Lens calibration

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Fordsabroad

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Gordon
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I am not sure if this is in the correct section.
I am planning to calibrate my sigma 150 - 600 to my canon cameras using Focal Pro software and the sigma dock. Do I need to calibrate at both 150mm and then at 600mm and apply both corrections or to I average out the corrections and just apply one set? Do i then do the same for each camera the lens will be used with?
Is apply the corrections using the sigma dock better than directly to the camera?
 
Fordsabroad said:
Do I need to calibrate at both 150mm and then at 600mm and apply both corrections or to I average out the corrections and just apply one set?
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My 5D MKIII does allow you to apply the calibration for both near and far zoom, so I'd say yes to applying both rather than an average micro-adjustment. Just to be clear though, I've only used Focal Pro to adjust for my 135mm Prime lens.
 
Which camera body are you using,Gordon?...and I don't think you'll need the Sigma dock..as long as your body has MFA and as Andy says, the newer ones allow calibration at both ends of a zoom.

George.
 
Hi George and Andy
Thanks for your replies, the bodies I will b using are the new 1DX Mkii and a 7dMk 11
 
George said:
Which camera body are you using,Gordon?...and I don't think you'll need the Sigma dock..as long as your body has MFA and as Andy says, the newer ones allow calibration at both ends of a zoom.

George.
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The Sigma dock allows you to do it at 4 (or maybe 5) points along the focal range, it's far better than in camera calibration.

Does it definitely need it though?
 
I found the dock was worth it with my 1dx mk2 and 7d mk2
 
Fordsabroad said:
Hi George and Andy
Thanks for your replies, the bodies I will b using are the new 1DX Mkii and a 7dMk 11
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Well both of those allow you to do calibration at both ends of the focal length.
 
Jim
I am not convinced that it does. Am I better to adopt the "if it aint broke don't fix it" approach? I am not known for my success rate when messing with things!!
 
George said:
Well both of those allow you to do calibration at both ends of the focal length.
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Yes. But not the two sections in the middle that might be out if you do either end which is where the dock has the advantage (especially on a lens of this range) :)
 
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Fordsabroad said:
Jim
I am not convinced that it does. Am I better to adopt the "if it aint broke don't fix it" approach? I am not known for my success rate when messing with things!!
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If it doesn't, leave it well alone :)
 
Fordsabroad said:
Jim
I am not convinced that it does. Am I better to adopt the "if it aint broke don't fix it" approach? I am not known for my success rate when messing with things!!
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Then leave it be... IMHO, more people cause more issues by doing AFMA incorrectly/poorly than actually fix anything.

Which to use is a tough call. If there is a consistent error on all bodies I would adjust the lens w/ the dock. If it is different between bodies (and it likely will be) then adjusting the lens has the potential to exacerbate the issue for one body while helping another. You'll have to balance the adjustments and where it is best to make them.
 
Thanks for your replies, my gut feeling is to leave well lone then. If I get comments on the forum about my shots being OOF I will have a rethink.
 
Fordsabroad said:
Thanks for your replies, my gut feeling is to leave well lone then. If I get comments on the forum about my shots being OOF I will have a rethink.
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I'm sure its fine, there's no point in doing it for the sake of it (if it was out, you'd know!). A lot of people have messed up by MA'ing when they don't need to. Mine is fine straight out of the box across the range.
 
odd jim said:
Yes. But not the two sections in the middle that might be out if you do either end which is where the dock has the advantage (especially on a lens of this range) :)
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Ah sorry, well I'm not aware of the Sigma system, I was only commenting on FoCal.
 
Sorry to hijack
I have just picked up a sigma 30mm 1.4 Art and a dock second-hand. I have done a few test shots and it seems to be ok.
Is there a way I can see if it has been calibrated and if there is reset to default setting in the sigma software?

Thanks

Ivan
 
Ivan_1983 said:
Sorry to hijack
I have just picked up a sigma 30mm 1.4 Art and a dock second-hand. I have done a few test shots and it seems to be ok.
Is there a way I can see if it has been calibrated and if there is reset to default setting in the sigma software?

Thanks

Ivan
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The dock software would show any adjustments made, otherwise if it's been untouched it will on be on zero.
 
The dock software will let you "match" your lens to a body at 4 different lengths which is better than the long/short in body MFA .

BUT this obviously means the lens has been set for one body & may be well out for the other :(
 
mrgubby said:
The dock software will let you "match" your lens to a body at 4 different lengths which is better than the long/short in body MFA .

BUT this obviously means the lens has been set for one body & may be well out for the other :(
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It should still show the adjustments made on the software even when plugged into a different computer as it effectively rewrites the firmware in the lens, so you can simply set it all back to 0 to go back to default.
 
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mrgubby said:
The dock software will let you "match" your lens to a body at 4 different lengths which is better than the long/short in body MFA .

BUT this obviously means the lens has been set for one body & may be well out for the other :(
Click to expand...

As I understand it, the idea with the USB Dock is that you're zeroing the lens to various parameters. When that's done, it should be right on any camera, and if needs be you can then MAF-adjust each camera to the lens.
 
All this is fascinating to me, I've only ever had Canon lenses and I didn't realise the Siggy system had all these possibilities....however strikes me a bit strange that they see a requirement for such adjustments (if I read it correctly).

I must look at the difference in MFA on my Canon zoom between wide and tele, and also the difference in 2 (identical) bodies.

Will post tomorrow out of interest.

George.
 
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