see the AF points available until you move them to a new location and only those AF points in focus within the points you selected will light up when focused. Makes it easier to pin point where you want focused instead of letting the camera guess for you.

I'm starting to feel a bit retarded.. haha

No matter what settings I change in AF I still get the same thing through my viewfinder. It's blank until I hold the button down half way, then I get a center box that disappears as soon as it grabs focus. :-\

Ok this leads to another question, what shooting mode are you using? Green mode? program? AV/TV/M? As you change and cycle through AF modes You should only see the points your AF mode is using. See this video to describe what i'm talking about better

Canon 5D Mark III Review: 61 Autofocus points

It sounds like you are using the full 61 AF point auto selection and not one of the AF modes... If you are on one of the full auto program or green mode it may not let you change the AF modes but let me check into that before you get your hopes up...

 

[TheSkinsFactory]

I'm going to have to go through this since another poster has hijacked (unintentionally) the thread. So I have to try and figure out what's addressed to my issue. Didn't want anyone thinking I was ignoring responses.

One thing I noticed. The edit mode in DPP is a joke. It's adding all kinds of chromatic aberrations I don't see in the Adobe Raw 6.7 beta. Here's a 100% crop with data on the right. It's fairly sharp.

Sample Image: http://www.theskinsfactory.com/tsf-clients/TestImage1.png

Still trying to figure out where the settings are to micro-adjust AF. I ordered the spyderlens calibration "chart" from B+H.

Update: Just saw the video. Good stuff.

 

[CowGummy]

Ouch... that pic of the dog you posted does indeed look very soft for my liking... This appears to be a re-occurring issue the last few days on CR. Then again, a lot of people claimed the MkII was soft when it first came out.
Having said that, the settings you posted for that shot, especially seeing as it's shot at iso100, if I were to replicate on either of my bodies I feel confident they would be a heck of a lot sharper than the one you posted... Maybe this is one of those teething problems that could be addressed with an early firmware upgrade??

 

[TheSkinsFactory]

@Cow: It's hard to know whether it's just user error or camera error. I never had these issues with my 7D.

 

[tasteofjace]

I'm going to have to go through this since another poster has hijacked (unintentionally) the thread. So I have to try and figure out what's addressed to my issue. Didn't want anyone thinking I was ignoring responses.

One thing I noticed. The edit mode in DPP is a joke. It's adding all kinds of chromatic aberrations I don't see in the Adobe Raw 6.7 beta. Here's a 100% crop with data on the right. It's fairly sharp.

Sample Image: http://www.theskinsfactory.com/tsf-clients/TestImage1.png

Still trying to figure out where the settings are to micro-adjust AF. I ordered the spyderlens calibration "chart" from B+H.

Update: Just saw the video. Good stuff.

Oh crap, I totally did hijack the thread with my lame questions about AF. Thanks to all those who posted stuff, it was very helpful!

Now back on topic!!!

 

[awinphoto]

@Cow: It's hard to know whether it's just user error or camera error. I never had these issues with my 7D.

Skins... it's hard to see but it looks like the front shoulder/chest is what's somewhat in focus... what focus mode did you use and did you use fast processing vs high quality in DPP?

 

[TheSkinsFactory]

@awinphoto: It was in auto mode. In DPP I changed from high quality to high speed yesterday. Just did more test shots. Going to check them out in Adobe.

 

[keithfullermusic]

I think the first thing you need to do is try one point auto focus. Then it will focus on that one spot instead of trying to focus all over.

Also, try micro adjusting the lens. My 100-400 was "soft" when I got it, but after +6 MA it's tack sharp.

I think a lot of people are claiming that their new 5Ds are broken when in fact they just need to adjust things and also learn to use them properly. This is not an error on the part of the camera, it's a fact of life. There are certain tolerances with everything. If you wanted everything to be perfect out of the box they would have to fine tune not only every part of the camera, but also the lenses during production. That would shoot the price up on all this Canon gear even more.

