----- Original Message -----
From: "Malcolm Stewart" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Friday, November 24, 2006 9:59 AM
Bought a s/h EF 300 f2.8L last April and have been using it with my EOS
5D. Initial results were everything I'd hoped for with this highly
regarded tele. Soon learnt that I'm not fit enough for handholding it,
and most shots have been on a firm tripod with Manfrotto 3D head, type
029. Main use is for shots of ducks, swans & geese.
I'm now puzzled in that at some venues I get a high ratio of sharp
keepers, whilst at others, I come back with a very high proportion of
slightly mis-focused images which, with the limited DoF with a 300mm lens
at f5.6 are a waste of space. They show signs of front focusing. The
venues where I get better results are where I can shoot from a little
height so that I'm shooting downwards at perhaps 15 deg, and the poorer
ones are where I guess the angle is closer to grazing, around 5 deg.
(Shots of birds in flight using AI Servo etc. have been OK, as have
manually focused shots of birds in undergrowth.) When I get them sharp,
they really do show good contrast and very fine detail, and that is what I
bought this lens for.
I normally use centre AF spot, One Shot AF and I hear the confirmatory
beep. (I've turned the hidden AF points CF Off so it should be just the
centre AF spot that's active. Hidden points are supposed to be active only
in AIServo mode anyway.)
Just wondering if any others have noticed that the centre AF spot in the
5D is located slightly below the marked centre rectangle? At the moment,
I can't think of any other cause. I do have other lenses such as the 200
f2.8 so I'll be doing tests on that with and without a 1.4x extender.
Thanks for any ideas. (I suppose I could try it out with my EOS3 but
that's near to being a last resort!)
Malcolm,
I believe the AF targets on the 5D are larger than the indicators on the
screen, same as on other non-1D models.
The camera tends to pick the nearest point of high enough contrast within
the target.
If the heads are sharp in your 15 degree pics, but the body in your 5
degree, this could explain it.
CraigZ
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