Reikan FoCal fine tune focus

the_local_jacko

the_local_jacko

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Martin
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I purchased FoCal over the weekend to more accurately fine tune my nikon 24-70 f2.8 and 70-200 f2.8 on my D800. I have meticulously set everything up and run the focus fine tune for my 24-70 only to find there is not really any kind of trend at all. The best value was -14 with the second best -1 with all sorts of peaks and troughs between those values. It was previously set to 0 and I found focus to be ok. I can even run the fine tune several times at the same adjustment value and the graph looks like a cross section of the alps with ups and downs. Has any one else had some similar experience?

The only two things I can think of was the camera battery was only 20% and although I think lighting was fine, it was late afternoon in natural light so maybe could have been better. I had the camera on a tripod around 6-7 feet away from the target. The target was on a shaded window so was back lit but not in direct light. Lighting was pretty consistent.
 
Thanks for response.

I didn't initially. I tried it in a solid wall in a well lit area. I got the same results. I will remove it from a window when I try it again but it it was the same experience on the wall.

I watched the YouTube video but will read manual to ensure I haven't missed something else.
 
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I bought FoCal a while back as I thought I had an issue with a lens (I did too but that's another story ...) Out of curiosity I tried it on a number of other lenses an it has worked fairly consistently for me on a variety of lenses. Having a fully charged battery would make sense and making sure that you meet or exceed their specified minimum light level (may even make sense to have the same light throughout). I use a continuous light source for this. Setting everything up square helps too and I also make sure the tripod is as sturdy as it can be because using focal on a Nikon means making manual changes on the camera. On zooms I've used focal at the longer end and at max aperture of the zoom fwiw, in the belief that DoF will cover any issues at the wider end. In truth I've not really seen much difference in real world shooting other than with slightly longer focal lengths.
 
the_local_jacko said:
Thanks for response.

I didn't initially. I tried it in a solid wall in a well lit area. I got the same results. I will remove it from a window when I try it again but it it was the same experience on the wall.

I watched the YouTube video but will read manual to ensure I haven't missed something else.
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Its worth ensuring you have the target the correct distance away from the camera and that the light levels on the target don't change. I tend to use a modelling light from a studio head for this and get very good results
 
boyfalldown said:
Its worth ensuring you have the target the correct distance away from the camera and that the light levels on the target don't change. I tend to use a modelling light from a studio head for this and get very good results
Click to expand...

Yes I have studio strobes that I intend to use following yesterday's advice. I will probably get another chance this evening. Can I just ask what distance you use? I've read up online and many recommend 50x focal distance. The issue with that I'm getting with that is the target is then very small in the viewfinder.
 
I use 50x and then use the software to make sure the target is setup ok
 
I have to say I bought this also and don't think I've had the same end setting the same every time with any lens. My 24-70 was also the worst last time I ran it,it failed twice out of 3 attempts to even finnish the test and funnily its the one lens that seems to focus better and give better results than any of my other lens.

I've always done mine in the garden in the summer mid day at 50x focal length.
 
Lighting, a decent tripod and a full battery are key with focal.
And yes it's a long job on a nikon. Allow about 30 mins per lens.
My 105d macro proved a problem. Something like -13 was suggested when being used as a macro I.e. Close up, and +5 when used as a regular non macro 105. So what do you set it as , as I don't want to be fiddling with the micro adjust depending on how I'm using the lens.
Most if my lenses were all set within a range of +3 to -3 , but the macro was problem.
 
Wouldn't work for me either, I used it on 2 x D3S's and it was never able to get a result - just a waste of time and shutter clicks for me.
I'm sure it works for some but I don't see it as a reliable method.
 
the_local_jacko said:
I purchased FoCal over the weekend to more accurately fine tune my nikon 24-70 f2.8 and 70-200 f2.8 on my D800. I have meticulously set everything up and run the focus fine tune for my 24-70 only to find there is not really any kind of trend at all. The best value was -14 with the second best -1 with all sorts of peaks and troughs between those values. It was previously set to 0 and I found focus to be ok. I can even run the fine tune several times at the same adjustment value and the graph looks like a cross section of the alps with ups and downs. Has any one else had some similar experience?
Click to expand...

This pretty much sums all this up for me. Nothing really wrong with your camera, but you try "tuning" your focus because you've read so much about it, and end up confused, and even more convinced you have a problem than when you started :)

AF will never get it absolutely the same every time if you repeatedly focus on the same target methodically, so I don't see the point. All these AF target solutions are there to serve a need that doesn't really exist if you ask me. I've tried them before. Most lenses required different AF settings depending on focus distance.. so where do you go then? I just do a basic check with any new lens. I just shoot something in the middle distance wide open and dial the AF fine tune either side of 0 to see if there's an improvement. If there is, I just get as close as I can and leave it.

I've since just reset everything and just got on with photography. My images are sharp. I'm happy.
 
And this is sort of where I am now.
Apart from my macro 105d the suggest fine tune settings were all close to zero anyway. My Tamron 28-75 f/2.8 (now gone) required quite a large suggested offset at the 75mm end.
I got into chasing perfection 10 years ago with hi-fi. ££'s spent on snake oil that made everything sound so much better. I actually forgot to enjoy the music.
 
Some great comments. Thanks all.

The driver for me doing it was I another thread I posted, where when I received the 70-200 I was underwhelmed by its sharpness. I fine tuned it using Dottune method and there was a huge improvement. It left me thinking for £20 I'd give Focal ago which I believed would just simply back up Dottune results.

Either way I'm generally happy with performance of both my lenses. I'll give Focal another try but if there's nothing really lost either way if I can't get the results. Ill post outcome on here when I do retesting for those interested. Its looking more likely to be weekend now.
 
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