400mm 2.8 optimum focus distance ??

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Tugster

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To those of you who use the 400 2.8, do you find that there is a distance where the focusing accuracy is spot on and then at the extremes, the focus is either slightly in front or behind ?

I am tending to find that at distance, and what I mean by distance is far end of the pitch, that the focus picks up objects behind the desired subject. ie. the player behind the action and not the action itself.

Its a wonderful lens but frustrating at times.

Settings - shooting manual with left and right focus assist selected, Centre focus point selected, slow or medium slow sensitivity. ISO 100/200/400, monopod mounted.
 
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Tugster said:
Hi Gary,

Thought as much...did you do the BARLA open age on Saturday?
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Nah mate, im lead to beleive you were at Widnes for the National Cup Final yesterday, i was at Cas v Quins.

Seriously though, is the lens the same if you focus manually, if you search back far enough you will come across similar problems i had with my Canon 400mm f/2.8, focussing was garbage and it turned out to be a faulty IS motor even though i never used the IS it still affected the focus, i know its old hat mate but Nikons just work.
 
Gary had some bad times with canon and firmly believes thats it.. thats how they all are.. which of course is tosh... I will be the first to admit I have had loads of problems.. I have a mkIV with canon now and am using a loan one they sent..

But my 400 and my 300 and my 135 and my 35 are all spot on excellent lens.. the 400 focuses spot on anywhere.. I was at a game not so long ago and way on the distance in the hills i could see moterbikes.. must ahve been a mile or more away.. focus no problem :)
 
Gary Coyle said:
Nah mate, im lead to beleive you were at Widnes for the National Cup Final yesterday, i was at Cas v Quins.
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Long story Gary, I'll tell you all about it next time I see you.

KIPAX said:
Gary had some bad times with canon and firmly believes thats it.. thats how they all are.. which of course is tosh... I will be the first to admit I have had loads of problems.. I have a mkIV with canon now and am using a loan one they sent..

But my 400 and my 300 and my 135 and my 35 are all spot on excellent lens.. the 400 focuses spot on anywhere.. I was at a game not so long ago and way on the distance in the hills i could see moterbikes.. must ahve been a mile or more away.. focus no problem :)
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Aye Tony, I know Gary has had issues with Canon kit, I'd be preaching the same if I'd have had the same issues... I'll get it into Canon for a service and send the MK4 body in with it for a calibration/ Alignment....Maybe it will throw up the problem if there is one.

Do you know what they charge for this type of service ? Will Lehmans do the same as the London service centre ?
 
Tugster said:
Long story Gary, I'll tell you all about it next time I see you.



Aye Tony, I know Gary has had issues with Canon kit, I'd be preaching the same if I'd have had the same issues... I'll get it into Canon for a service and send the MK4 body in with it for a calibration/ Alignment....Maybe it will throw up the problem if there is one.

Do you know what they charge for this type of service ? Will Lehmans do the same as the London service centre ?
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Dont touch Lehmans mate, loads on here will tell you they are garbage, they had my lens several times and didnt get it sorted, in the end it was a guy at Calumet in Manchester who found the problem and got Lehmans to sort it.
 
KIPAX said:
Gary had some bad times with canon and firmly believes thats it..
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Well not quite, they do produce some brilliant lenses and the afore mentioned 400 i had was one of them (until it went tits up) and the MKIIN is still a brilliant camera.
 
60 quid for lens calibration .. dunno about camera.
 
bigrob said:
I am sure that I was advised to have the tracking sensitivity on fast.

Download this Canon doc for their suggested settings

http://ebookbrowse.com/eos-1d-mark-iii-guide-to-ai-servo-af-custom-functions-pdf-d53563502

See scenario 005 on page 14.
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Hi Rob,

Not sure if the MKIII and MKIV are the same ....I was lead to believe that the faster the sensitivity the easier it would re focus on anything coming in front of the main subject, so throwing the focus out when trying to follow a single player for example.

I spoke to Canon Elstree today and with having the CPS, they said they would attempt to turn it round as soon as they could. They quoted a week to begin with then when I made them aware of the CPS membership they said they could do it quicker but the cost would be approx £125 for body and lens calibration.

I'm still not 100% convinced that it isnt a settings problem, as I have some distance images that are pin sharp. I'm going to reset all the setting to factory defaults and try again...Then maybe try the other MKIV body to see it the situation is the same with each body.
 
Ah sorry wasn't think that you had a MkIV.

I presume that you have checked your focus point in DPP?
 
bigrob said:
Ah sorry wasn't think that you had a MkIV.

I presume that you have checked your focus point in DPP?
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I dont use DPP Rob but I'll put it on the laptop and have a look.Thanks for the advice.
 
Open a photo in DPP then click on View > AF Point.
 
