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Archive 2013 · AF fine tuning help needed

  
 
Steve Park
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · AF fine tuning help needed


Please help!

I've had some difficulties in AF fine tuning.
Mainly because my eyes are not good enough to tell where the sharpest point is.

The images I got from D800 with 300mm/2.8VR+TC17 combo has been pretty soft, especially in low light. I think I had finally fine tuned close enough, but not nailed it.
Please examine image below and suggest how much more adjustment is required. Any and all suggestions will be greatly appreciated.


Steve



SOOC resized to 900 pixel wide & screen shot of focused area 100% crop below.















Jan 28, 2013 at 08:01 PM
workerdrone
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · AF fine tuning help needed


Really hard to tell from this type of image if you need any fine tuning at all or if it's something else. Did you tune under controlled conditions or just shooting real world?


Jan 28, 2013 at 08:57 PM
James R
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · AF fine tuning help needed


Shooting wide open with a TC can be a little problematic. Shutter slap, wind, etc can impact sharpness, besides the TC its self. IMO, you fine tune for the lens. If the TC is creating problems, leave it off and crop to get the shot you want. The D800 image allows for very liberal cropping.



Jan 28, 2013 at 09:10 PM
Steve Park
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · AF fine tuning help needed


Without the TC, the bluebird is too far and small to crop, even for huge files from D800. I'll try without TC tomorrow.
It was set up on my backyard on pretty calm day, remote shutter release(still slaps). I'm getting a TC1.4, maybe that helps.

Thanks for the input.



Jan 28, 2013 at 09:24 PM
Vinnie_VdB
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · AF fine tuning help needed


A simple battery test could determine if there is an AF issue and with experience and patience can you even do the AF tuning.
Place a couple of AA batteries on a row but at different depths, see a picture below.
http://forum.belgiumdigital.com/f36/lens-align-fine-tunig-van-je-lenzen-415301.html#post3568322

For myself, I use Reikal Fo-Cal software for my AF finetuning. The TC17 is however not the best of TC and not recommended on a D800. Either use the TC14 and even the latest version of the TC20 is simply brilliant.



Jan 28, 2013 at 11:05 PM
Steve Park
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · AF fine tuning help needed


I had TC20-EIII, but it was NO NO. Slowed AF considerably, IQ was terrible. Flat out almost no AF in low light.
I'm thinking to get Reikal FoCal for the moment. Thanks for the input.

Steve



Jan 28, 2013 at 11:18 PM
penghai
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · AF fine tuning help needed


I'd recommend FoCal as well. I used it to AF fine tune my 500. The result is amazing.

Eric



Jan 29, 2013 at 03:41 AM
Frogfish
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · AF fine tuning help needed


James R wrote:
Shooting wide open with a TC can be a little problematic. Shutter slap, wind, etc can impact sharpness, besides the TC its self. IMO, you fine tune for the lens. If the TC is creating problems, leave it off and crop to get the shot you want. The D800 image allows for very liberal cropping.


There's no need to leave it off James - you can easily input two settings in AF Fine Tune (as I have just done today on both the D600 and D800 with my Sigma 120-300 and Sigma 500, both with and without a Nikon x1.4 .. and I'd add a 3rd setting for each when my x2.0 arrives).



Jan 29, 2013 at 04:08 AM
trenchmonkey
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · AF fine tuning help needed


The Exif is showing DX mode but NO indication of any TC being used. Looks like
you're still slightly front focused...subject is really not the best way to "dial it in"
Something static AND repeatable. That combo was sick on my D3/D700/D300



Jan 29, 2013 at 06:53 AM
Steve Park
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p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · AF fine tuning help needed


trenchmonkey wrote:
The Exif is showing DX mode but NO indication of any TC being used. Looks like
you're still slightly front focused...subject is really not the best way to "dial it in"
Something static AND repeatable. That combo was sick on my D3/D700/D300


You're right, Will. I forgot I took the TC off for this shot and others to fine tune. I didn't use this subject to fine tune. Rather it's already fine tuned (at least I thought I did).

I shot this bluebird to see if my tuning was done right. I thought it is still slightly front focusing(tree branch is in focus) as you pointed out. I'll work on this. Thanks!



Jan 29, 2013 at 09:43 AM
Dustoff06
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p.1 #11 · p.1 #11 · AF fine tuning help needed


Focal is definitely the way to go. I think I paid $80 USD and it takes some effort, but well worth it.


Jan 29, 2013 at 09:46 AM
Frogfish
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p.1 #12 · p.1 #12 · AF fine tuning help needed


Dustoff06 wrote:
Focal is definitely the way to go. I think I paid $80 USD and it takes some effort, but well worth it.


Thanks for the tip. I Googled it and read a lot of reviews - almost all *very* positive - so I bought the Pro version.
I intend to set it up and try it out at the weekend.



Jan 29, 2013 at 10:57 AM
Mark_L
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p.1 #13 · p.1 #13 · AF fine tuning help needed


FoCal is excellent and takes the ambiguity and frustration out of the task. For a 300mm and TC plan on needing a fair bit of space outside though.


Jan 29, 2013 at 12:19 PM
Frogfish
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p.1 #14 · p.1 #14 · AF fine tuning help needed


Mark_L wrote:
FoCal is excellent and takes the ambiguity and frustration out of the task. For a 300mm and TC plan on needing a fair bit of space outside though.


How about a 500 & TC Mark Actually I read some reviews that said the x50 FL was just pulled out of their .... and that shorter distances that cover the target work just as well. We'll see I guess because my garden ain't that long !



Jan 29, 2013 at 12:43 PM





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