Very generous offer Paul. I would love to be added to the list if possible. I've tried the home game version, but never seem to get it right... maybe this is the ticket! I would like to get my lenses dialed in on my 1DMKIII. Also looking forward to reading about other's experiences and the differences noticed.
#1 Make sure your focus target is very well lit. Otherwise you might fake yourself out. I used a small flashlight sitting on the table to do this.
#2 Make sure the lens align is level.
#3 It seems that to get the "gun sight" lined up perfectly I was shooting at the lower part of the pie just below the hole. This gave me perfect alignment every time and was repeatable with each lens.
#4 Have a helper shine a light through the "gun sight" holes to help you line up the tripod and camera. This was much easier and quicker for me.
#5 If you have LR3 use the tethered capture feature. It really helps you look at what you are doing. The screen on your camera is tiny. Zoom in 1:1 or even more to really look at what you are doing.
Another thing I noticed is set your focus for the apertures you usually use. It seemed to shift on me with every lens and with both bodies. 2.8 is different than 5.6 So check a range. And optimize for what you use your lenses for. They recommend f8. I rarely shoot at f8. What is the point. So I was looking at 2.8 - 5.6.
I also tested my settings making the lens exercise. Put your hand out front and focus then focus again on the target. This will give you a realiable reading. Remember this is calibrating your auto focus. So make it work like it would in real use.
Yep, agree. It's kind of a version of a light bench, but without the rails, tracks, etc. Everything is floating, so it's quite a bit of fuss to line everything up, and the smallest movement of the camera or LA in any plane will throw you back to start. Certainly you need good light, eg beside a large window. With no setbacks and with someone to help, you can complete the (average) job in an hour, and it is certainly worth the effort and perseverance.
#1 Make sure your focus target is very well lit. Otherwise you might fake yourself out. I used a small flashlight sitting on the table to do this.
#2 Make sure the lens align is level.
#3 It seems that to get the "gun sight" lined up perfectly I was shooting at the lower part of the pie just below the hole. This gave me perfect alignment every time and was repeatable with each lens.
#4 Have a helper shine a light through the "gun sight" holes to help you line up the tripod and camera. This was much easier and quicker for me.
#5 If you have LR3 use the tethered capture feature. It really helps you look at what you are doing. The screen on your camera is tiny. Zoom in 1:1 or even more to really look at what you are doing.
Another thing I noticed is set your focus for the apertures you usually use. It seemed to shift on me with every lens and with both bodies. 2.8 is different than 5.6 So check a range. And optimize for what you use your lenses for. They recommend f8. I rarely shoot at f8. What is the point. So I was looking at 2.8 - 5.6.
I also tested my settings making the lens exercise. Put your hand out front and focus then focus again on the target. This will give you a realiable reading. Remember this is calibrating your auto focus. So make it work like it would in real use.
Great info.......thank you for sharing!
"My favorite thing is to go where I've never been!"
Guess what was in my door when I got home last night! I haven't opened it up yet, but I'm going to try and see if I can con someone into helping me on Wednesday. Thanks Pupator & Zerodog.
I used a flash. This is recommended by the designer on his web site. Good lighting here is key when looking at such fine adjustments.
Yes for sure on this bounce a flash off the ceiling. I actually did both flash on camera and a bounce flash. I used the flashlight to make 100% sure the target was very well lit so the autofocus did not lock onto the wrong item. My first try was pretty bad because of this. Even with the autofocus assist lights going. It is still a small target pretty far away.
Great info on the flash use, thanks. What distance is everyone using for this? I have read 50x focal length, example: 135mm = 20.8' So if I wanted to test a 135mm lens, is that a correct distance?
2. once you have your test photos done, play with the micro adjust to get the best idea of what you ARE seeing. I had to "teach" my eye to start looking for things and it took a bit to get a hang of it. However, once I DID get a hang of it, it was easy to see. However, I had to see a 'difference' (back or front focusing) and use that to help decide what I needed to see.
