Micro adjustment Canon 7DMII connected to a tablet

digital paradise wrote in post #17934925
To my surprise I have found FoCal Pro to be very accurate and consistent. Dot Tune works very well but at the end of the day I prefer something that tells me how much to adjust. I always second guess myself so like automated systems.

If you are a user of Magic Lantern it offers an automated option for running Dottune. Not only that but ML also allows you to use a greater range of MFA settings than the +-20 available in the stock Canon firmware. Now the weather has picked up I will soon be out in the garden doing my Sigma 150-600 C for the full 16 point array.

Alan

I have read about that. I have neer really been interested in using ML even if it does't effect the cameras FW. Since I already paid for FoCal I may as well use it. Good info for members.

BigAl007 wrote in post #17934979
If you are a user of Magic Lantern it offers an automated option for running Dottune. Not only that but ML also allows you to use a greater range of MFA settings than the +-20 available in the stock Canon firmware. Now the weather has picked up I will soon be out in the garden doing my Sigma 150-600 C for the full 16 point array.

Alan

I tried ML when I had a 7D. It crashed the camera regularly. There is no ML for the 7DII. If this were available, and reliable (the entire package, not just the MFA) I would be on it in a second.

Snydremark wrote in post #17934910
I generally follow the guideline, simply because I have the space out front; but, in the past I've done it at about 25ft (the longest distance I have inside the house; when it's raining for days at a time) and still found good results. This is for my 100-400.

I have the room to MFA a 600 mm lens at 50X (in my side yard). What I don't have room for is MFA at the distances I sometimes shoot, as suggested earlier, which can be quite far.

Today I MFA'd my Tamron 70-200 (via Dot Tune), and forgot to change the actual zoom from 200 to 70 after doing the long end. I was calibrating the 200mm end from 12 feet. When I saw what I had done, and re-calibrated the short end, the result went from -5 to -4. Not much difference even when seriously screwing up the process!

pknight wrote in post #17935374
I have the room to MFA a 600 mm lens at 50X (in my side yard). What I don't have room for is MFA at the distances I sometimes shoot, as suggested earlier, which can be quite far.

Today I MFA'd my Tamron 70-200 (via Dot Tune), and forgot to change the actual zoom from 200 to 70 after doing the long end. I was calibrating the 200mm end from 12 feet. When I saw what I had done, and re-calibrated the short end, the result went from -5 to -4. Not much difference even when seriously screwing up the process!

Yeah, that's why I don't worry TOO much about hardlining the 50x stat. It happens to line up the size of the focus target in the viewfinder with the size my subjects in the viewfinder for the outer bounds of subject size that I know will give me acceptable results in the field. So, then, anything shot inside of that boundary works great; and anything beyond that is basically infinity focus anyway, but likely only good for id'ing something.

Canon used to say 50X but now it is the distance you normally shoot at.

I have the tamron 150-600 as well so I'll add my two cents.

I tried dot tune at short range with less than ideal lighting. In ended up at about +4 on the long end. Then one day I taped a $20 to my patio door and from about 6 meters (shooting out into daylight at 600mm) I ran a set of test shots from -5 to +5; reviewed and set the MFA to -6. I then did test shots outside at about 50x FL. The lens is very sharp up to about 400mm then softens up a bit. Most reviews suggest this is normal for this lens. For the moment it seems my lens is set up as good as I can get it.

I've tried many tests since I purchased the 7D2. It always came down to a lack of the really fine detail necessary to determine where focus was sharpest when trying to MFA at the longer distances. At 6 meters and F6.3 DOF is very small so maybe that helps narrow things down. YMMV.

Rod

Dot Tune can be very fast; I check the MFA at multiple FLs and can get a 100-400 or a 70-200 done in 10 minutes. What I may do later is plot the error vs. FL and generate a least squares fit for the points. On a lens like my 24-70 f/2.8 which has a rather non-linear change of focus error with FL, it makes the initial settings less of a guess and comes closer than setting just the endpoints. And yes, calculating the values this way made a visible difference at 70mm without worsening focus at 50 or 60mm.

I also concur that it's best to MFA at the normal shooting distance if you know it. I know in advance what my targets are for sports, and it does give better results in the field.