Sigma 35 Art and the USB dock - calibration tips appreciated

[ahsanford]

Hey all, I've rented the Sigma 35 Art for a test run soon. I also rented the USB dock to be to able to dial-in the focus on my 5D3.

It hasn't come in yet, but I have a limited amount of time (perhaps one evening) at home to use the USB dock before I head out on a trip where I won't have a computer with me. Do you have any tips / lessons learned on how to best go through the entire process of using the dock, taking test shots, etc.? How similar is the process/workflow to on-board AFMA?

Thanks,
A

 

[wickidwombat]

its basically the same as doing AFMA just you have more set points to calibrate at different camera to subject distances.

make sure the lens has the current firmware first.

use a tape measure to accurately set the camera focal plane to target distance, the focal plane marker is on top of the body its the circle with the line through it. measure this accurately as if this is wrong your adjustments will also be wrong.

because there are more set points it will take longer than afma.

 

[bholliman]

Thanks for posting this, I had the same question for the 50 Art that I rented for 8 days around Christmas. I'll have more time to work with it however.

 

[ahsanford]

Much obliged, wombat.

- A

 

[wickidwombat]

oh its also a bit of pain in the arse taking the lens on and off the camera have a body cap nearby to keep poping on the body. I shoot a group of 5 shots for each one defocusing manually and refocusing between each shot

also do this shooting tethered using eos utility its much faster as you can see it up on the screen straight away

i did the calibration manually NOT using focal. I then ran the focal tests to confirm i was where i wanted to be
not sure if you have focal or not but i didn't use the focal results to make changes on the dock calibration
the final focal recommended a +1 AFMA but i didn't change it as this was close enough as makes no difference to me.

if i think of anything else i'll post it up