Also, don't forget that there isn't even a raw converter for these files yet in any post-processing software - someone can correct me if I'm wrong.

So, my point is, your camera is probably fine. First, try one point focus, and if that fails MA your lens. If it still looks like crap after that then maybe your camera is messed up.

 

[awinphoto]

@awinphoto: It was in auto mode. In DPP I changed from high quality to high speed yesterday. Just did more test shots. Going to check them out in Adobe.

Auto mode is putting way too much control into the cameras hands... the shoulder/chest is in focus, the eyes aren't, but it's giving you false impressions the rest of the dog is in focus, but with 2.8 F stops, it aint going to happen... switch to the single or single expansion and you can tell the camera exactly what part of the scene you want in focus... try that and see what results you get... High speed wont fix mis-focus...

 

[TheSkinsFactory]

Keith: You're probably right. Now can you point me in the direction of the micro-auto focus settings?

awinphoto: I agree, which is why I'm doing other test shots. Haven't returned anything yet. I own a user interface design studio, so I'm well aware that this may be nothing more then 1. user error and 2. needing to calibrate things.

With that said, I never had these issues with my 7D.

 

[thure1982]

Havn't read all posts.
Have you made microadjusments so you "know" that focus is where you think it is. If you understand what I meen.

 

[awinphoto]

Keith: You're probably right. Now can you point me in the direction of the micro-auto focus settings?

awinphoto: I agree, which is why I'm doing other test shots. Haven't returned anything yet. I own a user interface design studio, so I'm well aware that this may be nothing more then 1. user error and 2. needing to calibrate things.

With that said, I never had these issues with my 7D.

On my 7d, it was shipped with the auto AF already the preset... the initial photos i took were lousy... i thought i really had a bad camera... everything looked soft and i was frustrated i spent that much money (at the time) for a bad camera... I then switched modes and had reliably sharp images from that point onwards... I get tempted to switch back to full auto AF but figure why risk it when I can quickly enough tell the camera what precise area or in the expansion modes, what rough area i want it to look for focus rather than letting it basically throw a dart at the wall hoping it gets it right... It's a powerful tool but sometimes needs help knowing what you want it to do.

 

[Daniel Flather]

On a Mac:
Go to View then click AF Point.

Or command J.

 

[x-vision]

So what's the issue? Why is this not tack sharp?

I don't see any issue with your image - seems pretty sharp to me.

Maybe you should look at other 5DIII images on the web and set your expectations correctly with regards to sharpness of 100% crops. :-\

 

[DavidRiesenberg]

AF microadjustment is the last item under the rightmost tab in the AF section of the menu.

 

[TheSkinsFactory]

Thanks David.

Off-topic: Love the Canon concept you did. Just realized it was you. I actually posted a link to my Facebook/Twitter the other day.

 

[DavidRiesenberg]

Thank you

 

[swampler]

Didn't read all the replies, but running dog at 1/500s is probably part, if not all, of the issue.

 

[TheSkinsFactory]

A couple of new test shots - Raw to DNG. Brought into Lightroom and unprocessed.

http://www.theskinsfactory.com/tsf-clients/NewTest1.png
http://www.theskinsfactory.com/tsf-clients/NewTest2.png
http://www.theskinsfactory.com/tsf-clients/NewTest3.png

I guess these are pretty sharp. I notice a lot of background noise on test shot 1. On number 3 you can see the red and blue "hairs" embedded into the bill.

 

[publiux]

A couple of new test shots - Raw to DNG. Brought into Lightroom and unprocessed.

http://www.theskinsfactory.com/tsf-clients/NewTest1.png
http://www.theskinsfactory.com/tsf-clients/NewTest2.png
http://www.theskinsfactory.com/tsf-clients/NewTest3.png

I guess these are pretty sharp. I notice a lot of background noise on test shot 1. On number 3 you can see the red and blue "hairs" embedded into the bill.

They look pretty good to me. Much improved.