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7Dmk2 and Tamrom 150-600 focus issue (1 Viewer)

Hi, I've been having a focus issue for quite a while, I primarily photograph birds using a 7Dmk2 and a Tamron 150-600. Focus seems to miss a lot randomly and I've no idea if it's down to me, the lens or the body.

I think these two pictures demonstrate the issue, taken less than a second apart, http://imgur.com/a/KXLnd I've not done any post process on either apart from cropping, I focused on the bird, fired off a few shots and refocused, fired off a few more. You can see the first image is quite soft, where the second one you can see a lot of the detail in the feathers...that's generally the sort of sharpness I've come to expect at 600 when I'm fairly close to the subject.

I've got the lens micro-adjusted by -10 at the telephoto end. I'm using the center focus point, on one shot, I generally focus and recompose which usually works great for me.

Surely the focus shouldn't be that inconsistent? I've no idea why this keeps happening, it's very frustrating. I hope someone can give me some advice.
 
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When i thought mine was playing up i tested it by using a tripod, manual focus on a small target on short grass,i found the grass was good for showing the focus area.
 
Have you got your camera set to release or focus priority ( AF Menu No2) for the first and second shots?
Might make a difference if you set both to focus priority.
 
Have you got your camera set to release or focus priority ( AF Menu No2) for the first and second shots?
Might make a difference if you set both to focus priority.

I had the first one set to Focus and the second Equal...although that menu is for AI Servo, right? I was using One Shot in the sample pictures.
 
Can you tell us what ISO, focal length, shutter speed & aperture were used? Tripod?

(I agree with nikonmike about using blades of grass for showing where the plane of focus is.)
 
Can you tell us what ISO, focal length, shutter speed & aperture were used? Tripod?

(I agree with nikonmike about using blades of grass for showing where the plane of focus is.)

They were both at 800 ISO, 500mm (not 600 as I originally stated, but the issue still persists), the soft image was at f6.3 and the sharp one at f7.1, shutter speed was 1/640 for both. I hand held, as I normally do and generally I get great results. I was on P mode and used the center focus point, on one shot, I focused and recomposed.
 
Hi Chris,
You must be a lot steadier than I am - I normally use a heavy tripod with gimbal head for my long tele shots - anything over 400mm - and even then, I can easily get poor sharpness if I let the shutter speed drop too much.
 
Hi Chris,
You must be a lot steadier than I am - I normally use a heavy tripod with gimbal head for my long tele shots - anything over 400mm - and even then, I can easily get poor sharpness if I let the shutter speed drop too much.

I certainly don't think it's got anything to do with shutter speed, I've been able to get pretty sharp images at 1/200-ish when the lighting has been really poor.

The camera/lens combo does produce some very sharp images, I uploaded a couple here, http://imgur.com/a/2F6rD but I have still been getting extremely frustrated by this issue...I think the plane of Focus is behind the bird in the soft image, but I've no idea why. I focused on the bird exactly the same as I did in the sharp picture. It seems to jump about randomly.
 
Going back to my test system,if you lock the camera down on a tripod with the focus point on a small subject then take a AF shot then manually defocus,repeat this about 20 times,i never resolved the issue with mine as i had been having focus freeze problems and three return trips to Tamron could not sort it,i decided enough was enough and returned it to my dealer.
 
The camera/lens combo does produce some very sharp images, I uploaded a couple here, http://imgur.com/a/2F6rD but I have still been getting extremely frustrated by this issue...I think the plane of Focus is behind the bird in the soft image, but I've no idea why. I focused on the bird exactly the same as I did in the sharp picture. It seems to jump about randomly.

Although I was using the 150-600 with different cameras to yours (600D and 7D1) I found the same focussing issues - some excellent sharp images but not consistently enough to make for happy days out. In the end I sold it to get rid of the frustration!
 
I own this lense and its soft at 600 full stop. I pull it back a bit and always use f8 for bird shots. By the way I use a nikon. Got some wonderfull images. Just try what I said see if it makes any difference.
 
I own this lense and its soft at 600 full stop. I pull it back a bit and always use f8 for bird shots. By the way I use a nikon. Got some wonderfull images. Just try what I said see if it makes any difference.

Agree with the soft at 600 fullstop! I used f8 and 500mm (if it didn't slip!) on my Canon bodies and although I did get some excellent images there was a lot of focussing inconsistency. But if you only pay £900 (now c.750)for a 500mm lens then perhaps I was hoping for too much.
 
Could you have knocked the lens without realising it at sometime it's easily done? About 3 years ago I used the sigma 150-500 and as already said lenses of this ilk can be tad soft at 500mm but if I brought it back to 475mm or there abouts and used f7.1 to f8 it was good to go. It's sitting in my cupboard these days I replaced it with the Sigma 500 4.5 prime lens now that's sharp! As stated by Paul you gets what you pay for with long lenses. Also like many I could not afford or carry a cannon 500 around. I believe the siggy 150-600 sport has a good following but I cannot advise on that lens I have not tried it! Maybe hire one for a long w/e. Then trade the tammy in.
Kind regards Mike
 
I also use the Tam 150-600 and also use minimum f7.1 or f8.

Its definately possible that your copy is not 100%. You certainly have a decent enought camera body.

Have you got IS left on ? Sometimes people forget that the stabilisation is sometimes still working when they fire off a shot and this will most likely cause mis-focus. You have to wait for the IS to complete when pushing the focus / shoot button.

This is not such a problem with static birds, but for twitchy erratic birds like Great Tits etc, you just wont have time for IS to settle before they've moved or flown. And birds in flight would be harder still, so i turn of IS when shooting BIFs


What could help is using back button focusing. I set the rear AF-ON button on my Nikon to focus and only use the shutter button to take the shot

I used a Nikon D610 for these photos below - all at ISO 800 and all hand held

I have not set the lens with fine tuning at all. It is as it came out of the box

BHG was at 500mm , the Tern and Whitethroats at 550mm

Shutter speeds range from 1/1250 - 1/1600. If possible, ( it isn't always ) i like to achieve a shutter speed double that of my focal length. Luckily we had very good light that day
 

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I had the Tammy 150-600 for 5 or 6 months but was never happy with the AF consistency. I changed to the Sigma 150-600 C and all my focus inconsistencies disappeared (apart from when I screw it up lol). Hand-holding the Siggy at 600mm needs about 1/500 sec or faster although I have had sharp shots much slower than than.
Not saying your problem is with the lens but from my experience it could be. BTW the Siggy AF's surprisingly well with a 1.4x tc (f9 !!!!) on both the 7D2 and 5D3.
 
I had focus issues on my 7D2 for a long time, the issues were not related to a lens but did show up more the longer lens I used. My Sigma 150-600 C was particularly a problem but I new the Lens was ok because it worked fine on my old 7D and my 5D2. The issue was cleared when I did a firmware upgrade on the 7d2 to the latest version and if by magic all my focus issues disappeared.
 
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