FoCal AFMA for Nikon Z6 / Z7 Mirrorless coming

Mar 25, 2011
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In a email this morning, I saw a announcement for FoCal that supported the new Nikon Mirrorless cameras Z6 and Z7. Then I noticed a reference to this article which explored inaccuracy in the Nikon autofocus with their mirrorless cameras, and it tells us why they put AFMA in them, because AF can be off enough to show up.

I have not yet seen any similar analysis of the Canon AF for the R, but have observed that I definitely can visually see a improvement with very careful manual focusing done at 10X on my 24 inch monitor.

Since The Canon cameras do not offer AFMA, I wonder if anyone has seen a careful analysis of AF accuracy with the R? I'm not sure if It could be done with FoCal in the manual mode or not.
 

Ozarker

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I wonder if it's a per-lens thing with mirrorless, or just a general, global adjustment needed.
Probably has to do with flange distance tolerances from copy to copy. Just my guess. Worse than a guess. I think I just made it up.
 
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AlanF

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Wondering if this could be a sort of trick from Reikan as to sell their product in the future. Sure, that mirrorless cameras are a serious threat for them.
Reikan Focal can be used only if the camera has an AFMA menu on it to adjust MFA. So it cannot be a trick from Reikan unless this tiny company has bribed Nikon to add an unnecessary feature.
 
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JuanMa

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I find it weird. One of the big reasons I bought the R is not needing AFMA, and it is pretty obvious at f1.2 just how incredibly accurate it is.

I’ve shot birds and cats and it somehow hits the eyes no matter what at f1.2.

“But, but spec lists ! Animal eye af, useless canon!!” :ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO:

I’m really looking into buying an EOS R, I have the Mark IV and 7DM2. A bit disappointed by the 7DM2 but in love with the Mark IV. One of the main reason of my interest on the R is that it doesn’t need AFMA and it would be a big disappointment to know that you will still have to use software or any other methods to get it working correctly with the lenses.
 
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I’m really looking into buying an EOS R, I have the Mark IV and 7DM2. A bit disappointed by the 7DM2 but in love with the Mark IV. One of the main reason of my interest on the R is that it doesn’t need AFMA and it would be a big disappointment to know that you will still have to use software or any other methods to get it working correctly with the lenses.
You don’t need that with the R. (y)
 
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AlanF

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You need AFMA on a DSLR for several reasons. The main one is the calibration of the distance of the focal plane from the sensor plane as measured by the phase detect AF system on its separate sensor, and then there are others due to lens imperfections that affect the calculations. The R doesn't need the major correction but do we know that the DPAF is not affected to a minor extent by flaws in lens construction?
 
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Couple of years ago i asked them to provide support for mirrorless cameras to be able to test lens performace on MILC.
All lens have variations in performance and i consdered FoCal as good tool to measure lens performace at home to see if my lens copy is good and also do periodic lens checks. They had this possibility in pro version for DSLRs.
They replied that this is good idea and they might consider to include this in their development plan.
May be they just implemented what i asked them then ?
 
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AlanF

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Couple of years ago i asked them to provide support for mirrorless cameras to be able to test lens performace on MILC.
All lens have variations in performance and i consdered FoCal as good tool to measure lens performace at home to see if my lens copy is good and also do periodic lens checks. They had this possibility in pro version for DSLRs.
They replied that this is good idea and they might consider to include this in their development plan.
May be they just implemented what i asked them then ?
You can fool Reikan into dong this for mirrorless. Take a series of shots with a DSLR, and store them for using with FoCal in manual mode. Then take shots of the target with your mirrorless. Paste them over the shots from the DSLR and analyse them as focus consistency. You need at least 5 different shots. FoCal will calculate the QoF of the mirrorless using the exif data from the DSLR.
 
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Mar 25, 2011
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You can fool Reikan into dong this for mirrorless. Take a series of shots with a DSLR, and store them for using with FoCal in manual mode. Then take shots of the target with your mirrorless. Paste them over the shots from the DSLR and analyse them as focus consistency. You need at least 5 different shots. FoCal will calculate the QoF of the mirrorless using the exif data from the DSLR.
By pasting them over the DSLR shots, how do you do that? Is it done in editing software or photoshop?

It is my understanding that my FoCal Pro would let me manually analyze sharpness of images but I could never figure out how. I was trying to use my SL2 and adjust my Sigma 18-35 for sharpest focus by changing settings with the dock, so I could produce a series of images with different settings, but FoCal would not analyze them due to the exif.

Your method sounds workable, I just am not understanding what paste means.
 
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It sounds like a feedback error to me, that is the body tells the lens to move x amount yet it should move x +/- amount. Don't forget the Nikon and Canon FF MILC's have hybrid contrast and phase detect AF systems built on the image sensor, surely that implies that sometimes the lens instructions could be unidirectional. I know Canon touted a whole new league of lens/body bidirectional communication with the R mount, maybe Nikon cut a few corners with theirs. Unidirectional does have the advantage of speed of acquisition, which is only useful if it's accurate!
 
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AlanF

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By pasting them over the DSLR shots, how do you do that? Is it done in editing software or photoshop?

It is my understanding that my FoCal Pro would let me manually analyze sharpness of images but I could never figure out how. I was trying to use my SL2 and adjust my Sigma 18-35 for sharpest focus by changing settings with the dock, so I could produce a series of images with different settings, but FoCal would not analyze them due to the exif.

Your method sounds workable, I just am not understanding what paste means.
From what I remember, but you will have to experiment, open the mirrorless image of the target in PS, select all, copy, open DSLR image, paste the mirrorless over it, save. Crop if it helps. Open 5 of the pasted-in images in Focal, focus consistency pane.
 
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Mar 25, 2011
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From what I remember, but you will have to experiment, open the mirrorless image of the target in PS, select all, copy, open DSLR image, paste the mirrorless over it, save. Crop if it helps. Open 5 of the pasted-in images in Focal, focus consistency pane.
I'm really busy now, but I will try to find time to compare my 5D IV with my R for focus consistency.
 
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Reikan Focal can be used only if the camera has an AFMA menu on it to adjust MFA. So it cannot be a trick from Reikan unless this tiny company has bribed Nikon to add an unnecessary feature.


I DL'd the Z7 manual from Nikon's website and AF Fine tuning is on page 297. The values for 30 lenses can be stored in camera.
 
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