Reading the docs and understanding the process BEFORE I used it helped a lot. Relatively simple for even me, but I still forget on occasion to block the eyepiece (I have a small piece of gaffer's tape). I first used in on a 5D2 in fully auto mode- you basically set it up, start it and just watch it do its thing. A bit more involved on the 5D3, but still pretty easy (not sure about 1D3).
Greggbhill wrote:
Reading the docs and understanding the process BEFORE I used it helped a lot. Relatively simple for even me, but I still forget on occasion to block the eyepiece (I have a small piece of gaffer's tape). I first used in on a 5D2 in fully auto mode- you basically set it up, start it and just watch it do its thing. A bit more involved on the 5D3, but still pretty easy (not sure about 1D3).
Thanks Gregg, that's good to hear. I will close the view finder first.
I am anxious to see if the adjustments that I made in camera are even close to what focal does.
Provided you set up the camera and target so that they are well aligned vertically and horizontally and make sure that the target is well illuminated then using Focal is a breeze.
dmahar wrote:
Provided you set up the camera and target so that they are well aligned vertically and horizontally and make sure that the target is well illuminated then using Focal is a breeze.
You can use it, but will take a bit of time which is well worth it for shallow dof situations.
I agree reading the instructions first can help.
Make sure you have adequate light on the target to get a good shutter speed as mentioned already. This is key. My limited, albeit successful, experience is you should aim for a shutter speed of 1/(focal length) or better. I had to use a spot lamp on the target. For long lenses, I had to upgrade to the focal pro so I could up my iso a bit. The pro was nice because I could look at the graph and see why the mfa number was chosen. It also gives you a guide on the accuracy of the test.
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