It appears I’m fighting several issues at once – some I can identify, some not. The ones I can are: focus in front or behind intended point (typically with a busy background); Shutter speed too slow – below 1/60 or less than 1/focal length (300mm shooting at 1/240) – camera or subject movement. The ones that are really puzzling are those of still objects, with no discernible in-focus area anywhere. It just looks like AF didn’t, or the depth of field was close to 0 (or negative).
My typical mode of shooting is hand-held with the 16mm – 300mm Tamron zoom (f/3.5 – 6.3) using the 4/3 sensor (Canon 80D). I tend to stand back from the subject, and use the zoom to frame what I want to shoot. My subjects tend to be candid and not staged. I have no L lenses, but I do have first generation Canon 50mm, 100-300mm and 28-80mm – on the theory that the first-out lenses for the new DSLRs had to be decent quality until they could bring out the L series lenses for the digital cameras.
I need to do some research on how to test for autofocus working correctly. I’ve never been satisfied with any of the AF technology. I learned on the split manual focus system (pick a vertical line and make it look right in the split section of the display).
