24-105mm L soft, need help!

[Edsport]

All pictures are from raw images. These pictures were on a tripod with remote. I'm about 3ft away from the objects.

f/4 1/200 iso-400 105mm
http://i53.tinypic.com/2mdoy3a.jpg

f/4 1/200 iso-400 105mm
http://i51.tinypic.com/2wn9puf.jpg

What else should I do to see if my lens is okay? Don't want to have a bad lens. Any advice would be really appreciated!

Raw images need sharpening because the camera don't apply sharpening if you shoot raw. I sharpened your first photo to have a look and it seems fine...

 

[tonee]

I called up Canon, rep said the lens isn't focusing correctly. Sent in some pictures to see if there was anything wrong. Do you guys think that is true?

 

[Edsport]

The first photo seems fine to me after it's sharpened. When you took the last 2 photos, did you get confirmation that you had focused?

 

[fokker]

I wonder were you using the lens with IS turned on while on the tripod? Because you shouldn't do that.

 

[pgriz]

OK, here’s the drill:

1) pick a well lit spot for your testing, so that low light is not a factor.
2) choose a subject that is contrasty (a lens target, or a newspaper, or anything with fine detail that you can later examine for sharpness).
3) locate that target at about 5 feet away (so that minimum focus distances don’t come into play). Tilt it at a 45 degree angle, and mark clearly the aiming point. This will help you see if the focus if behind or ahead of your intended actual focus point.
4) Place your camera on a tripod. If necessary, weight down the tripod to make sure it doesn’t budge.
5) Put your 24-105 lens and turn AF off and IS off. You don’t want to rely on the camera’s autofocus ability, and you don’t want the possible jiggling that IS can make while it’s searching for stability.
6) Take off any filter you may have on. Some will cause issues with the picture.
7) Focus on your chosen target using live-view and the 10x magnification. Make sure that you’ve clearly focused on the chosen spot.
8) Choose the aperture of f/4. Any focusing issues will be more obvious at minimum DOF.
9) Set your shooting mode to manual, and set your shutter based on whatever meter reading your meter gives you.
10) Lock up your mirror (see subscuck’s suggestion).
11) Trigger your camera with the remote.
12) Examine the resulting photo & histogram, making sure that the key focus area is well exposed. If not, adjust exposure and re-shoot.
13) If you have another camera lens, put it on at this point and go through steps 6 though 12. The focal length should be close to what you used on the 24-105mm lens (so if you shot that lens at 50mm, the comparision lens should also be at 50mm). F/stop should also be the same, if at all possible.
14) Bring in the RAW files into your computer and process them exactly the same way, ie, use the exact same amount of sharpening, etc. with all (so that post-processing is a non-factor).
15) Now compare. Look specifically at your focus point, and the area around it and do a side-by-side comparison at maybe 400% to see how the detail shows up. If you want our feedback, crop out the center 600x600 pixel squares at 100%, and post these.

 

[tonee]

OK, here’s the drill:

1) pick a well lit spot for your testing, so that low light is not a factor.
2) choose a subject that is contrasty (a lens target, or a newspaper, or anything with fine detail that you can later examine for sharpness).
3) locate that target at about 5 feet away (so that minimum focus distances don’t come into play). Tilt it at a 45 degree angle, and mark clearly the aiming point. This will help you see if the focus if behind or ahead of your intended actual focus point.
4) Place your camera on a tripod. If necessary, weight down the tripod to make sure it doesn’t budge.
5) Put your 24-105 lens and turn AF off and IS off. You don’t want to rely on the camera’s autofocus ability, and you don’t want the possible jiggling that IS can make while it’s searching for stability.
6) Take off any filter you may have on. Some will cause issues with the picture.
7) Focus on your chosen target using live-view and the 10x magnification. Make sure that you’ve clearly focused on the chosen spot.
8) Choose the aperture of f/4. Any focusing issues will be more obvious at minimum DOF.
9) Set your shooting mode to manual, and set your shutter based on whatever meter reading your meter gives you.
10) Lock up your mirror (see subscuck’s suggestion).
11) Trigger your camera with the remote.
12) Examine the resulting photo & histogram, making sure that the key focus area is well exposed. If not, adjust exposure and re-shoot.
13) If you have another camera lens, put it on at this point and go through steps 6 though 12. The focal length should be close to what you used on the 24-105mm lens (so if you shot that lens at 50mm, the comparision lens should also be at 50mm). F/stop should also be the same, if at all possible.
14) Bring in the RAW files into your computer and process them exactly the same way, ie, use the exact same amount of sharpening, etc. with all (so that post-processing is a non-factor).
15) Now compare. Look specifically at your focus point, and the area around it and do a side-by-side comparison at maybe 400% to see how the detail shows up. If you want our feedback, crop out the center 600x600 pixel squares at 100%, and post these.

I will try this later! Thanks!

 

[tonee]

How about these, these were taken outside.

http://i55.tinypic.com/qsrxn5.jpg

http://i55.tinypic.com/2817i53.jpg

 

[fokker]

Seem sharp to me

 

[pgriz]

@tonee: It's hard to tell without further information. Are those pictures crops, and if so what part? Did you do any resizing? Any sharpening? At what distance were those shot? For instance, if the first shot was from a billboard, shot at (say) 30 ft., I'd have one reaction. If they were shot closeup from a 4x5 advertisement, then it's another. Same for the lock. If that is a full-frame resized, I'd say that again, you're shooting too close, and the image is soft. On the other hand, if this is a crop without resizing, I'd say it's pretty sharp. You need to be systematic in your approach to testing the lens, and tell us the process you followed so that we verify that you have not allowed the usual sources of blur from coming into the picture. THEN we can comment on whether your copy of the lens is good or bad. Until you do this systematically, we may be reacting to what we think is happening, but it may in fact be a completely different issue. So we can't help you unless you invest the time to do the test in a rigorous manner, and then share with us the exact steps you followed.

 

[Derrel]

RE-READING THROUGH this post, and the OP's minimalist communications is instructive. Her responses are typically one sentence, and provide almost no feedback, and show almost zero in the way of communication skills. It looks like she needs a reason to exchange a perfectly good lens, so she can shoot more close-up snaps and wonder why they are soft,etc.,etc..

 

[ghache]

RE-READING THROUGH this post, and the OP's minimalist communications is instructive. Her responses are typically one sentence, and provide almost no feedback, and show almost zero in the way of communication skills. It looks like she needs a reason to exchange a perfectly good lens, so she can shoot more close-up snaps and wonder why they are soft,etc.,etc..

Thanks you internet forum behavior therapist. it appreciated.

 

[tonee]

The picture of the sign is about 5-6ft away. 70mm f/8, 1/400 sec, iso-400.

The lock is 5-6ft away. 70mm f/8, 1/500 sec, iso-400.

Both pictures are crop to 804x603.

 

[tonee]

Here's a few full size raw images. You can download to see if the images are sharp or not. Thank you for everyones help!

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