New 10D focus test

[Jonathan Wienke]

Sorry, Jim, your pictures are definitely motion blurred. Both were taken at 1/60 second, f/4. The camera is using the flash for fill, not as the primary light source. As a general rule of thumb, to get a reasonably sharp picture hand-held you need a shutter speed at least 1/f or faster. If you have moving subjects, you frequently need to double or triple that minimum. Frame 1480 was shot at 109mm, and 1473 as taken at 140mm. So your minimum shutter speed should be at least 1/200; 1/500 would be better. Use your fastest flash sync speed; let the flash be the primary light source or else crank up the ISO to 1600. There is nothing wrong with your camera; this is a definite case of user error.

Notice that the vertical bars of the face mask are much more blurred than the horizontal bars, and ALL of the flash highlights are razor sharp. The camera focus is perfect, the subject is turning his head fast enough to cause blurring at 1/60 exposure.

[jiacone]

Jonathon, thanks for the advise - One thing still going through my mindi is  if your assumstions are correct why would the vertical bars be so much in focus - if his head was turing as I tripped the shutter wouldn't it effect the entire face mask on the helmet?? Just something to think about. Have you taken a look at the ourdoor shot of my older son? I am seeing a lot of this - which looks like a soft focus? sorry for the layman's terms.

The other question is - you concluded that I was using the flash not as the primary source but as fill flash - How would I have set the camera up to make it the primary source and what led you to that conclusion?
Appreciate your advice

[Jeff Donald]

Essentially two exposures were made, one by the flash and one by the ambient light.  The bars are leaving a partial shadow caused by the head moving during the exposures.  The head turning horizontally during the exposure left a partial vertical shadow (two bars). You don't notice the horizontal shadows as much because that is the direction the head is turning.

[Rainer SLP]

So the only photographies I made was with the 10D and found out that the 10D has a focusing problem, I know, nothing new. I did not manage to get a focused image with the bloddy AF from the 10D.

After throwing this so happily into the air yesterday, I made further tests and found out that the motif you are focusing brings the camera into a certain decision problem. It comes down to what Dixon Zalit found out here:

http://www.artistphotography.com/focus/index.htm

So I will see how the camera behaves further before I speak to Canon here in Mexico.