AFMA advice sought

[neuroanatomist]

Not to hijack the thread, but am I correct in understanding that FoCal does not yet support Canon 6D?

No idea, but if not, you can shoot the images manually then use FoCal to analyze them. That's what I did for 10+ lenses when I got my 1D X.

[jp121]

I just ran FoCal for the first time on my late 2011 17" Mac. There were a few hiccups. One was I had to reset some of the settings on the camera to re-run tests. Some tests just crashed. However, it was the first time I was running the software, so quite probably it was down to me not understanding what I was doing.

[Quasimodo]

I bought the Lens something from spyder. Either my eyes are not good enough or....
I have that Issue, I can not see the fine differences once the setting gets close.

1) do you have to buy a new program for each body ( their website asks you to order for a specific body). My camera is a 5D II, but I have and am still borrowing a 1Ds III for the last three years. Hence would I need two payments and two programs for those. The questiens becomes even more pertinent if I finally Get the 1Dx.
 
Your purchase allows you to use FoCal on 5 different bodies.  You can add or remove bodies a limited number of times, which is to prevent users from cheating, but you can have five at a time.

2) does the program do the callibration for you? (Of course you need to set it up and so forth) But will it set the appropriate values for you in the camera, or would you still have to go through with shooting many shots,to narrow the gap down as with the solution i have today?
The answer depends on the camera body.  The 7D and 5D MK II are full automatic, but the 5D MK III and the 1D X cannot have full automatic calibration due to limitations in the Canon SDK.  So far, a way to make the calibration fully automatic for those bodies has not been found.  You have to follow on screen instructions and change the AFMA value manually between shots, otherwise, its automatic.  This actually goes pretty quickly, since they have improved the ability of the software to find the right value with a minimum number of shots and AFMA settings.

Thank you and rpt and John. I regret buying the Spyder now, as this seems way much easier. I will definitely buy this program.

Gerhard

[Old Shooter]

miah,

I went from an XSi to a 5DIII - things I learned about FoCal...

If you don't have one, get a VERY sturdy tripod.
Print the target as they recommend - matte paper, inkjet, then mount it perfectly flat on some sort of rigid backing.
Get the most light you can on the target - I lacked sufficient indoor lighting so I used sunlight.
When you are validating the target, make sure you get the green "check" at both normal view and zoom setting.
While you have it set up anyways - run the aperture sharpness test - on zooms run at both ends.
Get the "Pro" version - there are a few options that you will greatly appreciate.

Hope this helps!

[miah]

Thanks for the print-out, jp121. Very interesting data and nice to know it was done on a Mac.

Thanks for the heads up, Old Shooter. I have a great tripod, but will have to work a little to get the light right. Can you be a little more specific about what features are must-haves in the Pro version? Thanks!

[rpt]

miah,

I went from an XSi to a 5DIII - things I learned about FoCal...

If you don't have one, get a VERY sturdy tripod.
Print the target as they recommend - matte paper, inkjet, then mount it perfectly flat on some sort of rigid backing.
Get the most light you can on the target - I lacked sufficient indoor lighting so I used sunlight.
When you are validating the target, make sure you get the green "check" at both normal view and zoom setting.
While you have it set up anyways - run the aperture sharpness test - on zooms run at both ends.
Get the "Pro" version - there are a few options that you will greatly appreciate.

Hope this helps!

+1,000,000,000...
All those matter and even one thing out of whack can get you doing 2 hrs of AFMA with no real result.
Use incandescent bulbs for lighting.

[Old Shooter]

Thanks for the print-out, jp121. Very interesting data and nice to know it was done on a Mac.

Thanks for the heads up, Old Shooter. I have a great tripod, but will have to work a little to get the light right. Can you be a little more specific about what features are must-haves in the Pro version? Thanks!

Things I liked, just off the top of my head...

In the "Pro" version you can vary the f/stop from wide open - I have an old 50mm f/2.5 macro that is so soft at f/2.5 that I had to set it to f/2.8 to get an acceptable run...

You can also vary the ISO in the Pro version...

Lastly, you can manually extend the time to shutter activation after mirror lock-up if you want to give your camera more time to "settle down"...

I am sure some of the "FoCal Pro's" have other examples - but these are three that I used personally...

[miah]

rpt, what about halogen? I use 50W halogen bulbs in my reading lamps as it puts out a bright, white light (unlike flourescent or LED).

[neuroanatomist]

rpt, what about halogen? I use 50W halogen bulbs in my reading lamps as it puts out a bright, white light (unlike flourescent or LED).

Halogen is fine - that's just a tungsten bulb filled with a little bit of halogen gas added to the inert gas mixture inside the bulb.

