How to calibrate lens autofocus WITHOUT buying a tool! [Lens Calibration Tip]
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- čas přidán 25. 01. 2020
- Have you ever encountered the frustrating issue of your lens not consistently achieving pinpoint sharpness when using autofocus? Rest assured, you're not alone.
This problem often arises due to the gradual drift of lens calibration over time. The good news is that you can easily address this without the need to invest in specialised lens calibration tools or charts. All you need are a few simple items:
➡️ A whiteboard or similar flat surface
➡️ A standard ruler
➡️ A pen or pencil
➡️ The lens you wish to calibrate
➡️ Your camera mounted on a tripod
In this enlightening demonstration, I personally guide you through the process of calibrating the autofocus on my Canon 85mm f1.2 lens. Rest assured, the steps are applicable to most camera brands and lenses, making it universally valuable.
Say goodbye to the frustration of inconsistent autofocus and unlock the full potential of your lenses with this simple calibration technique. Watch the demo now and take control of your autofocus accuracy.
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3 years old, and still extremely helpful today. Thank you for this key information at virtually no cost. 👍👍
Explained very well. Let me share this with my list tonight.
Many thanks Karl. That's exactly what I've been doing this week with some of my older but most liked lenses and everyone else simply makes it so extremely complicated and at the end tries to sell you some sort of tool of which I now have a collection of and enough to open my own online store. Thanks again.
Thats sooo Useful tip, I have struggled with the same problem for a very long time and didn't know what the problem was. Thank you Guru Taylor !!
Super timing! I've been lately suffering from misfocus on some lenses. Great, thanks!
Thank you Karl this was really use full, I'll have to do this on one of my lenses I've had a bit of hit and misses with when it comes to auto focus.
It’s important to reinforce the need to assure your board and rulers are flat. Any bowing or curvature will impact your results.
put a piece of glass on the table, and work on the glass, thats 99.999% flat made, "flatter" then most tables at least
Hello!!
I am VERY glad to see you do a complete video on this, as I have been getting contradictory information on the importance of this procedure for each lens that you have a focus issue with, isolating the possibility of camera damage! If a level of photographer such as yourself does not consider it rubbish, then I feel much better continuing to eschew the importance of knowing - and performing - this procedure to my “followers” who question best practices for obtaining the highest quality images they can obtain with their equipment. Take care, and I am looking forward to devouring all that you and your team is making available on your education site!
BLAYZE!
USA!
Brilliant video and super helpful. It's all these little things that make a big difference.
Thanks Karl
I've needed to do this for a while now and this is a perfectly simple explanation. Thanks!
On such small differences in focus, the thickness of the rulers starts to matter, though. Thick rulers bring farther numbers a little bit back into focus, so, your results may be off again minutely. Not hugely, but enough that it can matter again. That's why a printed ruler that's necessarily at the same height as the focused line is that little edge better than physical rulers.
So useful. This video is perfect. Time to check all my lenses. Thank you for posting.
I have tried these methods with other printouts, I will try your method today, I have a few lenses to get thru. hope it works.Thanks, great tutorial
Thanks a lot Karl, I have done this before but your method is super easy, super handy. God bless you.
This is literally the best video I’ve ever seen on the subject. Thank you so much because I could not figure out why my pictures are not coming out sharp with my new camera.
Make sure select calibrate 'by lense' and not 'by distance'. otherwise the other lenses will become out of focus I suspect.
Another brilliant video Karl. Thanks for sharing mate.
Very helpful video. Neat, simple and absolutely practical!
Thanks Karl for sharing your knowledge with us.🙏
Thank you very much Karl, I always appreciate your expertise. 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
Thank you for the information and for taking the time to make a video to share it!
Love this super east way of doing the AF Tune. I just got a new 85 this afternoon... it was out by -18 right outta the box!! WOOF! Thanks for amazing content as always Sir! - J
Brilliantly simple Karl. Great video!
Thank you very much, Karl. This was a helpful video!
Very clear tutorial , thank you Karl!
Thank you for this tutorial, immensely useful!
I had no idea it was this simple. Thanks for sharing!
Great video with good information for a Sunday.
Great tips Karl!!! it Helps a lot!!!!
Thanks so much for video helpful to much!
WOW! Probably one of the BEST educational photography clips I'd seen on CZcams since I'd been a photographer! Excellent video!
Thank you for taking the time to do this.
My pleasure!
Your videos are such a great resource. Explained simply and precisely.