Otherwise, cool! my 50mm and 85mm (both 1.8s) were noticeably back focused. The 300mm had an equal front focusing issue. The 24-70 and 70-200 were perfect across the settings (guess that's what the extra money is for, huh?). Pretty tricky to get the 20mm close enough and in the end pointless (it was fine though) since it's 100% for landscapes
it is off to Arseny !
I stopped by the post office yesterday but the HOARDS of people mailing for tax day made me reconsider. Plus, I had to get to work eventually :P took 30 seconds today, much nicer USPS Priority !
My 7D would love to get a little LensAlign lovin'. I did the paper print out thing before, but was not always please with how it worked out. The LensAlign has intrigued me every since.
P.S. You are one wicked awesome person for doing this.
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Lens Align coming to you. Shipping this afternoon. Have fun!
#1 Make sure your focus target is very well lit. Otherwise you might fake yourself out. I used a small flashlight sitting on the table to do this.
#2 Make sure the lens align is level.
#3 It seems that to get the "gun sight" lined up perfectly I was shooting at the lower part of the pie just below the hole. This gave me perfect alignment every time and was repeatable with each lens.
#4 Have a helper shine a light through the "gun sight" holes to help you line up the tripod and camera. This was much easier and quicker for me.
#5 If you have LR3 use the tethered capture feature. It really helps you look at what you are doing. The screen on your camera is tiny. Zoom in 1:1 or even more to really look at what you are doing.
Another thing I noticed is set your focus for the apertures you usually use. It seemed to shift on me with every lens and with both bodies. 2.8 is different than 5.6 So check a range. And optimize for what you use your lenses for. They recommend f8. I rarely shoot at f8. What is the point. So I was looking at 2.8 - 5.6.
I also tested my settings making the lens exercise. Put your hand out front and focus then focus again on the target. This will give you a realiable reading. Remember this is calibrating your auto focus. So make it work like it would in real use.
Neil
http://www.behance.net/brosepix
Great info.......thank you for sharing!
http://clearwaterphotography.smugmug.com/
Yes for sure on this bounce a flash off the ceiling. I actually did both flash on camera and a bounce flash. I used the flashlight to make 100% sure the target was very well lit so the autofocus did not lock onto the wrong item. My first try was pretty bad because of this. Even with the autofocus assist lights going. It is still a small target pretty far away.
(also, will be tethering into LR3)
http://videos.lensalign.com/LensAlign/LensAlign-Video-User-Guide/6830310_fnpyr
Thanks Pupator!
I'll grab an envelope and get the address of the next person so I can ship it once I'm done.
1. http://www.mtdhelp.com/kb/lensalign-how-to/documentation-tools-and-resources
I thought I had read up on it, but the 'users guide' was a bit weird to find online. Spent a bit of time sitting here just musing over it.
2. once you have your test photos done, play with the micro adjust to get the best idea of what you ARE seeing. I had to "teach" my eye to start looking for things and it took a bit to get a hang of it. However, once I DID get a hang of it, it was easy to see. However, I had to see a 'difference' (back or front focusing) and use that to help decide what I needed to see.
Otherwise, cool! my 50mm and 85mm (both 1.8s) were noticeably back focused. The 300mm had an equal front focusing issue. The 24-70 and 70-200 were perfect across the settings (guess that's what the extra money is for, huh?). Pretty tricky to get the 20mm close enough and in the end pointless (it was fine though) since it's 100% for landscapes
I stopped by the post office yesterday but the HOARDS of people mailing for tax day made me reconsider. Plus, I had to get to work eventually :P took 30 seconds today, much nicer
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I will update as soon as it arrives.
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have fun with it
P.S. You are one wicked awesome person for doing this.
UPS is out to Shae.
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something is up with the focusing mechanism, and sometimes it would focus right being tuned to 0, or -20 or +20..
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