Photography Thailand Forum

[Khun Hans]

After my last trip to Angkor Wat I discovered that my 70-200/4L IS  missed the AF at closest distance.    It happened at f4/200mm. As my 5DMII is equipped with an AF-Mircrofocus Adjustment setting in Custom Function Settings C.Fn III-8 I gave it try. Never used it before and for me it is more easy as I initially thought of.
I went to MBK, Canon shop 5th floor and bought the Datacolor SpyderLensCal devise (2.300THB).
It is a useful easy thing and after a shot with open f/stop I could see on the 10x magnified LCD the scale with the amount of missed focus. 
Here the best 2 videos to understand the process:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-JrUQO_Z5U
www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JPTnz_mimo
Hans

[bkkdave]

Hans thanks for posting this information. I looked at the videos and noticed that in the second video from B&H; the person said that this system works best for prime lenses and that for zooms it might be better to let the camera repair center do the adjustment. But you seem to have had good results with your 70-200 f/4 anyway.

One reason I sold my 24-70 f/2.8 L was an issue with sharpness, and I never knew if it was me or the lens. I then bought the 24-105  f/4 L for the IS feature. I know Marc has had issues with this lens and there is a thread somewhere else on the forum that discusses it.

This SpyderCalDevice sounds like a good solution.

[David Salmanowitz]

Hans--Glad it worked!, and also glad you have a newer model camera that allows the user to adjust this. As far as the video announcing that there in "now" a way to fine tune the lenses I think the owner/designer of this product (LensAlign) would beg to differ. It has been around for a few years already in different versions. http://www.whibalhost.com/lensalign/

[Marc Schultz]

Interesting subject. Thanks for sharing. But if I am not mistaken, making micro focus adjustments is only possible on certain camera models, correct? And do we have a list of which bodies (Canon & Nikon) which can make these adjustments so that people who don't have one of those newer models don't consider this technique when they might not be able to apply it to their camera model anyway? Thanks.

[Michael Luthi]

For Nikon the AF Fine Tune feature came into existence from the D3/D300 onwards. So of the current line the following bodies have the feature: D3 family, D700, D300/300s and D7000
All older and lower end bodies do not have the feature

[Marc Schultz]

Thanks Michael. I found this list as well:

Canon 1DIII, 1DIV, 1DsMkIII, 5DII, 50D, 7D, Nikon D3, D3x, D300, D700, Sony A900, Pentax K20

[Khun Hans]

Hans thanks for posting this information. I looked at the videos and noticed that in the second video from B&H; the person said that this system works best for prime lenses and that for zooms it might be better to let the camera repair center do the adjustment. But you seem to have had good results with your 70-200 f/4 anyway.

One reason I sold my 24-70 f/2.8 L was an issue with sharpness, and I never knew if it was me or the lens. I then bought the 24-105  f/4 L for the IS feature. I know Marc has had issues with this lens and there is a thread somewhere else on the forum that discusses it.

This SpyderCalDevice sounds like a good solution.

There are several more videos about the SpyderLensCal. The B&H guy is the only one saying that one should only use it for primes. As I said I calibrated at 200mm and it is spot on with all other focal lengths down to 70mm.

[Khun Hans]

Hans--Glad it worked!, and also glad you have a newer model camera that allows the user to adjust this. As far as the video announcing that there in "now" a way to fine tune the lenses I think the owner/designer of this product (LensAlign) would beg to differ. It has been around for a few years already in different versions. http://www.whibalhost.com/lensalign/

David, yes this one looks similar. Never heard of that before. It's all about marketing