REIKAN FOCAL TRIAL SERIAL NUMBERS

While I've found it isn't ultra critical (an inch or two), a few inches off line does affect the outcome. It is the responsibility of the tester to insure the camera sensor and target are as parallel as possible. Because I made some comments earlier in I would add a summary of my experience/opinion. I have spent some time testing the FoCal software. I'd like to see a more critical evaluation of the product before spending money on it. I do not believe this is the right product for doing that. I absolutely believe that tuning a camera's AF performance to specific lenses is critical. What are they going to do with it? Who will have access to it? Why is he collecting that information? It might help his business model but there is no value in that for me. Why? I see no compelling technical reason they need that information.

REIKAN FOCAL TRIAL SERIAL NUMBERS

The thread starter failed to mention that you are required to register your cameras including serial numbers with the software maker.

Okay great: what exactly will do with that data? But you need a printer or access to one to print the target.Р”Р„nother member of this thread said to look at the other things this software can do. The initial review I responded to says no hardware is needed beyond maybe a tripod. My objections Does this system have a method of ensuring your camera is square to the target? with this system I can just let it do it's thing and then go about my businessess making pictures. I like this system.I don't like teching out. (in response to: So what you were just ranting ? I didn't think you were a ranter Ellis.altough I agree with what you said. Technique is the cart, it isn't the horse.Р”Р„nd if you think you're making pictures too flawed for you to live with, toss them. never, ever.Р”В«ut see Robert Capa's photographs of the D-Day landings as well as more than a little of Henri Cartier-Bresson's work as an antidote to thinking that ''There is nothing worse than a fuzzy image of a sharp concept' Of course if you can get your art technically perfect and with expressing great feeling, embodying a powerful idea, and beautiful that is an unstoppable combination: Coppola's 'The Godfather Part II' for example. But I'd rather make something a little ragged and right than perfect and dull. I've seen musicians, painters, and writers - as well as photographers - all get tangled up in the seductive mechanics of craft and lose sight of the bigger thing they are trying to get done. This is true for all of the arts, not just photography. Between two photographs of equal power the more technically refined photograph may be technically better but a technical quality is only worthwhile if it backs up a photograph that is emotionally expressive, expresses a strong idea, and a strong aesthetic sensibility behind it. Quote I think a photographer's time is generally better spent making themselves aware of the interaction of color and light, framing and composition, working on seeing life, and their shooting technique as opposed to dwelling on the aspects this program seems to measure. The product is still a bit unrefined, but the developer has obviously put a lot of thought (and work) into it. Inexperienced users might tweak their lens for best results at one focus distance, without realizing that they worsened the performance at other distances.Р”В«ut for those who stand to benefit from AF fine tuning, I think FoCal represents a genuine advance over tools like LensAlign and SpyderLensCal. Even with prime lenses, the magnitude of the improvement obtained from AF tuning may not be significant for some users. The user needs to choose a compromised value for the lens, or needs to reload different values depending on situation. For some lenses (especially zooms) the optimum adjustment value can vary with focal length, or subject distance, or possibly even aperture. When I wrote that the significance of the fine tuning process is debatable, I was really thinking about the practical benefits and limitations. It might be more realistic to use a randomization of initial positions. But, in an automated sequence, the same defocus method will be used for all points. It defocuses by changing the Fine Tune value to its near or far extreme values, or by physically moving the lens focus setting to near or far extremes. In the 'Pro' version of the program, you can choose the defocus operation that is used before each measurement.

Reikan focal trial