Sigma 35mm Micro adjust

Hey guys sorry if this has been answered somewhere before, I'm at work and have tried searching but we keep getting busy and I haven't found anything.

With the micro adjustment on the sigma it gives you four areas where you can set a micro adjust. My assumption is that this is for different focusing distances, so my question is what is the recommended strategy for doing this micro adjust? I have only ever done zooms before where you adjust the wide and the tele ends seperately.

solepatch wrote in post #16345951
Hey guys sorry if this has been answered somewhere before, I'm at work and have tried searching but we keep getting busy and I haven't found anything.

With the micro adjustment on the sigma it gives you four areas where you can set a micro adjust. My assumption is that this is for different focusing distances, so my question is what is the recommended strategy for doing this micro adjust? I have only ever done zooms before where you adjust the wide and the tele ends seperately.

You have to purchase the Sigma dock -- http://www.amazon.com …_B00CBQ5X5S?ie=​UTF8&psc=1

From what I have seen the dock gives you a way to adjust the MA through your computer but it is no different than doing it yourself through the camera. You have to attach it to the camera and check to see if the adjustment you made is correct. Seems simpler(and cheaper) to just do the adjustment in camera which still gives me 4 distances to do the adjustment, just doesn't say what the distances are in the camera.

I guess my real question is what are the distances that I should set the MFA's at?

Edit: I have already done an adjustment like I have for all of my other lenses using just one MFA point. I just figure since I have the ability to further fine tune the lens might as well take advantage of that.

Body MFA will give you only a single distance setting for prime lenses whereas the dock will give you 4. When I had the S35, in-body MFA didn't help much -- focus was quite erratic at different distances. Unfortunately, I didn't have the luxury of the dock at that time. Others have had much better luck when they were able to use the 4 distance point adjustments that you can set with the dock.

sportmode wrote in post #16346928
Body MFA will give you only a single distance setting for prime lenses whereas the dock will give you 4. When I had the S35, in-body MFA didn't help much -- focus was quite erratic at different distances. Unfortunately, I didn't have the luxury of the dock at that time. Others have had much better luck when they were able to use the 4 distance point adjustments that you can set with the dock.

to add to this it seems as if the sigma 35 1.4 responds to MA from your camera differently than canon lenses do. like if you change the MA on your camera with this lens, it may not move the focus very much even for a large change. it's really weird. so in my experience the in-camera MA is somewhat useless with this lens. you really gotta use the dock if you want any predictable results.

After going back to look again you are correct although I could absolutely swear I remember seeing somewhere that you could set the 4 distances in camera. Seems I was mistaken however.

Cheers.

It would appear that the dock is in my future although for now the MFA I did seems to be working alright.

solepatch wrote in post #16346980
It would appear that the dock is in my future although for now the MFA I did seems to be working alright.

Well if it works as is no reason to get the dock. Be happy ha ha.

solepatch wrote in post #16346980
It would appear that the dock is in my future although for now the MFA I did seems to be working alright.

Great if that's working for you. I thought I had it all figured out with MFA adjustments indoors, then went for an outdoor shoot the next day, and everything was a blur. Drove me nuts.

I think the dock is absolutely worth it. Even if just for the ability to be able to update the firmware as well, and the latest firmware did improve the AF behaviour on the S35.

The way I set my Sigma 35mm: I use the Dot Tune method with Magic Lantern (body: 5D mk. II) and write down the MA values for each distance (0.3 m, 0.4 m, 0.6 m, infinity). Then I plug in the lens to the dock and set the values for those distances. And Voila, works like a charm . Took me about 10 minutes.

If Magic Lantern is not available on your body, then there are other methods as well. You can purchase a seperate software to check MA for each distance, such as Reikan's FoCal software. Just make sure you do this in a good light. Bad lightning conditions might give you unrepeatable results.

Xyclopx wrote in post #16346950
to add to this it seems as if the sigma 35 1.4 responds to MA from your camera differently than canon lenses do. like if you change the MA on your camera with this lens, it may not move the focus very much even for a large change. it's really weird. so in my experience the in-camera MA is somewhat useless with this lens. you really gotta use the dock if you want any predictable results.

I think it works exactly the same way. The key difference is, however that the Sigma 35 seems to have somewhat different AF MA values depending on the focusing distance. Like before the firmware update I had 4 seperate values for each distance. After the firmware update, it got better. 3 same settings 0.3 m - 0.6 meters and infinity was at 0 MA.

Tmuussoni wrote in post #16347422
I think the dock is absolutely worth it. Even if just for the ability to be able to update the firmware as well, and the latest firmware did improve the AF behaviour on the S35.

The way I set my Sigma 35mm: I use the Dot Tune method with Magic Lantern (body: 5D mk. II) and write down the MA values for each distance (0.3 m, 0.4 m, 0.6 m, infinity). Then I plug in the lens to the dock and set the values for those distances. And Voila, works like a charm . Took me about 10 minutes.

If Magic Lantern is not available on your body, then there are other methods as well. You can purchase a seperate software to check MA for each distance, such as Reikan's FoCal software. Just make sure you do this in a good light. Bad lightning conditions might give you unrepeatable results.

I think it works exactly the same way. The key difference is, however that the Sigma 35 seems to have somewhat different AF MA values depending on the focusing distance. Like before the firmware update I had 4 seperate values for each distance. After the firmware update, it got better. 3 same settings 0.3 m - 0.6 meters and infinity was at 0 MA.

Thanks for the info I got to test the lens out more in depth this afternoon, so I will be making my decision after I get to review my shots full size in a bit. They are downloading off my card as I write this.