Reikan Fo. Cal autofocus adjustment and calibration software.Camera autofocus DSLRMost people are so used to camera autofocus, they just accept it as something that should work.Some realise that modern autofocus performance can be tuned with better cameras, for different types of photography, so that what works for athletics might not be best for birds or even different sports.What many people miss is that the actual AF setup, even for for a simple static shot, has a range of errors and inaccuracies that are simply there for practical engineering and manufacturing reasons.There are complex reasons why AF performance is always a compromise and may vary slightly from shot to shot.In the past Ive calibrated the AF setup for individual lenses on my Canon 1.Screen-Shot-2012-12-21-at-12.04.35.png' alt='Camera Lens Calibration Software' title='Camera Lens Calibration Software' />Fujifilm Instax Square SQ10 Hybrid Instant Camera.Hybrid Instant and Digital Camera 28.Lens with f2.Aperture 35mm Equivalent 14Inch CMOS Sensor.The Camera Store is Calgarys premier photographic retailer, providing exceptional service to photographers all across Canada.Camera calibration is the process of estimating intrinsic andor extrinsic parameters.Intrinsic parameters deal with the cameras internal characteristics, such as.Ds mk.Ds to try and remove these residual slight errors.The process is not difficult, but one you might quickly tire of if youve a lot of lenses.Ill not go into all the ways your AF can be slightly off a bang to the camera might misalign something ever so slightly but the documentation for Fo.Cal has some very well written notes on what is being addressed during any AF adjustment process, along with its limitations.There are two possible adjustments for my cameras a global one thats applied to every lens, and individual bespoke ones to allow for lens to lens variation.One technique for setting optimal AF involves photographing a fine detail, high contrast target at a range of AF adjustment settings and deciding which is best.As I found out when testing the Spyder.FoCal-Automated-Calibration.jpg' alt='Camera Lens Calibration Software' title='Camera Lens Calibration Software' />Lens.Cal the differences are not always that clear and deciding on what settings are best can become a bit of a guessing game.Reikan Fo.Cal software.I recently had a chance to try out Reikan Fo.Cal Pro software on my Mac.Book Pro there is a windows version of the software which is pretty much the same as youll see here.The version Im looking at is V2.Reikan are continually developing and improving functionality for this software such as recently making use of the dual pixel AF information now available from the 5.D mk.The software offers many different functions, but Ill concentrate on the the key reason for getting it, automation of the AF Calibration process.At its simplest, the software tells your camera connected to the computer to take a whole load of photos of a known test target, at different AF settings.I should note that it can also work in file mode where you just supply the photos for it to work on.Zhangs Camera Calibration and Tsais Calibration Software on LGPL licence Zhangs Camera Calibration Method with Software C Camera Calibration Toolbox with.The photos are analysed and the best setting worked out.The target is a special one created for the process, with patterns that make it a lot easier for the software to calculate image sharpness.I printed out the file that came with the software, although Reikan do sell specially produced targets that are a bit more robust than my sheet of paper stuck to a sheet of cardboard.The software is available in two versions directly from the developer.Im testing the full Pro version, but the basic version has the important AF adjustment aspect in it.Note Software available in other currencies.The software is simple to install, but will need its license activating and also to work with your particular camera body 5 cameras can be registered at any one time and this list of 5 cameras can be changed multiple times.Note that if you want to include such calibrations as part of a commercial service you will need to contact Reikan directly about an appropriate commercial license.Its important to have the target far enough away from the camera, and there is a list of minimum suggested distances.Setup. Different Forms Of Government Activities . Im doing the test in my kitchen, with a good solid tripod and a stone floor.You do need a solid camera support Id not do this in my office where there is a slight spring in the floor boards something I noticed in the early hours one morning when we had one of the UKs minor and infrequent earthquakes.Ive printed the target and stuck it to a sheet of cardboard, which is attached to the door frame.By putting the camera right in front of the target and looking at the lines of tiles on the floor, I know that its at exactly the right height and square on to the target.The first lens Im testing is my old EF5.USM but quite a bit further back.Before starting testing, I check some of the software preferences and settings.There are quite a few of these, but with most, assume that unless you know why you want to alter them, they are at sensible settings to start with.I changed the target width to my measured value of 1.Please do take time to read the quickstart guide it is well written and genuinely helpful.Before starting the test process, its good to run the target setup check especially if you are new to the software.From this I learned that the software didnt like my camera being set to Manual mode what I use for 9.Or, my MLU mirror lock up settings, so I turned them off so the computer could set them.Note the cover over the viewfinder this also reminded me how nice the built in one was in my old 1.Ds and 1.Ds mk. 3.Ive the camera connected up via a USB lead to my laptop.Note the tape measure and emergency food for if I start to get boredThe software noted that I was not quite far enough away.And also that a bit more light would be helpfulFinding the best AF settings.Once everything was ready I set the software going, expecting to come back in a few minutes with my cup of tea and see how it had done.The software takes photos and analyses them R,G and B channels and works out the optimal setting.Not so fast not all cameras allow for setting AF adjustment values from the controlling software.My Canon 5.Ds is one that needs User AssistanceBlame Canon for this oversight, not Reikan.So I get to change the AF adjustment manually, not exactly hard work.After a load of shots the software suggests a fairly hefty 1.Thats fairly high, but this is an old lens and a 1.USM AF control.The software is smart enough to spot bad measurements and inconsistencies and prompt you to re do a shot.If this happens often and your setup was OK, then it could be an indication of a lens or camera fault.OK, lets see what it thinks of my EF2.L and even more expensive EF1.L.Here the 5. Ds has the option of setting an adjustment for the extremes of focal length for zooms.Suffice to say, these two needed only tiny adjustments.Microsoft Sidewinder Gamepad Usb Gamepad For Samsung .At 1. 1mm Im quite close to the target.The 2.So, thats it my AF is now improved.OK, its only the 5.Looking further into AF performance.The Pro version of the software has a number of features that allow you to explore more aspects of how your AF system performs with different lenses.It also offers more detailed logging and comparison of test results.Some features, such as checking individual focus points were not available for my 5.Ds Canons limitation, not Fo.Cal, and the 5.Ds dust removal seems much improved over my old 1.Ds mk.I didnt check that.The multipoint focus uses a different target seen here when I printed it before Id checked if it would be useful.Do have a read through the information on the Fo.Cal web site for more details of the advanced functions Ive not explored them all in depth and there is enough here to keep you tinkering for hoursOne interesting set of results shows how sharpness varies with aperture for a given lens note the many options.Look at this curve for the EF5.PDF file and notice how detail plummets at wider apertures, and starts to drop again above f7.Im testing with a full frame 5.MP sensor.A look at the curve for the EF1.L shows how central sharpness is pretty good from f7.At 1.
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