photos skewed to left?

[jerseygirl]

i replaced my original canon 50 1.4 lens purchased last week with a new one, as the original was determined to be busted. i took the new one out today and noticed that many of the shots i assumed were centered turned out to be skewed to the left once downloaded. in the viewfinder all is well, but the downloaded images are off a bit.

i did a quick indoor test and noticed that where i assume i'm framing the edges, in fact i get more in the downloaded image that i had anticipated. the center point seemed okay, just a bit to the left (not as bad as the outdoor shots). does this have anything to do with a "crop factor"?

what am i missing? why have i not noticed this before with other lenses? do i need to adjust anything or am i losing my mind... i'm shooting with a rebel 300D.

 

[Alex_B]

do you mean the frame you capture is rotated with respect to what you see in the viewfinder? that could not be the lens.

did you try shooting from a tripod?

If I do not concentrate and shoot handheld, then my images are always rotated clockwise from what I think they should be ... and what I saw in the viewfinder ...

 

[jerseygirl]

do you mean the frame you capture is rotated with respect to what you see in the viewfinder? that could not be the lens.

did you try shooting from a tripod?

If I do not concentrate and shoot handheld, then my images are always rotated clockwise from what I think they should be ... and what I saw in the viewfinder ...

my images don't seem rotated, they are horizontally and vertically spot on.

in the viewfinder all seems okay, but when i download the images, many have a lot more space on the right hand side, not in line with the original crop i had intended.

haven't tried from a tripod yet, shooting handheld, but this is the first time i am encountering this issue...

 

[Alex_B]

my images don't seem rotated, they are horizontally and vertically spot on.

in the viewfinder all seems okay, but when i download the images, many have a lot more space on the right hand side, not in line with the original crop i had intended.

haven't tried from a tripod yet, shooting handheld, but this is the first time i am encountering this issue...

ah, ok, i see, so it is more like a shift in the crop?

maybe it is not well centred, maybe tilted ... a visit to the lens-vet might help then.

I recently got some of my lenses adjusted at the canon service centre in Germany to solve centering problems.

 

[jerseygirl]

ah, ok, i see, so it is more like a shift in the crop?

maybe it is not well centred, maybe tilted ... a visit to the lens-vet might help then.

I recently got some of my lenses adjusted at the canon service centre in Germany to solve centering problems.

uggg! not what i want to hear!

this is the second lens of this kind i am having issue with right out of the box!

i will have to experiment a bit more, and then go pull my hair out :banghead:

 

[Alex_B]

post some examples...

hmm, I've got exactly that lens, it is not 100% centred, but it behaves well in all other respects, including the framing.

well, Canon's end control in the production line is a joke ... I never got a single lens which was really well adjusted.

 

[jerseygirl]

post some examples...

hmm, I've got exactly that lens, it is not 100% centred, but it behaves well in all other respects, including the framing.

well, Canon's end control in the production line is a joke ... I never got a single lens which was really well adjusted.

below are two examples...

i took a few more shots indoors and see that when i stand farther away from my subject and look into the viewfinder from the right a bit, i see what it captures. this should not be the case, correct? i should be able to view what is captured head on.

when i focused the tissue box corner in the center, it looks like it measures fine, however the cropping is completely throwing me off. is this normal? i have never had this problem before

 

[darich]

You say it's the second lens straight out the box that this occurs. It would seem strange that it would happen to two lenses in succession. I've never heard of this before and none of my Canon using friends have either.
Could it be a camera issue?
Mirror moved?
Mirror needing aligned?
Not being funny but are you looking through the viewfinder straight?
If you're looking through at a slight angle then you'll compose the shot accordingly. But the camera will be seeing something very slightly different because you're looking at an angle.

Alex said he's had lenses adjusted for this type of thing but i'm not sure what could be adjusted or fixed in a lens to cure that problem

Seems strange to me.

 

[Alex_B]

Alex said he's had lenses adjusted for this type of thing but i'm not sure what could be adjusted or fixed in a lens to cure that problem

hat was when I still had the wrong idea about what the problem was... in my case the optical axis was not well aligned, but that creates effects different from those seen here!

it is strange indeed!

 

[darich]

hat was when I still had the wrong idea about what the problem was... in my case the optical axis was not well aligned, but that creates effects different from those seen here!

it is strange indeed!

