Finally. And very proud of it ...

Stuff

With lots of phone and e-mail help from Michael Tapes over the past few days I finally put the finishing touches on the LensAlign/FocusTune Micro-Adjusting Tutorial e-Guide late on Wednesday. Jim got it into the BIRDS AS ART Online Store after dinner. Learn more below.

I was glad to learn that Dave Williams of Santa Barbara, CA signed up for his first IPT: San Diego IPT #1. That trip is now sold out. There is, however, still lots of room on San Diego #2. If you are considering this trip and might be interested in adding on a free day of instruction before the IPT begins please shoot me an e-mail.

I got back in the pool twice on Wednesday: 48 lengths and 40 lengths made an even mile, with lots of exercise during the day as well. It all felt good.

The Streak

Today makes eighty-four days in a row with a new educational blog post! This blog post took more than two hours to prepare. With all of my upcoming free time (or not …), the plan right now is to break the current record streak of (I think) four hundred eighty something … Good health and good internet connections willing.

2017 in San Diego was a very good year ….

2018 San Diego 3 1/2-DAY BIRDS AS ART IPT #2: Sunday, JAN 28 thru and including a morning session on Wednesday, JAN 31, 2018: 3 1/2 days: $1699. Limit: 8: Openings: 7

Meet and Greet at 6:30pm on the evening before the IPT begins; Saturday, Jan 27, 2018.

San Diego IPT #2: Shorter and Less Expensive!

Please remember: I go with one.

Click here for details.

Booking.Com

Booking.Com came through for me twice again recently with both the DeSoto Fall IPT and next July’s UK Puffins, Gannets, and Bempton Pre-trip room reservations. And all the rates were great. If you’d like to give Booking.Com a shot, click here and you will earn a $25 reward. Thanks to the many who have already tried and used this great service.

Gear Questions and Advice

Too many folks attending BAA IPTs and dozens of folks whom I see in the field, and on BPN, are–out of ignorance–using the wrong gear especially when it comes to tripods and more especially, tripod heads… Please know that I am always glad to answer your gear questions via e-mail.

White-breasted Plover chick, Namibia IPT

The Poster Child for the the LensAlign/FocusTune Micro-Adjusting Tutorial e-Guide

I consider the White-fronted Plover chick image above to be the poster child for micro-adjusting; it shows just what can happen when you opt to work with gear that has not been micro-adjusted. I made it to Namibia at great expense both financially and time-wise. This baby plover presented the best avian opportunity of the trip. It was late afternoon and the light was gorgeous. And I got relatively close to this tiny gem of a subject. When I viewed the image on my laptop I quickly realized that sharp focus was on the bird’s legs, not on the eye where I had carefully focused.

In error, I used my back-up 5DS R body with a 2X III TC and the 600 II lens. This combination had not been micro-adjusted. Though the image above might look OK as a small JPEG, it is unusable, i.e., worthless junk: the chick’s eyes are nowhere near sharp. Except as great advertising for this guide. When we got back to the hotel I did a quickie micro-adjustment on this set-up in the hallway of the hotel (near a large window) and obviously without my lighting set-up. The AFA turned out to be -19 … Many times when micro-adjusting you wind up at zero or +1 or -2 and think, “No big deal there.” And you would be correct; tiny AFA values like those will not make a great difference in the final image. But when you wind up at -7 or +11 as frequently happens, the difference in the sharpness of your images can be huge. Not to mention minus 19 … With properly micro-adjusted big lenses folks can begin to routinely create sharp images, even when working with working with 2X teleconverters.

Ordering Info

To purchase the LensAlign/FocusTune package ($124.90) please click here.

Click here to order your copy of the LensAlign/FocusTune Micro-Adjusting Tutorial e-Guide: $50.

The LensAlign/FocusTune Back-story by Michael Tapes (October 2017)

LensAlign was developed as a reliable and repeatable way to test and analyze problems in DSLR autofocus systems, among the bodies, firmware and lenses.

