I bought my s/h mint condition 30D in Spring 2007 and to start with it was used with my mint condition EF 300 f4L, & an outwardly battered EF 300 f2.8L, and with 1.4x & 2x Canon extenders - primarily shooting wildfowl on water from a sturdy tripod. Later it was used with a mint EF 300 f2.8L IS USM.
It's taken some time sorting out the focus problems which were largely front focus errors when used with the old 300 f2.8L; a lens which had initially seemed OK on my 5D. After analysing hundreds of shots & doing simple statistics I decided the lens was front focusing, and after getting the 300 f2.8L fixed (a tale in itself due to its age) I was still not getting the results I expected, so I went over to using the 5D with the 300 f2.8L & 2x. These were better despite losing the 1.6x factor.
Last autumn, I had Lehmanns check the 30D and correct its AF, and recent results with my EF 300 f4L have been fine. I must now check it again with the 300 f2.8L lenses. Thank goodness I'm not using film!
OK I have had some very good results but too many "easy shots" on bird targets were significantly front focused. Was it mis-alignment between the v/f centre focus spot and the AF sensor (picking up on the nearer water), or an AF body-lens problem? Seems like I may have had both, and it's taken around a year to get it sorted and have confidence again in my gear. (I had both lens and body adjusted independently, as I didn't want to lose the good AF accuracy which I got with other lenses and different extended subjects.)
I've just ordered a 1D MkIII so that I can take advantage of the Micro-adjustment facility, and am hoping that in future the errors will be mine rather than from the equipment.
It's taken some time sorting out the focus problems which were largely front focus errors when used with the old 300 f2.8L; a lens which had initially seemed OK on my 5D. After analysing hundreds of shots & doing simple statistics I decided the lens was front focusing, and after getting the 300 f2.8L fixed (a tale in itself due to its age) I was still not getting the results I expected, so I went over to using the 5D with the 300 f2.8L & 2x. These were better despite losing the 1.6x factor.
Last autumn, I had Lehmanns check the 30D and correct its AF, and recent results with my EF 300 f4L have been fine. I must now check it again with the 300 f2.8L lenses. Thank goodness I'm not using film!
OK I have had some very good results but too many "easy shots" on bird targets were significantly front focused. Was it mis-alignment between the v/f centre focus spot and the AF sensor (picking up on the nearer water), or an AF body-lens problem? Seems like I may have had both, and it's taken around a year to get it sorted and have confidence again in my gear. (I had both lens and body adjusted independently, as I didn't want to lose the good AF accuracy which I got with other lenses and different extended subjects.)
I've just ordered a 1D MkIII so that I can take advantage of the Micro-adjustment facility, and am hoping that in future the errors will be mine rather than from the equipment.