Canon EOS 70D Owners Thread.

Mark - I want to do this on my 70D. What version of FoCal did you use?
 
Hi all

Could do with some input please. I received my new 70D earlier this week. Haven't really had much time to try it out in good light until today but didn't think it was that sharp with my 17-55mm. This morning I compared some similar shots with the 17-55 on both my 700D and 70D and the 70D did look softer.

I decided to download a copy of FoCal, (I'd planned on doing this anyway at some point). This have given me the following results for MFA adjustment on various lenses.

Canon 10-22mm f3.5-4.5 = W: +7, T: +8
Canon 17-55m f2.8 = W: +12, T: +11
Tamron 70-300mm f4-5.6 VC = W: +7, T: +6
Canon 50mm f1.4 = +16 (FoCal seemed to struggle with this one so ended up tweaking it manually with a rule.)

So it looks like there is some variance in the lenses but they all needed at least +6 MFA suggesting either they're all front focussing or the body might be off 0. I'm trying to figure out if this is acceptable/normal. If the body was spot on I'd have expected them to have been spread either side of zero or at least some closer to 0.

However I have been able to fine tune all of them with reasonable success and the 17-55mm is now as sharp on the 70D as it is on the 700D. So I seem to have a functioning setup at least.

Has anyone experienced this?

Not to that degree. I have the 10-22 and the Tamron and neither needed any adjustment, nor did the 70-200is. The only one that did was my 18-135stm kit lens, that needed +3, at the long end, which I thought was negligible. I can barely tell the difference between adjusted/non-adjusted.

I used the automated dot-tune setting in Magic Lantern which did make it very simple to go through the adjustment process.
 
Mark - I want to do this on my 70D. What version of FoCal did you use?

I went for FoCal Plus. The auto setting seemed to work quite well on a couple of lenses but takes some time. On a couple of occasions the auto function complained the camera wouldn't take a photo and then crashed. This was mainly with the Tamron from memory. The semi auto function worked when the auto didn't however. I wouldn't say it's amazing but it's ok.
 
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Not to that degree. I have the 10-22 and the Tamron and neither needed any adjustment, nor did the 70-200is. The only one that did was my 18-135stm kit lens, that needed +3, at the long end, which I thought was negligible. I can barely tell the difference between adjusted/non-adjusted.

I used the automated dot-tune setting in Magic Lantern which did make it very simple to go through the adjustment process.

Thanks for that, I notice my 10-22 and the Tamron are both quite close to each other
 
I have just ordered my 70D to replace my old trusted 450d to work alongside my 60d. Is this FoCal software worth it? I've never noticed an issue before on the 60D or the 5d2 I had, but if I can improve things for £20....
 
I have just ordered my 70D to replace my old trusted 450d to work alongside my 60d. Is this FoCal software worth it? I've never noticed an issue before on the 60D or the 5d2 I had, but if I can improve things for £20....

If you've not noticed a problem before perhaps not. I'm still relatively new to photography so was considering getting FoCal to reassure myself that my lenses were up to scratch. When I noticed the 17-55 looked softer on the 70D than the 700D I decided to purchase it now. If you've been using your lenses for some time, you're happy with them and you don't notice a decrease in quality with your new 70D I'm not sure it's worth it.
 
Thank you, I will wait and test it against the 60 on the lenses I have available, if it works it could be worth it I guess. I did always thing the 24-105 was a little flat on occasion, but I blamed that on the wife being unfamiliar with it
 
Bit disappointed, 2nd 70D arrived yesterday and appears to be similar to the first.

Haven't tested all the lenses this time but noticeably softer than my 700D when pointed at the same FoCal target with 17-55mm and 50mm 1.4. The first FoCal test suggested a required MFA of +21 (not possible) for the 55mm end of the zoom, using the semi automatic method I got it to around +17.

Ignoring the FoCal results I just took some test shots of the target and compared them in Lightroom. The 700D was sharper than the 70D on both my 17-55mm and the 50mm 1.4 wide open. I tried centre group as opposed to centre point but didn't seem to help. The 70D was sharper with +17 MFA applied. A couple of images taken with the 70D in live view prior to adjustment were really sharp as well.

HDEW have said that unfortunately they think this is just how the 70D compares to my previous camera. Not 100% convinced, but they've advised I can send it back for a refund if I'm not happy so can't argue with that too much.
Not sure if I've been really unlucky with the 70Ds or just lucky with the 700D but I'm somewhat disappointed.

So the 70D is going back, think I'll stick with the 700D for a bit and then maybe try a 7DMkII if the price drops or see if anything comes out to replace the 70D. Bit of a shame because apart from the issue with sharpness I really liked the 70D.
 
Hi. I have the 70D and an 18-135mm lens also and have often thought mine also looked a bit soft in the focus. I too upgraded from a 700D as mentioned above, about a year ago which seemed perfectly sharp to me on the same lens. In fact I just bought a 70D body & kept the same 18-135 lens I used on my 700D. I was wondering if this new software would improve the problem I'm seeing? Would the softness be attributed to lens abberation correction?
 
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