The original LensAlign hardware target was introduced in 2007. It provided a tool that helped photographers to assess the degree of front or back focus with various combinations of their camera bodies and lenses, a problem that was becoming more prevalent. Before then, determining AF accuracy and reliability was hit or miss. The forums were bursting with allegations claiming that photographers did not know how to use their gear, and that front, or back, focus issues were a matter of illusion.
However, with the increases in sensor resolution, and the growing number of photographers shooting DSLR cameras, the complexity and prevalence of AF inaccuracy issues grew.

At the time I invented LensAlign, there was no camera with a user-based provision to adjust for such issues. We needed a reliable tool that could test for, and measure the degree of the AF issues, along with the ability to document them in a repeatable fashion so that the camera makers could acknowledge the problems and fix them. Equally important, when the gear came back from the repair station, the photographers needed a method to verify the repair. In truth, fixes in most cases were not done, or they were inadequate.

Sometime between the LensAlign concept, and the subsequent product release more than a year later, Canon did, in fact, introduce what they called AF Micro-adjustment in the EOS 1D Mark III. I had been in consultation with Canon during my development of LensAlign, but I had no idea if my work influenced the development of this feature or not. However, I was clearly glad they did, since photographers could now “fix” the problem on their own. Of course, this would be a catalyst for LensAlign sales. Although Nikon made no mention of such a feature in their D3 product release, they quickly copied the Canon feature (precisely) and added it to the Nikon D3 calling it AF Fine-Tune. Since that time virtually every mid/high end DSLR camera from all manufacturers have included a provision for AF adjustment, requiring a LensAlign or lesser method to do the actual testing and analysis.

The first LensAlign hardware system (called the Pro Version) sold for $179. It was extremely labor intensive to build and required individual laser calibration (for each unit). I soon discovered that this business model could not be sustained. The price was too high, and the time-and-labor made it impractical to build.

Enter LensAlign MkII, a about 2 years later; it overcame many obstacles:

• It was easier to manufacture (although it required expensive solid steel blanking dies.)
• It could be shipped in a Priority Mail envelope, reducing shipping costs.
• It could be disassembled for travel.
• It was more accurate than the original, and no longer required individual calibration.
• It provided a sensible, and profitable, business model for me and a lower retail price for the end user (then $79.95 and now $84.95)]

With the MkII design established, we concentrated on a companion software solution to couple it with. FocusTune Calibration Software would raise the bar by facilitating the precision (and objectivity) of computer analysis of the test photos, thus eliminating the subjective nature of human analysis. Further, the new software made the AF adjustment task considerably easier and quicker. FocusTune software was designed so that it could be used in conjunction (together with) with any LensAlign hardware (system) or even without LensAlign with a wall mounted target.

Moreover, the FocusTune application actually promoted our development effort that led to additional improvements in both the LensAlign hardware and the FocusTune software! In order for these developments to stretch the envelope of possibilities, we optimized the LensAlign MkII’s Target and Ruler in a series of revisions culminating in the current Generation 4.

The downside was that in order to gain the greatly increased accuracy and speed that the new FocusTune made possible, its utilization necessarily was tied to LensAlign MkII with its new Target and Ruler. This ended FocusTune’s use as a standalone product or its use with older LensAlign designs (the Pro and Lite)

The good news is that we finally have what we wanted were striving for — a unique and phenomenal Hardware + Software solution that aids, enhances, accelerates and improves the task of analyzing and correcting troublesome AF front / back focusing inaccuracies that plague all DSLR cameras. No other commercial system available today is able to explore these issues and offer AF adjustment setting recommendations based on a precision 3-dimensional target that is crucial for accurate calibration. This is what makes the LensAlign/FocusTune system so powerful.

The LensAlign/Micro-Adjusting Tutorial e-Guide: $50 Don’t need to read the sales pitch? Click here to order your copy.

The LensAlign/FocusTune Micro-Adjusting Tutorial e-Guide: $50

For serious photographers using telephoto lenses including the Canon 100-400 II.

Don’t faint. The LensAlign/FocusTune Micro-Adjusting Tutorial e-Guide is finally finished and available for purchase. Before I begin to (briefly) sing its praises — I have to send huge thanks to my brilliant friend Michael Tapes. For the following:

1- Conceiving of, developing, and marketing first the LensAlign hardware and then doing the same with the amazing FocusTune software.
2- Driving down from Orlando to my home at Indian Lake Estates three times over the years to educate me on the use of LensAlign and then finally, FocusTune.
3- Spending many hours on the phone with me over the past few years answering my micro-adjusting questions. And then doing the same thing all over again for the past few months. And the past few days!
4- Skillfully reviewing the final draft of the manuscript and then graciously spending several more hours on the phone with me ironing out the final details.

