Benefit of calibrating lens using dock rather than on camera?

Gary Kinghorn

Gary Kinghorn

Suspended / Banned
Messages
1,505
Edit My Images
No
My assumption is that calibrating a sigma lens using the docking station means once done that lens will work correctly on all cameras..

As opposed to making the adjustments on the camera itself, meaning I have to do it for all my cameras one at a time.

I still have to ascertain the exact adjustment that is required, which I can do using the piece of equipment with the lines and numbers on it. (Whatever that is called)

I have all the gear and an hour free this afternoon, so I'd like to have a crack at our with my 35mm and 120-300.
 
No. Cameras focus can be as far out as a lens and in fact there are variations in both so what you need to do is tune a specific camera to a specific lens. Whether you do that in camera or in lens doesn't really matter.
 
Not necessarily. Calibration, whether on camera or lens, is just a way of adjusting out the small manufacturing inconsistencies.

These inconsistencies exist on both camera and lens, no matter which you adjust you are always calibrating the combination of that lens on that body.

It's possible that you have a lens that's more or less spot on but paired with a camera that needs +10. By adjusting the lens you may make it worse on another body.
 
I agree with D4rr3n. Both lens and camera could need calibration. To marry the two together needs on camera adjustments. If you sent it away for calibration you would need to send both body and lens to be sure that the adjustments are spot on.
 
Gary Kinghorn said:
So if I need to do it on the camera anyway, what does the dock so for me?
Click to expand...

This will calibrate the lens but not the camera. You might find that this is all you need and the camera is already spot on. Then again you might not. If you are still unhappy with the images after calibrating on the dock it would suggest perhaps you should look at calibration on camera and see if that improves matters.
 
Not sure about the 2 lenses you list, but on the 150-600mm C you can tune/calibrate the lens at different zoom points and at different focal distances

Calibrating the lens on the body alone will only do one adjustment to cover all focal lengths and zoom points, which may not be optimal, i know my 150-600 C needed a few different settings at different focal lengths (typically at the long end)
 
Grumps1974 said:
If you sent it away for calibration you would need to send both body and lens to be sure that the adjustments are spot on.
Click to expand...

Who do you send them to for calibration, is there a recommended company?

(Sorry to deviate from the OP question)
 
The Sigma dock allows you to calibrate at (from memory) four different focal lengths - so for a zoom - fully in, fully out and at two stages in between.

Most cameras, if they have in-body micro adjustment only have one setting.
 
Some cameras will allow calibration at both the short and long end of a zoom.

With the sigma 150 - 600 S the dock allows you to change the characteristics of the auto focus and image stabilisation.
 
Spiderdudeuk said:
Who do you send them to for calibration, is there a recommended company?

(Sorry to deviate from the OP question)
Click to expand...

I don't know of any that specialise in this - I would have thought that any approved company that repair/service your make of camera would also offer a calibration service.
 
The sigma 150-600 allows up to 24 adjustments. 4 different distances X 4 different focal lengths.
Calibration in camera will do one adjustment for all focal lengths or on some cameras one at the shortest and one at the longest focal lengths.

It's a bit of a PITA as you have to try d figure out the adjustment needed, remove the lens, attach it to the dock, write the adjustments and test again, and repeat 24 times.
 
Gary Kinghorn said:
My assumption is that calibrating a sigma lens using the docking station means once done that lens will work correctly on all cameras..

As opposed to making the adjustments on the camera itself, meaning I have to do it for all my cameras one at a time.

I still have to ascertain the exact adjustment that is required, which I can do using the piece of equipment with the lines and numbers on it. (Whatever that is called)

I have all the gear and an hour free this afternoon, so I'd like to have a crack at our with my 35mm and 120-300.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure if you got around to this yet or not, however when I got my 120-300 sport I sat down with Reikan Focal and set to and tried to check it. Well after 3 hours I had managed to complete all 4 different focal lengths at the first 2 focus distance (min and 5m iirc) however I then gave up after trying to find somewhere with a consistent light that was both 10m and also Infinity. I then resorted to calibration in camera. What I have used the dock for though was setting up the customisable settings
 
I was a little up against it today, but wanted to get a couple of my lenses done. I didn't immediately find my dock, so did it on camera.

I adjusted both my 35mm and 50mm 1.4 Sigmas. I did the pair of them on my 3 cameras. The 35mm was pretty much spot on with all 3, the 50mm needed minor tweeking. When I have more time I will do the 120-300, but will do that using the dock and camera.
 
When using the Focal and the Sigma dock, how does it work? Do you go through the calibration motions and then instead of adding the reccomended adjustment to the camera add it to the sigma dock instead.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top