lens focus check by software

Went to the Castle Camera event in Bournemouth today and had the autofocus checked on my 24-70/5D2 combination. They found it needed a "minus 6" adjustment, which sounds a lot. The software is FOCAL and the camera was tripod mounted looking at a well lit, wall mounted target.

I took a number of raptor images afterwards and the results are promising. The trouble is I now want to test all my other lenses!

It took a bit of queuing because it was a very popular stand.

Focal software is available on the Internet and doesn't cost a lot. if you are going to use it make sure that you light the target well and mount the camera on a sturdy tripod.

Focal is pretty popular, but I have found that the free "Dottune" method is my favorite way to go.

Simple, effective and you can do it without the need for a PC being involved.

Dottune on youtube

I myself used dottune for the first time a week or so ago. And it definitely seems to have tightened up my focusing quite a bit. I was initially concerned with the amount of +/- on the individual lenses, but after asking around and seeing what others are using, I am not as worried as I once was.
Took a little time, but that is fine since it was free.

One tip I learned on another thread I will share:
The effective amount of each MFA (+ or -) is directly proportional to the camera to subject distance.

Example: Shooting a water bottle from 5 feet, versus shooting the same subject from 10 feet away.
The further away the subject. The easier it is to visually see the difference between -10,-5,-1,0,+1, etc
Take a tripod outside on a sunny day and shoot a water bottle label. Wide open fast shutter.
Set your camera MFA to (-20,-10, 0, 10, 20) taking a total of 15 shots, 3-3-3-3-3 at each.
Compare on computer and then work from there. Only costs you time. My lenses got +5, 0, 0, and +5

InfiniteDivide wrote in post #16918070
Only costs you time.

A lot of time. With 3 camera bodies and about 8 lenses, far too much time.

Before FoCal I used this manual method and only bothered with one camera and 3 lenses. But FoCal makes it so much easier that I could do the whole lot.

If you buy it then the Pro version is worth the extra cash, just for the test that measures sharpness over the aperture range for a lens.

Yes, I agree. If I had 2+ bodies to test I would see a very large time benefit in the Focal software.
I am still considering it myself. I am very happy with my AF shots compared to manual focus and liveview 10x.