Automated AF Fine Tune software

[ian in lancs]

Has anyone tried this AF fine tune software?

http://www.reikan.co.uk/focal/index.html

[markmullen]

That looks cool, if they make a Mac version I'll be having a bit of that.

[ian in lancs]

i cant see if it drives the camera via USB or just analyses the images which can be done by eye anyway. Be really cool if you could mount a lens and the computer takes over, sets the fine tune and stores the lens data on the camera.

[markmullen]

Check the youtube video, it appears to use liveview or tethered shooting through Eos Utility and then give you a setting to apply yourself in MA, clever stuff.

[ian in lancs]

Ah, I'm Nikon and I dont think the camera focus can be driven remotely.

[K12beano]

This looks an interesting concept. Watched vid, but still can't quite figure out exactly what it does (but then I haven't yet.had the benefit of fine tuning a dSLR - the old steam-powered ones didn't allow for that)

Apart from the automated process and associated accuracy - and given it's pretty much a one off process - is it going to be worthwhile for less than a dozen lenses and one body?

[ian in lancs]

Thought I'd give this a try can't say I'm impressed so far. Main problem is variability / repeatability of results. What I mean is for a given lens runing the calibration sequence over and over again gives different micro adjust figures. For my newish 85mm f1.4D on my D700 it suggested +14, 2, 15, 5... Same set up. Save your money folks.

[ian in lancs]

K12beano said:

This looks an interesting concept. Watched vid, but still can't quite figure out exactly what it does (but then I haven't yet.had the benefit of fine tuning a dSLR - the old steam-powered ones didn't allow for that)

Apart from the automated process and associated accuracy - and given it's pretty much a one off process - is it going to be worthwhile for less than a dozen lenses and one body?

What is does is analyses the pics from a tethered camera. On a nikon it asks for the Micro Adjust Focus to be set to zero. It focuses the camera, raises the mirror (delay adjustable) and takes a few shots and analyses that pic set. Then it asks for -20 to be set manually on the Micro Adjust Focus and takes a few pics, followed by -10, +10 and +20. It seems to measure the sharpness of the pic and predicts the point of optimum sharpness; shape of the curve I guess. Through prompted settings it homes in on optimum setting for Micro Adjust Focus and finishes by telling the user to set that on the camera; I assume that meant store it against the lens 'saved value'. Quite simple but seems to be variable in suggested settings for the same setup. That cant be right!