# Calibration software?



## martti (Oct 31, 2015)

What is the current situation with lens calibration software for Canon and Mac?
Yesterday I tried to google the subject and got lost in Reikin's very verbal website. 
Finally, I could not figure out if the version 2.0 is available for Mac or not. Is there anybody here who would be using this sw or something similar and what would be the user's recommendations. 
Or maybe it is normal to get 75% blurry shots in a nightclub with a whisky promotion soirée?


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## Mt Spokane Photography (Oct 31, 2015)

Yes, Mac is included.

FoCal 2 Mac Specific Improvements
•No Mono Framework Install – FoCal 2 for Mac is now a standalone application with no requirement to install any third party frameworks. Easier installation for users and it’s impossible to install an untested version of Mono!
•Digital Signing and Easy Install – FoCal 2 for Mac is now fully digitally signed and the install is graphically guided (just drag and drop from the DMG file!).
•Huge focus on reliability – A lot of the work on getting FoCal 2 for Mac ready has been in improving reliability and stability. Changes to the internal code structure, a new development tool chain and extensive pre-release testing.
•No need to select camera manufacturer – gone is the need to choose between Canon and Nikon before connecting a camera.


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## martti (Oct 31, 2015)

Thank you, Mt Spokane.
I will give it a try.
(Just hoping it will not become another one of my stories where I play the idiot)

OK, once I had cleared the payment, I got to see that indeed, there is the version 2 for both Mac and Windows.
And it is downloading...slowly but that's the local ISP's fault not Reikan's.


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## martti (Oct 31, 2015)

I do not have enough light until tomorrow morning so I am exceptionally reading the manual before jumping in the procedure. The manual is very well written, clear and thorough. It will be interesting to see where I will make the mistake that bricks my camera, crashes my Mac and spills maple syrup on my 85mm f/1.2 *L* darling _lense_. Whatever may happen, I cannot blame the manual. 
BTW, there are some interesting things revealed there, for instance that even the old honorable f/2.8 24-70mm *L* is so soft that microadjustment can be anything from 2 to 5 with no observed difference in the picture sharpness. And that it is no use trying to calibrate the old EF 50mm f/1.8.

I will keep you posted tomorrow as I've gone through my Pelican trunk's treasures.


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## Mt Spokane Photography (Oct 31, 2015)

martti said:


> I do not have enough light until tomorrow morning so I am exceptionally reading the manual before jumping in the procedure. The manual is very well written, clear and thorough. It will be interesting to see where I will make the mistake that bricks my camera, crashes my Mac and spills maple syrup on my 85mm f/1.2 *L* darling _lense_. Whatever may happen, I cannot blame the manual.
> BTW, there are some interesting things revealed there, for instance that even the old honorable f/2.8 24-70mm *L* is so soft that microadjustment can be anything from 2 to 5 with no observed difference in the picture sharpness. And that it is no use trying to calibrate the old EF 50mm f/1.8.
> 
> I will keep you posted tomorrow as I've gone through my Pelican trunk's treasures.



It may crash your Mac, but not brick your camera. In the distant past, it might have been necessary to pull the camera battery and restart it when the program crashed.

A AFMA of +/- 5 is not easily visible, which is why its so difficult to get consistent results doing it by viewing the images. When you get over a AFMA of 7-10, then you can see a difference easily.

Pay attention to lighting, support stability, and cover the eyepiece if in bright light. (I always cover it). Having a very bright light, and a very stable support makes a huge difference to consistent readings. I prefer a concrete slab, since the floor in my house will vibrate if someone is moving, and its pretty sturdy.

I use 25-50X distance based on lens focal length. Getting 50X with a long telephoto is tricky and requires some picky setup. A larger target helps in cases like that.

I have a Manfrotto clamp on support for my laptop that mounts to my tripod leg. It does not cause vibration because my tripod is very sturdy and heavy.


This is a old photo showing the target sitting on a tripod on my light table with the laptop mounted behind the camera and the curve displayed. I have 12ea 4ft CRI 98 Fluorescent tubes lighting the target, and its barely enough. I prefer placing the camera in my garage and the target outside on a bright overcast morning, or early in the day before the sun creates shadows.


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## martti (Nov 1, 2015)

Thank you for the encouragement, *Mt. Spokane*. 

All my lenses are now calibrated, the total time it took was less than two hours and this included cleaning the nozzles of the printer and installing new drivers, *El Capitan*, you know...Yo no soy marinero! _(Arriba!)_

There were a couple of surprises. 
The first one is the way *Reikan* has really done all in their might to make you do the right thing. A voice tells you what you do...like in 2001 Space Odyssey: "I am afraid I cannot do that, Martti"...
Kudos for those guys. Beautiful job. Now the *Version 2.0 *for *Mac *works nicely with *El Capitan*. No crashes, no clitches, a couple of verifications, that's all.

The second surprise was how _sharp_ the *Tamron 24-70 f/2.8 VC* really is –in the center– and how clear the difference between the center and the edge. This was not evident before the calibration. Maybe they set the focus a bit amiss in the factory so that this detail would go unnoticed?

The third surprise was that the calibrations I had done with trial and error to my 35mm and 85mm lenses were spot on. So you CAN do things things in several ways and sometimes achieve acceptable results just playing around if you are lucky. I do remember the pleasure I felt when the *85mm f/1.2* *L* finally found the eyelashes of my pretty neighbour at the setting of -12.

The fourth was that the old dust pump *100-400* *L* is as _sharp_ as it is once you put it on a tripod. Which validates the words of my hero *Ken Rockwell* once again: _"A sharp photo is not the same thing as a sharp lens"_. Or was it the other way around...the point being that only very seldom it is the _lense_ spoiling our pictures.

My first experience with this calibration software *Reikan Focal Plus v. 2.0* is very positive. In fact, after this short session, i'd say that it would be idiotic to buy an expensive lens and not calibrate it to your camera body. No matter how good the glass, if it is not adjusted to the autofocus properly, it will not act _sharp_.


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