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Archive 2013 · How do you calibrate your lens to your camera?

  
 
popinvasion
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · How do you calibrate your lens to your camera?


What is your method? Thanks


Feb 03, 2013 at 11:52 PM
EB-1
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · How do you calibrate your lens to your camera?


I have the original Lens Align and the long ruler, too.

EBH



Feb 04, 2013 at 12:23 AM
Todd
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · How do you calibrate your lens to your camera?


I just calibrated all of my lenses with both of my camera bodies (D800/D800E) and the fix was a wonderful thing. Now they all focus perfectly wide open. I used the SpyderLenscal which is less expensive than the lens align rig. It is also an all-in-one piece, lens align come in five pieces and you have to put it together. It worked very well for me... Here is a PDF of the instructions
http://www.datacolor.eu/fileadmin/datacolor/images/productimages/SpyderLensCal/SpyderLensCal_UsersGuide_final.pdf



Feb 04, 2013 at 01:33 AM
Frogfish
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · How do you calibrate your lens to your camera?


i used FoCal this weekend - superb pieces of software and far easier and more accurate than hardware and setting it up yourself (you just follow the on-screen instructions on your laptop until the software has finished calibrating your lenses).


Feb 04, 2013 at 07:26 AM
hjanssen
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · How do you calibrate your lens to your camera?


You don't calibrate your lens with AF-finetune, but your camera.


Feb 04, 2013 at 10:08 AM
matt4626
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · How do you calibrate your lens to your camera?


Lens Align - take a little practice but worth it,....


Feb 04, 2013 at 10:56 AM
Frogfish
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · How do you calibrate your lens to your camera?


hjanssen wrote:
You don't calibrate your lens with AF-finetune, but your camera.


Actually to be pedantic you are calibrating the combination since the values are specific only to that camera and lens.



Feb 04, 2013 at 12:26 PM
Joseph.
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · How do you calibrate your lens to your camera?


I have a simple method. I use something that has a high contrast (usually a piece of wood with sharp texture) to focus on, put my camera on a tripod, set it to timer, MLU, Single point, VR off, AF-Static with beep confirmation and AF-On to focus. I manually set the lens out of focus, then using the AF-On button, focus on the subject until I hear the beep. I start with "0" on the AF Fine tune scale, and work my way down in increments of 5. I start at 0, then -5, then -10 then -15 and finally -20, repeating the autofocus process in between adjustments. I will then compare all 5 shots and see which one is the sharpest, and then narrow it down. If the negative side are all soft then I switch to the + side. It's a very simple method but it works for me everytime.


Feb 04, 2013 at 02:34 PM
workerdrone
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · How do you calibrate your lens to your camera?


I have a lensalign but formerly a piece of cardboard on the lawn worked just as well for me, it was just a little bit slower.

I'm sure the software is even easier and faster but you absolutely don't need any special gadgets or software to do this.

Just make sure you do it with the lens wide open and on a good tripod, in decent light, at a distance you would be most likely to use this lens, and with something in front of and behind your target that lets you easily judge changes. (the blades of grass for my target on the lawn worked just as well as my current lensalign)

there is so much unnecessary voodoo, complication, and mystique over this process - it's actually pretty simple and is a wonderful capability to have in a camera body



Feb 04, 2013 at 04:37 PM
chuckbernard
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p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · How do you calibrate your lens to your camera?


+1 for using FoCal. I bought it last week as it was finally available for the Mac. Although in beta version for the Mac it has worked well for me. Some lenses that I stopped using a while back are now producing tack sharp images! I was out with my 70-200/f2.8 II last weekend and I was shocked at how happy I am with my D4 now!




Feb 04, 2013 at 05:27 PM
chuckbernard
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p.1 #11 · p.1 #11 · How do you calibrate your lens to your camera?


One note, after experimenting a little I found out that "Save Settings" on the D4 does NOT save the lens adjustment settings! So, if you have calibrated a number of lenses you better write the setting down somewhere in case your camera is reset for some reason.

