Anyone use Reikan FoCal software to calibrate your lenses?

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turbodude
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p.1 #1 · Anyone use Reikan FoCal software to calibrate your lenses?

Ive been contemplating purchasing this software kit to dial in all my lenses, anyone use it before?

http://www.reikan.co.uk/focal/mbp45/

Nov 20, 2012 at 08:32 PM

dimi
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p.1 #2 · Anyone use Reikan FoCal software to calibrate your lenses?

I've been using it on a D700 originally and now a D800 and it's interesting seeing the results. It's fairly painless to use except for the part about getting enough distance between the camera and the target and making sure you have enough light.

Most of my lens require a little adjustment, usually in the +2 to 5 range while my 105 f/2.8vr is dead on, I've calibrated it the long range and didn't bother doing it at the macro range. Easy to use and not too expensive, there's a link floating around for a discount that I used.

Nov 20, 2012 at 09:38 PM

turbodude
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p.1 #3 · Anyone use Reikan FoCal software to calibrate your lenses?

what about zooms? what do focal length do you calibrate at?

Nov 20, 2012 at 09:46 PM

Strobo
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p.1 #4 · Anyone use Reikan FoCal software to calibrate your lenses?

turbodude wrote:
Ive been contemplating purchasing this software kit to dial in all my lenses, anyone use it before?

http://www.reikan.co.uk/focal/mbp45/

It works well, however don't get the Standard version, especially if you have Nikon cameras. I wasted a lot of time with it and never got accurate or consistent results. Get the Pro version - it works well, it gives consistent results, and has a lot of other useful features and tests, such as AF consistency, a multipoint focus test, and dust analysis.

For best results make sure you have the camera on a solid tripod, use the eyepiece shutter and run the tests with a bright light source.

Nov 20, 2012 at 11:10 PM

ohsnaphappy
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p.1 #5 · Anyone use Reikan FoCal software to calibrate your lenses?

Has anyone used it since they updated the software to be Mac compatible?

Nov 21, 2012 at 12:27 AM

derry1
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p.1 #6 · Anyone use Reikan FoCal software to calibrate your lenses?

used it on my D300 and now my 800E,,

none of my lens needed a large number but I sure could see the diff in the small detail on the 800E,,

even used on a friends Canon and he loved the outcome,, he does weddings,,

I usually do a fair amount of cropping as the boats out on the water cannot be reached except with long glass,, my 300 f4 is the longest I have,, I have always seeked the best resolution and the FoCal assures it will have it unless I screw things up,,

would buy again,,

Derry

Nov 24, 2012 at 07:01 PM

Mark_L
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p.1 #7 · Anyone use Reikan FoCal software to calibrate your lenses?

I used it to fine tune all my lenses when my D800E arrived. It is excellent and takes all the headaches out of fine tuning lenses since the software walks you through each step and warns you of a skewed target, light level change, incorrect distance etc. Definitely worth the money doubly so considering the cost of stuff like lensalign.

In manual mode it does also show just how poor the repeatability of phase detect af really is...

Nov 24, 2012 at 09:21 PM

Kenneth Farver
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p.1 #8 · Anyone use Reikan FoCal software to calibrate your lenses?

someone has it at a discount but I don't remember the source. Maybe do a search on dpreview.
You need plenty of light and the light source can't change.
The software will warn you that the lighting changed because a cloud moved and ask you to start over.
I think once you set the camera on liveview, 10X and can see the full target it might be in the correct position.
I tried 50X for the distance and it may be too distant. FoCal says anything from 25X to 50X works.
I was disappointed that I can't use it indoors and had so many cloudy days.
Now with the temps below 32 it may be a long time before I play with it again.
I did get one day that I could put everything on the porch in the shade and calibrate all of my lenses to both bodies.
The software is only getting better. I am using the Mac Beta versions on OSX 10.6.8
I'd say go for it.

Nov 24, 2012 at 09:27 PM

penghai
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p.1 #9 · Anyone use Reikan FoCal software to calibrate your lenses?

I have used it for my D7000 and 500 VR. It really helps to make the 500 very sharp.

Note that it really requires a consistent good light to make a good AF fine tune evaluation. And as Reikan recommend to do the evaluation at a distance of 25X to 50X of the focal length, it could be a challenge to find a place that's big enough to do the evaluation for a big tele (like 500mm).

I also read a post in naturescapes.net that one famous pro nature photographer bought the mac version (still in beta) and has a high praise for it.

Nov 26, 2012 at 05:33 AM

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