The right lens(es) quest – Part 1
Hi all,
How many times have you heard that the 7D is an extremely exigent camera for what concerns lens(es) quality?
If you answer never or not so many, well, you are very lucky and I really envy you from the deepest of my heart.
I am personally one of those 7D enthusiastic owners who dived into this lovely 18Mp ocean of dense quality without the right boat (read…the lens).
Yes because since from the very first moment I switched on my 7D having plugged my trusted Tamron 17-50 f/2.8 (not VC) I felt some subtle sense of misunderstood expectations.
The sound of my crunchy Tamron autofocus (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHxhJCY31FY) started being more a noise than a sound. The so widely decanted sharpness of my Tammy started fading out into a number of missed focus shots.
And I started googling to find a reason: was my lens suddenly broken? Was my camera having problem? Was it me starting to go blind (well that’s what autofocus is for isn’t it) ?
I tested many different autofocus calibration techniques, the three batteries test, the newspaper test, the focus target test…all of which failed miserably.
Yes, because you can start calibrating your lens focus with the camera provided menu but you are supposed to find consistent results out of it! Well that didn’t happen with my Tammy, it was alternating super sharp focusing to extremely front or back focus shots. Whenever I thought I reached THE calibration point the very next shot was totally missed.
Then I decided to abandon the calibration and live with my Tammy’s limitations.
The problem is very much evident when shooting at f/2.8 at speeds lower than 1/200s but who needs this?
(Sarcastic mode off)
Well I do!! Since I’m shooting most of the times indoor or in not the sunniest weather conditions.
To be continued…