Thank you Micheal.

Thanks also to dear friend Patrick Sparkman who helped me a lot along the micro-adjusting trail and provided a careful review of the final text.

Note however that any errors in the text are all on me.

The purpose of this guide is to teach you how to use the LensAlign hardware and the FocusTune software to determine an accurate AFA (autofocus adjustment) value for a given gear combination. It is written for users of current Canon camera bodies; folks who use the older Canon bodies and users of Nikon bodies that offer the ability to fine-tune focus will also benefit tremendously.

What can I say about the guide other than “It’s great!” It was about eight months in development. I spent dozens of hours writing it and many hundreds of hours testing and re-testing all of my lenses, teleconverters, and camera bodies, while at the same time fine-tuning the text. I even did some micro-adjusting on IPTs, some of those with the light setup! Most of the many improvements that I made in my techniques over the years were a result of finally listening to and implementing what Michael Tapes had told me in the first place. I can be stubborn, but then again, Michael and I are very much alike in that regard. The problem is that he is smarter than me.

Apologies to the many who were supposed to receive early drafts of this guide but did not. I only sent one to a very few folks as I was never completely comfortable with the contents and the flow and the clarity of the work. I am now. Very much so. I did get a copy to Bill Hill who wrote, “Thanks a ton. As in the past, I rely on you to interpret what the geeks write. Even though the version of the e-guide that you sent was far from complete, I found it much more helpful than anything that I had read online.”

Michael Tapes had this to say about the new guide: “I especially like the second half of the document where you show all of the examples.” He was referring to the many sample graphs in the guide that are accompanied by my illustrative comments:”Here is what I saw. This is what I thought. Here is what I did. And this is why I did it.”

Over the years many have come to value my simple, easy-to-follow instructions, my conversational style, and the clarity of my writing. Many find micro-adjusting to be complicated, time-consuming, and as I did often (and still do on occasion), frustrating. In the new guide, I have worked very hard to take you by the hand and lead through the process step by step. The guide includes camera and lens set-up lists, precise instructions on setting up, positioning, and aiming the gear, and detailed instructions on the testing, the strategies I developed and used, and interpreting the FocusTune graphs (that many find mystifying). Instructions for micro-adjusting zoom lenses at the T (tight or telephoto) end and the W (wide or zoomed out) setting are of course included. Plus dozens of practical tips to make your micro-adjusting experience a lot less frustrating than mine was 🙂

For years many folks have marveled at my ability to create sharp images with Canon 2X teleconverters and long f/4 super-telephoto lenses. Now the secret for much of that success is out of the bag. There is not a single sharp image in the guide; to see those simply surf the blog for the past two years. You will find hundreds of super-sharp images each accompanied by the AFA (autofocus micro-adjustment) that was in play.

Note that micro-adjusting is not for the faint-of-heart. Only serious photographers interested in creating the sharpest possible RAW files with their telephoto lenses (and teleconverters) should apply …

Nuff said.

Ordering Info

To purchase the LensAlign/FocusTune package ($124.90) please click here.

Click here to order your copy of the LensAlign/FocusTune Micro-Adjusting Tutorial e-Guide: $50.

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To show your appreciation for my continuing efforts here, we ask, as always, that you get in the habit of using my B&H affiliate links on the right side of the blog for all of your photo and electronics purchases. Please check the availability of all photographic accessories in the New BIRDS AS ART Online Store, especially the Mongoose M3.6 tripod head, Wimberley lens plates, Delkin flash cards and accessories, and LensCoat stuff.

As always, we sell only what I have used, have tested, and can depend on. We will not sell you junk. We know what you need to make creating great images easy and fun. And please remember that I am always glad to answer your gear questions via e-mail.

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Typos

In all blog posts and Bulletins, feel free to e-mail or to leave a comment regarding any typos or errors. Just be right :).