1) A lot of people are buying their first SLR and blame all sorts of problems on their lack of experience. The majority of the complaints I have seen about "back focus problems" have included photos that show *nothing* in focus. Usually, it's camera shake. A recent example on the web complained that something ten feet behind a person in the photograph was in focus. In fact, something in front of the person was in focus.
2) One real problem is that the focusing sensor is slightly larger than the focusing point indicator on the screen. As a result, it is important to be more careful with the focusing point.
3) The web is a feeding frenzy. Like I said above, photographers who aren't reading web forums seem to have cameras that focus fine. On the web, everyone is getting bent and looking at every photo that is improperly focused or a victim of camera shake and thinking that Canon will solve their incompetency problems.
This probably started from something real but very limited and got out of hand from internet word of mouth, based on everything I've seen. My own experience with the 10D shows that you have to be careful about the focus point and it doesn't find a focus point in low light levels. This is very different from back focus, however.
At 08:43 AM 8/7/2004, Rand Flory wrote:
Alberto,
The back focus problem is pretty well known in 10D circles. The only solution is to send the camera and the lenses into Canon's repair service. They can tweak the focus to bring it into spec. But that is all they will do: put each camera and lens into spec. They don't, as I understand it, tweak the camera to the lens. Many people indicate that there is still a problem even when the camera is up to proper specifications, but most have found happiness after the tweak (or so I understand from another list I monitor),
The problem is due in part to the fact that Canon does not consider the 10D is a "professional" camera (it was never advertised as such). So the specs for focus is not necessarily as tight as a pro would want, although it is good enough for most amateurs. A camera can be "in spec" and still not be as good as you would like.
The back focus problem is evidently real, although the vast majority of 10D's do NOT have the problem.
If your brother expects and demands an absolute focus, he probably will have to move into Canon's pro line of cameras (the EOS 1D series). But sending the camera to Canon's national repair service (New Jersey or California) will probably help the back focus problem.
peace
rand
Jeff Spirer
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