Also, on the D4 (and maybe others), you can see a complete list of all of the lenses that have been calibrated but you can only see the actual adjustment value when the lens is actually attached to the camera. Kind of makes it hard to go back and make a list of all of the adjustments.



Feb 04, 2013 at 05:30 PM
Rodolfo Paiz
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p.1 #12 · p.1 #12 · How do you calibrate your lens to your camera?


DontShoot wrote:
I have a simple method. I use something that has a high contrast (usually a piece of wood with sharp texture) to focus on, put my camera on a tripod, set it to timer, MLU, Single point, VR off, AF-Static with beep confirmation and AF-On to focus. I manually set the lens out of focus, then using the AF-On button, focus on the subject until I hear the beep. I start with "0" on the AF Fine tune scale, and work my way down in increments of 5. I start at 0, then -5, then -10 then -15 and finally
...Show more

This is essentially just what the FoCal software does, except that the software makes the process much easier, quicker, less boring, and hopefully more accurate.



Feb 04, 2013 at 08:20 PM
Frogfish
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p.1 #13 · p.1 #13 · How do you calibrate your lens to your camera?


chuckbernard wrote:
One note, after experimenting a little I found out that "Save Settings" on the D4 does NOT save the lens adjustment settings! So, if you have calibrated a number of lenses you better write the setting down somewhere in case your camera is reset for some reason.

Also, on the D4 (and maybe others), you can see a complete list of all of the lenses that have been calibrated but you can only see the actual adjustment value when the lens is actually attached to the camera. Kind of makes it hard to go back and make a list of
...Show more

Chuck, when you finish calibrating there is a little button at the bottom that will save a pdf report to your laptop for you with images of all the shots at different settings for each lens and then the final suggested setting. I have those reports as backup for each lens.



Feb 04, 2013 at 10:16 PM
Frogfish
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p.1 #14 · p.1 #14 · How do you calibrate your lens to your camera?


FoCal - I bought it last week after reading rave reviews on a number of different forums (Google is your friend), one of them gave a link to a blog that was offering a substantial discount if you clicked through from the blog, I paid £45 instead of the usual £70. I also used it on a Mac (though it is still Beta for the Mac) and it worked flawlessly. The manual is superb and describes the many tests the software can run, including testing for which aperture each lens is sharpest at.
I have no affiliation to FoCal !



Feb 04, 2013 at 10:22 PM
Jun Zhou
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p.1 #15 · p.1 #15 · How do you calibrate your lens to your camera?


I use leaked Nikon calibration software.


Feb 05, 2013 at 12:31 AM
popinvasion
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p.1 #16 · p.1 #16 · How do you calibrate your lens to your camera?


wow you guys are much more involved than myself. I have to get to work on this a little more.


Feb 05, 2013 at 01:44 AM
Dustoff06
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p.1 #17 · p.1 #17 · How do you calibrate your lens to your camera?


I do not have experience with anything other than Focal; it works perfectly.


Feb 05, 2013 at 07:03 AM
sjms
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p.1 #18 · p.1 #18 · How do you calibrate your lens to your camera?


FoCal


Feb 05, 2013 at 08:04 AM
binary visions
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p.1 #19 · p.1 #19 · How do you calibrate your lens to your camera?


Jun Zhou wrote:
I use leaked Nikon calibration software.


Do tell.



Feb 05, 2013 at 08:35 AM
sjms
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p.1 #20 · p.1 #20 · How do you calibrate your lens to your camera?


chuckbernard wrote:
One note, after experimenting a little I found out that "Save Settings" on the D4 does NOT save the lens adjustment settings! So, if you have calibrated a number of lenses you better write the setting down somewhere in case your camera is reset for some reason.

Also, on the D4 (and maybe others), you can see a complete list of all of the lenses that have been calibrated but you can only see the actual adjustment value when the lens is actually attached to the camera. Kind of makes it hard to go back and make a list of
...Show more

oh well. it works just fine though.
I have the per lens adjustment results charts and all in FoCal. which I have yet to bother looking at again



Feb 05, 2013 at 08:57 AM
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