[rpt]

rpt, what about halogen? I use 50W halogen bulbs in my reading lamps as it puts out a bright, white light (unlike flourescent or LED).

Halogen is fine - that's just a tungsten bulb filled with a little bit of halogen gas added to the inert gas mixture inside the bulb.

Thanks for responding, neuro. We were ringing in the new year! Happy new year all.

[THX723]

There's also a less sophisticated (and less expensive) FoCal alternative from the maker of LensAlign, called FocusTune:

http://michaeltapesdesign.com/focustune.html

It works similar to FoCal manual mode, where the software analyzes a series of images you took at various AFMA settings then spits out a report with its best recommendation. Again it's far less elegant than FoCal, but does the trick too. Also good to know that current LensAlign owners qualify for a discount.

[Mencho(22)]

miah,

When you are validating the target, make sure you get the green "check" at both normal view and zoom setting.

Why is that?

Let me tell you I am adjusting my lens 50x focal length and normally I can't get the green check when making zoom for example with a 135mm or 200mm lens.

Besides I am doing AFMA, I am still having some doubts.

1.- Distance to target: All bibliography tells you must set the target 50x when focal lenght is less than 200mm and set 25x for larger focal.

So for example... for a 200mm lens I should set the target to 10meters... and for a 300mm to 7.50 meters?
To be honest, 15meters seems to be a lot for a 300mm lens.

What are your experiences with that?

2.- Trying to AFMA a zoom lens for example a 24-70 with a 7D... Do you adjust for the larger focal?  You set an average between the AFMA number for 24mm and the number for the 70mm.


Any comments will be very useful to me... I have to AFMA a lot of lens with my 7D and my 5D III

[neuroanatomist]

miah,

When you are validating the target, make sure you get the green "check" at both normal view and zoom setting.

Why is that?

Let me tell you I am adjusting my lens 50x focal length and normally I can't get the green check when making zoom for example with a 135mm or 200mm lens.

Besides I am doing AFMA, I am still having some doubts.

1.- Distance to target: All bibliography tells you must set the target 50x when focal lenght is less than 200mm and set 25x for larger focal.

So for example... for a 200mm lens I should set the target to 10meters... and for a 300mm to 7.50 meters?
To be honest, 15meters seems to be a lot for a 300mm lens.

What are your experiences with that?

2.- Trying to AFMA a zoom lens for example a 24-70 with a 7D... Do you adjust for the larger focal?  You set an average between the AFMA number for 24mm and the number for the 70mm.


Any comments will be very useful to me... I have to AFMA a lot of lens with my 7D and my 5D III

I test all my lenses at both 25x and 50x the focal length (even my 600mm lens + 1.4xIII - tested at 21 m and 42 m).  For zoom lenses, I test at both ends of the zoom, and at 1-3 intermediate focal lengths (depending on zoom range, e.g. 1 intermediate focal length for a 2-3x zoom like the 16-35 or 70-200, 2 for a 4x zoom like the 24-105 or 100-400, 3 for a super zoom like the 28-300). 

Choosing an AFMA value is always a compromise, even when you can enter 2 values like on the 2012 bodies - subject distance and zoom setting affect it.  The more data I have, the better compromise judgement I can make, taking into account distances at which I commonly shoot and DoF at those distances.

[2trout]

great topic!
Waiting to have my 5D MKII returned from service, will get FoCal then, be interesting to see what can be done with my EF 100-400. 

[Old Shooter]

miah,

When you are validating the target, make sure you get the green "check" at both normal view and zoom setting.

Why is that?

Let me tell you I am adjusting my lens 50x focal length and normally I can't get the green check when making zoom for example with a 135mm or 200mm lens.

Besides I am doing AFMA, I am still having some doubts.

1.- Distance to target: All bibliography tells you must set the target 50x when focal lenght is less than 200mm and set 25x for larger focal.

So for example... for a 200mm lens I should set the target to 10meters... and for a 300mm to 7.50 meters?
To be honest, 15meters seems to be a lot for a 300mm lens.

What are your experiences with that?

2.- Trying to AFMA a zoom lens for example a 24-70 with a 7D... Do you adjust for the larger focal?  You set an average between the AFMA number for 24mm and the number for the 70mm.


Any comments will be very useful to me... I have to AFMA a lot of lens with my 7D and my 5D III

Mencho,

The way I understand it, FoCal uses the target at the "zoom" image to determine quality and that drives the score. If you are doing it properly, you should get a green check mark at normal setting. Then, go to zoom and see if you also have the same check mark. The two cases where I went from a red "X" to a green check, one was a slight targeting adjustment and the other I was too close (the program could not detect the edges of the target)...