Reikan FoCal - Automatic AF Micro adjustment software

[MeHoo]

I purchased this software the last time it was mentioned on this site. I've since calibrated all of my lenses with the exception of one very specific combination.

I am using a 7D with the latest firmware.

My Canon EF 400mm f/4.0 DO IS USM lens and Canon EF 2x III Extender do not calibrate properly together, giving some weird error that nobody seems to know what it means. The lens calibrates properly by itself, and the Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM calibrates properly with the extender, but I think the problem is that with that 400mm combination, the lens actually reports to the body that it's in manual focus mode (as seen in the quick menu), EXCEPT in liveview, you can still get autofocus to work in liveview. I'm assuming liveview uses a different AF method that is still working. I figured if you can AF using the shutter or liveview, Focal would still work, but I guess not. I have been in touch with Rich about the issue. He has tried to work with me over many emails, but ultimately just never responded to my last one. Benefit of the doubt, but I would have liked to hear the reason why from the people who write the software instead of me guessing... But that's neither here nor there.

The software works really well. I calibrated all of my lenses within a few nights using the purchased target and my apartment with a couple of LED video lights on the target. It takes maybe 30-50 shots to calibrate normally, and the results are visually obvious. It also allows you to see how bad a lens may be as far as accuracy with AF. I calibrated each lens three times and a couple of the cheaper/older canon lenses had issues between the three tests, with very large variety in the scores. Re-stabilizing my tripod and testing again seems to have narrowed that gap to an acceptable window, to which I just took the average.

All in all, I'd recommend the software without batting an eye. I think Rich is great but maybe just a bit overwhelmed over there. For the price, this software adds a very valuable modification to my kit. A lens that cost me $6500 was -15 off on the AF micro-adjust after three consecutive tests!! That's simply huge and extremely obvious on a 1:1 crop.

Hope this helps, and I hope that I've been fair and honest in my review, as I've definitely tried to be.

I just wish that my 7D could do stepped AF microadjust. I'd love to get settings for my 70-200 throughout the range.

[neuroanatomist]

I am using a 7D with the latest firmware....My Canon EF 400mm f/4.0 DO IS USM lens and Canon EF 2x III Extender do not calibrate properly together...

David is correct, and the only puzzling thing is why Rich @ FoCal didn't pick up on this immediately...

As Canon states, "With most EOS cameras, the maximum aperture of the compatible EF lens/EF extender combination must be f/5.6 or larger to support autofocus. With EOS-1 class digital SLRs, autofocus with the center focusing point is supported for compatible EF lens/EF extender combinations with maximum apertures of f/8 or larger."

Your 7D is 'most EOS cameras' and since an f/4 lens with a 2x Extender becomes f/8, phase detect AF is disabled (and that's what AFMA adjusts, so the calibration fails). Contrast-detect AF (what Live View uses) is not affected by the aperture limitation.

[MeHoo]

I know about the f8 limitation, but I didn't know if foCal used liveview's AF or not because it does have to be in liveview in order to work for my setup. That told me that maybe it was using that combination, and thus, might still work. Now I know.

Makes me wonder if when the camera is on a tripod and I'm using liveview to focus, that it's actually a really bad idea and less accurate.

[neuroanatomist]

Makes me wonder if when the camera is on a tripod and I'm using liveview to focus, that it's actually a really bad idea and less accurate.

Live View (contrast-detect) AF is very accurate, it's just a lot slower than phase-detect AF. Phase detect measures the difference between the separated contrast peaks from the incoming light, and calculates the magnitude and direction of change, then tells the lens to move X amount in Y direction, and that's it. Contrast detect essentially checks contrast, moves lens, checks contrast, moves lens, etc., until maximum contrast is achieved (which isn't known until contrast peaks than starts to go back down).

[apsphoto]

Hi all,

I have been running the software now and I have done most of my autofocus lenses, I still have the 500mm f4L to do as well as the 100-400mm at 400mm when I get some time to setup for a long distance. I used approx 50x the focal length for all the testing and this was done using the Pro version of the software. One thing that is critical to getting good calibration, or at least for me, is to have a well lit target. I ended up setting up with led video lights to illuminate the target, this helped a lot, and also it really needs a place that is out of the wind, etc. running was pretty straightforward and I am overall happy with the results. Here are some of the numbers I got, all lenses are Canon EF lenses unless noted, the quality is the quality of the curve fit.

1DMarkIV 5DMarkII
Lens AFMA quality AFMA quality
50mm f1.4 6 ex 5 ex
100mm f2.8L macro 2 ex 2 ex
180mm f3.5L macro 3 ex 1 ex
85mm f1.8 -8 acc 13 gd
100-400mmf4.5-5.6L @100mm 0 ex 0 gd
70-200mmf4L @70mm 5 ex -4 ex
70-200mm f4L @200mm 4 ex -5 ex
17-40mm f4L @17mm -4 ex -7 gd
17-40mm f4L @28mm -4 ex -7 gd
17-40mm f4L @35mm 0 gd -1 gd
17-40mm f4L @40mm -3 ex 3 gd
24-105mm f4L @24mm -7 gd 6 ex
24-105mm f4L @105mm 3 gd 5 ex
Tokina 16-28mm f2.8 @16mm 3 ex 1 ex
Tokina 16-28mm f2.8 @28mm 11 ex 7 ex
300mm f2.8 L IS 3 ex 7 ex
35mm f2 -4 pr 0 pr
50mm f1.8 II 7 gd 11 ex

At least I am getting repeatable results, I have a lensalign that I never got real repeatable results with so I never trusted it, but overall I am very happy with this software solution.

Alan