I appreciate that!
So helpful wonderful video and so well presented straight to the point. Thanks so much for uploading.
Thanks Karl, brilliant mate.
This helped me..thanks Karl 😊
Excellent and clear explanation on how to do this, thanks.
Glad it was helpful!
Incredibly useful, right to the point. Thank you!
Cheers
Thanks a bunch, this helped me calibrate my 4 lenses. In particular my 100-400 mm with a 1.4X extender is VERY improved.
How far away was your camera to the target? I have same lens and extender and need to adjust it. thanks.
Thank, very simple and useful!
Excellent vid, ta.
Súper useful, thank you!
Nice explanation Karl.
Great advice, thanks!
Thank you, you have explained very well, how simply and inexpensively this process can be done! This tutorial has helped me to simply calibrate a rear focused lens on my camera. Cheers!
Glad it helped!
Thanks Karl. This video is very helpful for me.
You are welcome
Thank you so much
This the literally the best!! Thanks!!
Great tip thanks
Just did this with mew new Canon 500mm F4 Mark I. I had made a white board out of 4 pieces of A3 taped together and place my camera and tripod quite far on the floor in the distance. Focused on the line, then Manual focused to make sure it was not in focus, switched back to AF focused on the line, took a snap. then placed the rulers took a snap, both sides 10cm was pin sharp and 8 was blurry, 9 was sharper and same on 11 and 12. Fantastic guide. Subscribed!
Thanks Ashley
Thank you so much for that tip!!
Thank you this is awsome
Thank you
Very useful! Thank you! 👍👍👍
Interesting thanks for the tip
very help full video tutorial
Very helpful. Thanks!
Very helpful and simply put video. Thanks for the info, hope it works for me!
Best of luck!
thanks so much carl, i always thought you had to go to specialists to calibrate your camera, now i can do it myself and save a packet.
This is very nice and simple.
I have noticed my ef 50 1.8 on my rp tends to back focus a little bit.
I need to acquire a tripod and use this method to calibrate.
Good, simple video.
Cheers.
Useful, thankyou.
Thank you!
Welcome!
Thank you so much Karl, this was very useful, so that I could avoid investing into an AF calibration tool, not to mention returning lenses along with a dispute procedure. The calibration tools I have seen always had the ruler stricktly set to a 45 degree angle relative to the plain of focus. In your tutorial there was little attention paid to that angle; does that setting play a critical role at all?
Extrêmement utile. Merci, Monsieur.
Merci beaucoup
Wow. So educative
Cheers
Awsome tip...Thanks pal 👍😎
Cheers
Brilliant thank you!
Nice one Karl
Great content as usual...thanks ...👍...much gratitude
Thank you
Perfect. So simple 👍
Clean and simple. Thanks
thanks
Well I never knew that, thanks Karl.
I went on a shoot today in beautiful cloudless sky in the Bavarian Alps and want to test my Sigma ART DG/DN 35mm f1.4
I bought it in Spring 2023 but hadn't used it much and then I had a big bike crash where my well padded camera bag containing my Sony A7 iii took a knock and I hadnt used it since then.
To say I was disappointed with today's results is an understatement so I went looking in YT for help and BINGO we found each other.
I found " AF Micro-Adjustments" in the gruesome Sony Menus so tomorrow is the day
Sorry to hear about your camera gear I hope it isn't actually damaged.
Thank you so much. That is soo Useful tip
Glad it was helpful!
For those of you still using DSLR's, you should know that lens adjustments like this are not necessary for mirrorless cameras at all - even when using a DSLR lens adapted to a mirrorless camera with an autofocusing adapter. This is also partly the reason why 3rd party lenses will work better on mirrorless than DSLR's (no adjustments necessary). In fact, many people who have had reservations about using 3rd party lenses on DSLR's in the past because of AF concerns, are now finding them focusing as well as native lenses. Mirrorless lenses can also autofocus at larger apertures than 2.8 (unlike DSLR's which have to stop down to 2.8 briefly). This itself can lead to more reliably sharp photos at wide apertures. I feel like a video about lens mirco adjustment in 2020 are remiss if they don't mention these points.
There are still many more people using DSLRs than mirrorless cameras so this is of course useful information to those. I use both systems (Sony, Canon and Hasselblad) and personally I still prefer seeing the actual photons compared with a small tv screen.
