AFMA - Is is really necessary?

[baphomet]

one additional question which has something in parallel with AFMA.
When do you say a picture is 100% sharp., at 100% crop, 300%? What is your expectation?
Background, just got my new 5d mark iii, and also thinking about afma.. at 300% crop I can see that the pictures seem not being sharp, at 100% they do, so now, afma or not ?

No image will be sharp at 300%. Are you kidding? Look at the image about 50-100%. I prefer 50% when I'm doing PP as it's about as big as it will ever be viewed in real life. 100% for AFMA purposes using Lightrooms compare mode.

thanks Just wanted to be on the save side thx.

 

[Dick]

For fast primes I can say I've benefitted from AFMA.

For everything else it has been complete waste of time. I have actually set every 2.8 & 2.8+ lens to 0 AFMA.

 

[roadrunner]

Glad everything worked out for you. I just recently purchased the Lens Align II, which feels like it is built out of recycled cardboard, and sent it back back and purchased FoCal. FoCal works awesome, even in the semi-auto mode with the 5D3. I too purchased the plus version. It's a Godsend for my 7D too, making the whole process super easy.

Many of my lenses showed no visible difference in real world use, like my 24-70LII, but other lenses like my 85mm 1.8 and Sigma 35mm 1.4 were clearly sharper. I think they both used +7 or +8. FoCal is one of the best investments I've made.

 

[AJ]

For most lenses it is not necessary. But my 17-55/2.8 IS would be useless without it.

 

[Scott_McPhee]

I think a lot of photographers get obsessed by their image sharpness, investing in expensive camera bodies and high end L lenses only to then look at shots at 100%+ and "see" softness.

A lack of sharpness can be down to many other factors other than AFMA - shutter speed, subject movement, ISO noise, out of focus, etc. can all impact on image sharpness.

I would say when I get an unsharp image it's usually down to my fault for not getting everything correct when I am shooting. My focusing is off or my shutter speed hasn't been fast enough to freeze any movement.

I would expect on a expensive body like the 5D3 that you should be able to put virtually any L glass onto it and get sharp results with no AFMA - unless the body or lens is faulty.

It was a worthwhile excercise for me to buy FoCal and calibrate my lenses as it has told me that my lenses are "Okay" quality wise as they only required slight AFMA and I now have an easy method for re-calibrating anc checking in the future.

FoCal does make it easy, especially as I have never done any AFMA before and I managed to calibrate all my lenses in just over an hour at first attempt.