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Focusing Accuracy on Canon EOS R5
The Canon RF 35mm f/1.8 STM has particularly severe focus accuracy issues on the Canon EOS R5, at least under some conditions. And when coupled with its strong rearward focus shift, the whole affair is an f/8-and-pray sharpness disaster.
With regards to the Canon pro zooms (Canon RF 14-35/4L, Canon RF 15-35/2.8L, Canon RF 24-70/2.8L), I found that focus was consistently sharp where placed, but the near-far bias of the zone of sharp focus was so different among them that it was impossible to match focus for a comparison on a scene like this using autofocus, even at 100% magnified Live View. And it’s error-prone and really tedious to have at it with manual focus. I spent hours reshooting this scenery and ultimately failed to be able to match focus across zooms to my satisfaction. That bodes poorly for optimizing focus placement in general for landscape work. Still, if it’s only placing focus for one lens, it’s a lot faster task.
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Canon EOS R5 + Canon RF 35mm f/1.8 IS Macro STM
ENV: Alpine Creek, altitude 600 ft / 183 m, 65°F / 18°C
RAW: LACA corrected, vignetting corrected, +20 Whites, +10 Clarity
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