A700 AF sensor despair

tpetpe identified it. You will never work around diffraction, so you have to open the lens a little.

sybersitizen wrote: ^ I notice there are also signs of slight camera shake, especially in the f/22 shot. To isolate camera shake effects from diffraction in your tests, try using mirror lock-up and flash rather than ambient light.

From what I recall, mirror slap is most visible (i.e., at its worst) at about 1/15th sec. exposure, which is right around where your f/22 shot is. The effect should be less at higher and lower speeds as you get away from 1/15 sec. Of course, there are numerous variables that could make that number slightly different for your setup.

Using the 2 second delay should engage mirror lock up if your camera supports it.

The blurred highlights are vertically elongated. To me that looks like mirror slap.

russellsbags wrote: I also agree you should be using the 2 second timer and the remote to avoid all vibration possible.

Just to clarify (I'm sure John already knows this): to minimize vibration you want to use the wired remote. There is a 2-second timer available when using the wireless remote, but for some insane reason it does not prefire the mirror, so you still get mirror slap problems.

When you use the two second timer directly from the on-camera shutter release button or with a wired remote, the sequence of operations changes: when you press the button, the mirror lifts immediately, then the camera sits for two seconds, then the shutter fires. That two second delay between lifting the mirror and activating the shutter allows mirror slap vibration to settle before the picture is taken.

Ok, thanks for the input folks, good to know everything is ok and I was just driving myself crazy.