@@VisualEducationStudio indeed this is super useful information and well presented. I had trouble focusing a Sigma 18-35mm f/1.8 zoom on my wife's Nikon which was unfortunately because that was a killer lens and I missed focus on a ton of great shots while on a medical mission in Haiti. Part of the problem is that many DSLR's out there (probably the majority of them when you consider what DSLR's are top selling ones) are unable to make these lens adjustments because Canon and Nikon didn't see fit to provide this capability to the more affordable models (booo). The other part of the problem is that performing these micro adjustments doesn't always fully correct the AF issues with the lens. Anyway, I sold the lens and camera and now my wife shoots mirrorless along with me. I can't wait until Sigma makes version of their 1.8 zooms optimized for mirrorless cameras because I'm sure the well-known focusing issues of these lenses will be behind us and we can just focus on getting some great shots instead of worrying about micro adjustments etc. Great job on the video though. Cheers.
@@dancos2002 I've got a Sony A7 and I've shot with the Hasselblad X1D, both mirrorless cameras and there's lots of plus points but I still prefer a prism than an EVF, although as they improve I might change my mind. With regards the eye AF there were two Canon cameras the Eos-3 and Eos-5 that both tracked the photographers eye to see where he or she was looking and use that to activate a focus point. That tech was some 20 years ago but I hear that Canon are brining it back into one of their new mirrorless cameras maybe that will be interesting.
Karl is on point as usual////
Thanks!
Thanks my guy
Thank you!!
Thank you for sharing this.😊
My pleasure 😊
very helpful, thanks
You're welcome
thanks for sharing Master 👌📷🙌🏻
very helpful
Thank you very very much, mr Karl! It was really helpful!
Glad it was helpful!
Yes, verry helpfull this video. I just subscribed.
Thanks for the sub!
Extremely useful!!!
Glad to hear that!
thanks a ton
thanks
Thank you!! 👍👍
Welcome!
To calibrate our AF lenses in lab we use Reikan software wich is really good even with zoom lenses and semi automatic. The soft gives also a correction chart at the end of the process.
Karl you just saved me 50. Thank you.
Why fuss with rulers? I use a yellow tennis ball with a large X mark and lay the ball on the grass or any rough surface, set the camera mode in Manual, open the aperture to max open, adjust ISO/shutter speed for a decent exposure, AF can be on either Single or Servo (I use servo as I shoot action sports), snap a shot focused on the X mark at about a 30-degree angle (distance from the ball depends on lens focal length and then zoom in on the LCD to view where the center of focus falls. If the center of focus is in front of the ball (front focus) or behind the ball (back focus), then make the adjustment as described in the video. If calibrating for a zoom lens, Canon gives the options to adjust for Telephoto and Wide). As a note, there might be a slight interaction in the extreme ranges, so additional fine-tuning may be required. For Nikon users, only a single adjustment for zooms, and I recommend calibration at the max zoom, where the depth of field is narrower than at wide-angle. Mirrorless cameras do not have such calibration adjustments as they AF at the image sensor, rather through the prismatic glass system into a separate focus sensor.
Great video! Much thanks, that is so useful!
Do you happen to have a video on how to detect decentered lenses? Just asking, since I seem to have a 85mm lens that's sharp on the bottom and fuzzy on the top...
You are great
There is software calles FoCal for automatic calibrate the lens but that is expensive, this method is useful thanks Karl Tylor....
No way! I had no idea this was a thing! Shame I didn't do this before I went out and got my first kingfisher shot today. Thanks for the information.
Great video. So... once it focuses on the line, do you change it back to manual to lock it, or do you let the autofoucs try to focus the line between the rulers after you adjust the number?
How often should we calibrate? I've heard also that when driving and the lens is packed away and shaking in the vehicle, that can throw out the focus also
thanks for the tips! one question: will this technique (with the exception of using the in-camera focus adjustment) work basically the same for calibrating my Tamron 150-600 lens, using my Tap-in console?
Great tip, gonna set up and run through all my primes. Now, the important question.....what about Zoom lenses? What aperture and what zoom ratio do you choose for the calibration......i.e. with an 18-300 for example do you set to 18 where the max aperture is or zoom in where the max telephoto effect it.........or does this even work with zoom lenses? Please advise, as I depend on zooms for wildlife photos! Thanks.......
This post is from one year ago, have you tried this yourself yet?
Also it will help if one uses some masking tape to secure the white board to prevent movement.
Great video Karl.
I have EOS R5 but cannot find an option for micro adjustment at all to calibrate my lens