AF fine tune - do it!

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Name
Doug
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I was slightly disappointed with my 50mm f1.4 considering how razor sharp they should be.

I stumbled across a guide on fine tuning the auto focus on the camera. I didn't know this was possible so thought i'd try it this evening. The results have made such a difference on the 50mm and made the 24-120 just a fraction sharper.

I followed these guides,I hope it helps someone else get a bit more from their kit for free.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWFJJ6Bo5mw&t


Here's a quick shot of the dog after the fine tune:

Suki B&W by Doug, on Flickr
 
Fine tune is brilliant for primes, not so good for zooms as it only fine tunes one focal length within the lenses range, I tried it on my 150-500 and it made it great at 150, terrible over 150 and downright awful at 500
 
Fine tune is brilliant for primes, not so good for zooms as it only fine tunes one focal length within the lenses range, I tried it on my 150-500 and it made it great at 150, terrible over 150 and downright awful at 500

Re: tuning a body to a zoom lens ~ AFAIK it depends on the body my Canon 5D3 can accommodate an MFA for both the wide & Tele ends of zooms. Yet to try but seriously considering FoCal see software & target to do my 100-400mm zoom......fwiw my 24-105mm seems sharp as a knife across the range!
 
I did the AMF at the long end of my zoom and it was spot on through all the range.
 
It’s not just differing focal lengths it’s differing focal distances (lens to subject) that have an impact on fine tuning.

This is why I believe the 3rd party lens offering a dock to fine tune at all variables are light years ahead of oem lenses. When Nikon start offering a dock I’ll start taking their lens offering seriously again.

What’s the point of a sharp lens with inaccurate focus.
 
Fine tune is brilliant for primes, not so good for zooms as it only fine tunes one focal length within the lenses range, I tried it on my 150-500 and it made it great at 150, terrible over 150 and downright awful at 500

With FoCal software, you can do zooms, but you do calibrations at full wide and full telephoto. I did my Canon 24-70 and 24-105 lenses and the sharpness is fab.
 
With FoCal software, you can do zooms, but you do calibrations at full wide and full telephoto. I did my Canon 24-70 and 24-105 lenses and the sharpness is fab.

To be honest I have been playing around with fine tune again, just to make sure I didn't do anything wrong, and have set my 150-500 at max and it was forward focussing so I have dropped it back and it is now super sharp at 500, I do need to do more adjusting to get it constant but will have a real go at it when I have more time.
 
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