Hey all, I've noticed this more often now especially after watching a video on youtube that pointed it out. But I wanted to ask on here if anyone knows what this is or why its happening and if there is a solution. I have noticed that the focus on my subject is not always sharp even when I know its right on, I don't think it is my lens as my lens works fine for portraits and non moving subjects but occasionally I'll get this and it's very noticeable at high ISO. It looks really soft and obviously grain doesn't help that, but it should as least be sharp right? Idk if any of that makes sense to what I am asking but is there any tweaking or any solution to help get sharper images? Im shooting the 7d mk ii with a 70-200mm f/4. Screenshot of what I was trying to explain is attached along with some exif on LR.
Tip: Next time you post a screen shot press i to display/cycle through the Info and it will overlay the exif top left of the image, which will be easier to see.
As to the image. You are shooting indoors and hockey rinks are notorious for bad lighting which flickers when it cycles. If that is true then using the 7Dii's anti-flicker mode may help.
Also, the image is very under exposed. Not sure if this is due to light cycle (you caught to low output part) or because you used one of the semi-auto modes and the meter was fooled. Either way you have white ice, white background and a white uniform (high tones that should be to the right of the histogram) and yet the histogram shows almost no high tones. Instead you have the classic under exposed white coming out grey. That is going to result in more noise than if you were to push the ISO up (you need to keep your shutter speed high and unfortunately, at F4 your lens isn't really fast enough).
As to focus, it could be several things.
1. Shooting fast sports the AF can sometimes have trouble so not ever image will be a solid lock, especially if you are shooting a burst.
2. You are shooting under exposed white on white on white - that means low contrast so the AF may struggle.
3. Some of it may well be perceived softness. We naturally tend to focus our eyes on things like the face, which, due to the helmet is getting even less light and is thus further under exposed. Your camera focus is probably on the front of the helmet or the players arms so the plane of focus is in front of the face but your eyes are drawn away from the better focused areas to the face.
4. You are pixel peeping - The players head takes up only a tiny fraction of the image - there simply aren't enough pixels there to capture a lot of detail (and as above that area is under exposed).
Give the laws of physics (there simply isn't enough light) the only thing you can do except buy a faster lens. I would also bite the bullet and crank up the ISO to get a better exposure. Yes higher ISO means more noise but after NR it will still look better than if you try to push an under exposed image.