Canon Manual focus problem

[farmer]

I got a new camera last week and had the first outing and found I was having trouble focusing clearly. I got a Canon Rebel T2i (18 megapixel) with a 55-250 mm zoom lens. I've found that in looking through the viewfinder while adjusting the manual focus, I can't tell the slight difference of when it is clear or slightly fuzzy. It looks clear in the view finder, but later when I look at the picture on the computer some are clear, so are not. This is not using a tripod at about 30 yards. I was disappointed that many of the photos are not clear as I expected they would be. . Should i be looking at the live view on the display screen instead of the viewfinder to tell when it is correctly focused? Does any one else have this trouble? Any advice or criticism  to share would be appreciated.
see this link for 2 example photos in the Bird photo corner, one is clear, one is not.
http://outdoorontario.net/birds/phpBB/v ... php?t=5619

[Moira]

I always use auto focus and still am experiencing problems with focus.  When I think about it, it's usually when the bird is farther away.  I enlarge the bird in the viewfinder to check, but usually don't really find out until I'm home.  Not sure what you call it, but there is an adjustment on the lens as well for up to 3.5m and 8.5m (i.e. short and long distance)  That wouldn't account for the same bird being in and out of focus though.  Perhaps someone more experienced can help out.

[Kin Lau]

Manual focus with the Rebel series is tough. The T2i already has a much better viewfinder than the pre-T series Rebels, but the tradeoff of a brighter viewfinder is that it's not that great for manual focus.

If you're able to shoot with a tripod, then LiveView is _much_ better, especially since you can do 5x and 10x zoom. The quality of the LCD on the T2i is also _very_ good.