# 24L MkII focusing problems



## sold5 (Jul 24, 2014)

My 24L mkII is very accurate on my eos-M and when using when live view on my 5D mk3's but on the 5D's when not using live view the afma only works for one distance. All other distances are way out of focus.

For example, when focusing from about 20 ft I can amfa to get a decent result. Change to shoot from 10 ft and it misses by about a foot.

Would sending to Canon be likely to fix this? The lens is unuseable as is, I have had it for a couple of years but only started noticing the issue recently.

Thanks!

Steve


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## Random Orbits (Jul 24, 2014)

Why are you AFMAing at a target that is so far away? For the 24L II, I adjusted AFMA for a target closer to 50x, which is 1.2m or 3-4 ft, and it works fine for much larger distances.

That said, I did have an issue with my 24L II where I it would not focus accurately at all even stopped down to f/5.6. It did fine with LV, which bypasses the PDAF. I would suggest trying to AFMA at a closer target and see if that fixes it. If not, I would take a few shots showing your problem and send it to Canon with the lens. They had to adjust my lens' AF mechanism. The description of the work done was not more detailed than that but it did not imply that they had replaced any parts either...


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## mackguyver (Jul 24, 2014)

Random Orbits said:


> Why are you AFMAing at a target that is so far away? For the 24L II, I adjusted AFMA for a target closer to 50x, which is 1.2m or 3-4 ft, and it works fine for much larger distances.
> 
> That said, I did have an issue with my 24L II where I it would not focus accurately at all even stopped down to f/5.6. It did fine with LV, which bypasses the PDAF. I would suggest trying to AFMA at a closer target and see if that fixes it. If not, I would take a few shots showing your problem and send it to Canon with the lens. They had to adjust my lens' AF mechanism. The description of the work done was not more detailed than that but it did not imply that they had replaced any parts either...


+1 on the calibration distance - unless you're using the large target, at least. I have heard many stories about the AF on this lens, but I've had mine for 5 years now and it nails focus every time, no matter the distance.


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## LetTheRightLensIn (Jul 24, 2014)

I've heard stories of claimed terrible problems, mostly when paired with the 7D.

My copy was great on 5D2/5D3 and pretty good on 7D though.


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## mackguyver (Jul 24, 2014)

LetTheRightLensIn said:


> I've heard stories, mostly when paired with the 7D.
> 
> My copy was great on 5D2/5D3 and pretty good on 7D.


I guess that makes sense - I have never used mine on anything but a 5D2 or 3 as well.


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## alexturton (Jul 24, 2014)

I have the same problem with the 24l ii. Wildly inaccurate focussing and afma only corrected at one distance. I sent my copy back and got a new one. New copy nails focus all the time every time


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## alexturton (Jul 24, 2014)

I was using 5d3 and 7d


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## Random Orbits (Jul 24, 2014)

Random Orbits said:


> Why are you AFMAing at a target that is so far away? For the 24L II, I adjusted AFMA for a target closer to 50x, which is 1.2m or 3-4 ft, and it works fine for much larger distances.
> 
> That said, I did have an issue with my 24L II where I it would not focus accurately at all even stopped down to f/5.6. It did fine with LV, which bypasses the PDAF. I would suggest trying to AFMA at a closer target and see if that fixes it. If not, I would take a few shots showing your problem and send it to Canon with the lens. They had to adjust my lens' AF mechanism. The description of the work done was not more detailed than that but it did not imply that they had replaced any parts either...



My issue was found on a 5DII and confirmed on a 7D.


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## sold5 (Jul 24, 2014)

Thanks for the replies.

I did the afma at about 4 ft and it definitely helped for longer distances. It's late in Ireland now so will try in better light.

Cheers,

Steve


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## StudentOfLight (Jul 26, 2014)

Hi Steve, is the issue sorted?


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## sold5 (Jul 28, 2014)

StudentOfLight said:


> Hi Steve, is the issue sorted?



Hi StudentOfLight,

Definitely a lot better now, I did some testing in good light today and am pretty happy with the performance vs live view. I'm probably spoiled by some of the other lenses in my arsenal - just updated my profile with the full list. The fuji lenses at f1.2 to 1.4 are really sharp wide open so I'm probably setting the bar high for the 24 which is known to be a bit soft at f1.4


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