Quote Originally Posted by tirediron View Post
To the former, I'll wait and see the images you post before making suggestions.

To the latter, hmmmm... There are a number of 70-200 Canon lenses out there, so I'm not 100% sure to which one you're referring. Some (especially the long-range zoom/macros do have a switch or control to put them into 'macro' mode, others do not. Your big zoom may also not be a true macro, that is it may not actually reproduce 1:1. 2:1, or half-size is a very common "macro" for lenses like this.

I suspect that your focusing problem is that you're not accounting for the very shallow DoF in macro work. As opposed to the depths of field in regular photography which are generally measured in at least inches, if not feet, the DoF in macro work can be as little as one millimeter or less! It sounds to me like you may just be missing the point of focus.

What I suggest is to take something easy to focus on, such as a newspaper clipping and set it up about 12" from your lens. Keeping the camera in the same spot, VERY slowly focus down to the minimum distance, and I'm pretty sure at some point you'll see it leap into sharp focus. Depending on the length of the extension tube (The longer the tube, the closer you can get to the subject) you may be able to get very, very close to it.

I hope that helps.

It does, thank-you, I will try that tonight.