I am still considering getting FoCal as I am not convinced my 1D Mark III focuses correctly. Sometimes I see my red square right where it should be, but one frame is out of focus, and the next is in. Might be poor lighting (high school football at night) or lack of contrast, and some images just are not as sharp as I think they should be. Is it me, is it something FoCal can help with, or is it something else with the body?
Anyway, I read that Canon says to micro focus adjust at 50x the lens. FoCal says to use the common distance you shoot at. With my 300 the players are 30 yards away, or more. 45 feet vs 90. I don't think it is realistic to try and focus and run the program on a letter size page at that distance. Will FoCal still be effective for this scenario?
Using the pro v.1.6, I tried to MA a 100-400 lens at 400mm at 18 meters or 59 feet and it did a decent job calculating -3 but it failed numerous times prior going through the automated tests. I think it's due mostly to the target with inadequate lighting. In the end through just random shots after, I determined that -6 was the best setting for the lens.
Your problems with focusing while shooting night high school football may be entirely due to the low light. Even with great technique, shooting HS football at night with crappy light is very challenging.
As to whether FoCal will work focusing on a letter size page at 90 feet, the answer is that it should. If your camera and lens can focus at that distance, which they obviously can, then the test algorithm in FoCal can use the focus data to determine the best MA.
Nov 02, 2012 at 03:56 AM
Lars Johnsson Offline • • • • • • • Upload & Sell: Off
The FoCal will be effective for you and your 300mm lens. But I don't think MA is the problem for your "night football" shooting.
You should see if your lens needs MA when doing some normal day time shooting in good light
I have lost all confidence in FoCal. I prefer to use a more manual method that simulates simulates shooting conditions. I do not find focal that repeatalbe to be of any use.
I really do need to find a daylight event to practice at and see how it shoots. The body was recently at Canon so one could assume it must be right, but we know about assumptions and too often I've heard about items going back for the same repairs.
I also fear I can suffer from operator headspace. I know my first Rebel had focus problems - until I learned to use it better. I have learned that more often than not it is user error, not camera error in cases like this. It's the learning curve.
andyz wrote:
...Sometimes I see my red square right where it should be, but one frame is out of focus, and the next is in. Might be..
Might be camera setup. Some of the custom functions can produce this type of behaviour, in particular c.Fn III-3 AI Servo 1st/2nd image proirity (pg. 166).
I just bought a 100-400 then used focal and had great success dialing in the focus. I got repeatable results. So I believe in it. But, I followed the directions carefully and you do need really good light on the target. YMMV......
twistedlim wrote:
I have lost all confidence in FoCal. I prefer to use a more manual method that simulates simulates shooting conditions. I do not find focal that repeatalbe to be of any use.
I have not seen reports like this. I'm curious if you could explain more.
Were you following their recommendations? Did you use their chart? What were your results?
