Lens Calibration

DavidTO

When you send your lens in to Canon (or others) for calibration, what do they do? How do you know you need it? Anyone had their lens calibrated and seen a marked improvement?

wxwax

Ian posted a link to a great site by a sports photographer. Here's what he says about measuring for focus.

These days, I periodically check the focus on my camera bodies. I take a long lens and set it up on tripod. Then I attach a body to the lens and focus on something and mark the focus ring with a fine pencil. Then I change bodies, refocus on the same object and see if the focus is exactly the same. I do this for all of my bodies. If the focus on one does not agree with the other bodies, then I know I have a problem with that body and I get it fixed.

Source

Umm, one catch - you need a second body!

DavidTO

I was referring to sending it into the manufacturer for calibration. I saw it referred to on the FM B&S forum. Just want to understand what they do, and why one would send their lens in. Also curious how much it costs.

wxwax

I figure that's how he decided there was a problem. Either I've been amazingly lucky, or there actually aren't that many lenses/bodies out of calibration. I suspect the latter.

ian408

I was so excited to see this. I thought "finally, I can see what this
CA adjustment in PS is all about".

This was something Marc mentioned all lenses have. I was trying to figure
out how one went about making this adjustment.

Any ideas?

Ian

jeff lapoint

just got my 200 2.8 back from canon today. i was having a bit of a focus issue, so i ran it down to irvine last wed. they recalibrated the lens, did a projection test, and cleaned and lubed all the parts. it was under warranty, so no charge. fast and very helpful service!

lens works like a dream now (and it didnt exactly suck before)