If you have left and right focus assist points selected they might be pinching focus if theres something of a higher contrast to focus on, hope it gets sorted.
 
bigrob said:
I am sure that I was advised to have the tracking sensitivity on fast.
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always slow so it doesnt latch onto anyhting passing in front or near your subject
 
Ok thanks Kippax.
 
Horses for courses as far as that setting goes, slow is good like Tony says so it doesn't lock onto something else but then again that setting is slower to recompose your shot if you need to.
 
Gary Coyle said:
If you have left and right focus assist points selected they might be pinching focus if theres something of a higher contrast to focus on, hope it gets sorted.
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Looking at the focus point in DPP I thnk there may have been a little bit of this Gary

KIPAX said:
always slow so it doesnt latch onto anyhting passing in front or near your subject
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I always have the sensitivity on Slow or Med/Slow but I think I may try it on standard next time out..


Gary Coyle said:
Horses for courses as far as that setting goes, slow is good like Tony says so it doesn't lock onto something else but then again that setting is slower to recompose your shot if you need to.
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As above Gary ..Generally the focus points are spot on but I think on the images in question the initial focus may have been on a different part of the frame and subsequent sequence shots are still locked onto that point.This is exacerbated by the selection of the slower sensitivity selection. This would explain why sometimes the subject behind is sharper... More experimenting with settings before I send them away.

Thank you all for advice and guidance.
 
bigrob said:
Open a photo in DPP then click on View > AF Point.
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Thanks for the heads up on the DPP Rob....What a fantastic tool....I always assumed that anything given away free isn't really useful.....How wrong could I have been.
 
Tug

So was your focus point spot on?
 
Hope you get sorted soon Tug (y), not to turn this into a ****ing match but I'm still amazed at what Pro Canon users have to go through to get a "good un"!!. A MKIV? £3,000+? add a 400? £5/6000?, & you still have to calebrate it yourself or "PAY" to have it done:shrug:. some crappy PR there IMHO:eek:.
 
Bluesman graham said:
Hope you get sorted soon Tug (y), not to turn this into a ****ing match but I'm still amazed at what Pro Canon users have to go through to get a "good un"!!. A MKIV? £3,000+? add a 400? £5/6000?, & you still have to calebrate it yourself or "PAY" to have it done:shrug:. some crappy PR there IMHO:eek:.
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Yeah true Graham, but the lens was purchased second user from this forum..

I dont intend for it to be Nik v Can ...just a healthy discussion to sort out the issue and maybe just let others understand some of the issues that can occur.
 
Gary Coyle said:
Horses for courses as far as that setting goes, slow is good like Tony says so it doesn't lock onto something else but then again that setting is slower to recompose your shot if you need to.
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no its not.. it doesnt effect how fast it focuses..
 
Morning Gary, you're up early.
 
You can enable the focus point to show in the rear screen on the MkIV. It's handy for a quick reference, it will disappear as soon as you zoom in.
 
admirable said:
You can enable the focus point to show in the rear screen on the MkIV. It's handy for a quick reference, it will disappear as soon as you zoom in.
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Cheers Jim, I was not aware of that function. I guess with the issue I have at the minute, wasting the battery on the rear screen would not be a problem until sorted.

Thanks again
 
Tugster said:
Cheers Jim, I was not aware of that function. I guess with the issue I have at the minute, wasting the battery on the rear screen would not be a problem until sorted.
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I am always loking.. battery is so good its hardly noticable

i wear Glasses and at long distance I think it puts the line out slightly.. i can hold the lens as solid as a rock and aim at soemhting say 4 times the size of the red square.. I get it dead center.. but when i look on the screen its slightly to the left of where i had it.. this only happens say boundary to boundary at a cricket pitch ..thats a loooong way :) pretty sure its my very strong precriiption glasses.. although lenses are thinned.
 
and if you use the two focus points it shows them both
 
KIPAX said:
I am always loking.. battery is so good its hardly noticable

i wear Glasses and at long distance I think it puts the line out slightly.. i can hold the lens as solid as a rock and aim at soemhting say 4 times the size of the red square.. I get it dead center.. but when i look on the screen its slightly to the left of where i had it.. this only happens say boundary to boundary at a cricket pitch ..thats a loooong way :) pretty sure its my very strong precriiption glasses.. although lenses are thinned.
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Tony, are you aware that if shooting with glasses that the glasses you need to shoot with are basically reading glasses, reason being is when you are looking through the view finder your eyes are focussing on the mirror about 2 inches away and not at your actual subject which can be anywhere from 6 ft to the other end of the pitch away.

I could never shoot with my glasses until someone told me to use a pair of cheap reader glasses, i use a pair of £6 +3 readers from Tescos when shooting which are great, keep my vari focals in the bag and just swap over after the game.
 
I ahve bifoculs but still use the top part :(
 
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