Ahhh....I see....
:thumbup:

 

[Garbz]

The SLR is a WYSIWYG camera. If you are looking through the viewfinder you should get the same picture out of the camera. Afterall the view finder and the CCD go through the same lens.

Now as for cropping this is normal. Different viewfinders crop the edges of photos slightly. E.g. My D200 has a viewfinder which accurately shows 95% of the frame. But when I take a picture I get slightly more at the top, and when I do this with my pol and UV filters on my 18mm lens I get vignetting not visible in the viewfinder but only at the top of the final frame.

 

[jerseygirl]

You say it's the second lens straight out the box that this occurs. It would seem strange that it would happen to two lenses in succession. I've never heard of this before and none of my Canon using friends have either.
Could it be a camera issue?
Mirror moved?
Mirror needing aligned?
Not being funny but are you looking through the viewfinder straight?
If you're looking through at a slight angle then you'll compose the shot accordingly. But the camera will be seeing something very slightly different because you're looking at an angle.

Alex said he's had lenses adjusted for this type of thing but i'm not sure what could be adjusted or fixed in a lens to cure that problem

Seems strange to me.

the first lens was giving me err 99's and the salesperson confirmed the AF was busted on the lens when returned. this is a new issue. i was able to take some shots with the first lens and did not notice this cropping problem at all. i'll test out my other lenses and see if something has shifted inside. i was playing around with the new lens all night and it does not seem consistent. i noticed changes at various distances, and when i left aligned a shot of door molding where no wall was visible in the viewfinder, on the LCD screen i saw the wall. now it seems as though it's giving me more of a border than i want. i am so confused.

i would think it's the camera as well at this point, but if all other lenses are working fine then . both lenses were purchased at B&H.

 

[darich]

the first lens was giving me err 99's and the salesperson confirmed the AF was busted on the lens when returned. this is a new issue. i was able to take some shots with the first lens and did not notice this cropping problem at all. i'll test out my other lenses and see if something has shifted inside. i was playing around with the new lens all night and it does not seem consistent. i noticed changes at various distances, and when i left aligned a shot of door molding where no wall was visible in the viewfinder, on the LCD screen i saw the wall. now it seems as though it's giving me more of a border than i want. i am so confused.

i would think it's the camera as well at this point, but if all other lenses are working fine then . both lenses were purchased at B&H.

Without being funny, and you don't say what your experience is, could it be your technique through the viewfinder?
As mentioned, SLR is WYSIWYG so you should capture exactly what you see.
I know that your viewfinder may only have 95% viewing angle (or some other percentage) but it should still give you a balanced image, unless you're looking through at an angle.

 

[jerseygirl]

Without being funny, and you don't say what your experience is, could it be your technique through the viewfinder?
As mentioned, SLR is WYSIWYG so you should capture exactly what you see.
I know that your viewfinder may only have 95% viewing angle (or some other percentage) but it should still give you a balanced image, unless you're looking through at an angle.

i totally understand what you're getting at, and was even trying different viewing angles to see if i could figure out if i was missing something. i am assuming i need to view head on.

if it was what i was doing, wouldn't i notice it with my other lenses? is there something specific about the prime lens that is different? i own a canon 28-105 lens and borrowed a friends sigma, neither of which produces this result. also, i didn't notice this issue on the first busted prime lens i needed to return. it seems so strange that i would get two lemons in a row, so i want to make sure it's NOT me or the camera body ...

i'm a total newbie regarding advanced concepts, but like to think i have some common sense ...

 

[markc]

i took a few more shots indoors and see that when i stand farther away from my subject and look into the viewfinder from the right a bit, i see what it captures. this should not be the case, correct? i should be able to view what is captured head on.

As Garbz mentioned, this makes me think it might be how you are using the viewfinder. Moving your head shouldn't change what the viewfinder shows. It shows what it shows. Moving your head might change what your eye can see of the viewfinder if you can't see the whole thing for some reason.

Try putting the camera on a tripod or a table. While looking through the viewfinder so you can see the left side, have someone move something so that you can just barely see it on the left side. Do the same for the right and then take the shot. You should get a good idea of whether things are really off or not.

When you take a shot, a good technique is to check your corners. Move your eye so that you can see all four corners (and all the edges of the frame). It's a good way to keep extra items from creeping into the image that you don't want and might not have noticed otherwise.