LensAlign MkII Focus Calibration System

Description

desertcart.com : LensAlign MkII Focus Calibration System : Camera Lens Accessories : Electronics Review: Yep, go ahead and buy it. :) - So... here's the deal. I was using another target for auto-focus fine tuning, and had been for a couple of years... but that particular target - while good - wasn't really giving me the kind of results I really wanted. I found myself spending hours on a given lens, taking shots, loading shots, re-taking shots, and so forth. This target - with it's high-quality graphics, contrasts and colors - was giving me much more consistent results. It's a good quality product, and as long as you follow the directions, easy to put together. Pretty much "Insert tab A into slot B", etc. The base on the unit is good, too - nice and stable. But truthfully? I was still tired of taking series upon series of shots, and then blearily eyeballing for front an/or back-focus between adjustments. So I decided to take a chance (after reading reviews on the product) and get the companion software (FocusTune) from Michael Tapes website. $50... not too bad an investment, and again, the reviews were good. Well... I can tell you that the target is excellent, and the target WITH the software is GREAT. I tuned four lenses (A Tamron 70-200 F/2.8, a Nikon 300mm F/4, a Sigma Art 50mm F/1.4 and a Tokina 100mm Macro lens) in four hours flat on my D750. And the tuning I got from the software (with one exception) was absolutely rock-solid and spot-on each time. As to the one time that it wasn't perfect... that was with the 300mm (effective 420mm with my TC-14E III teleconverter) Nikon lens. I strongly suspect that since I didn't have a lens-mount collar for that lens (one is available, I simply don't own one), I was having occasional vibration on the tripod while shooting. If I'd had the collar and shot in quiet shutter (or even MUP) mode, I suspect that the end result would have been like the others - spot on. However, since the software put me in the right area (it recommended +10), it took me a about 15 minutes of "real-world" testing to figure out that +8 was actually the best setting - and now that lens hits with perfect focus on every shot. :) So...I would buy this all over again. There's no big price difference between buying the software AND target or buying them separately, but I recommend that you get both. It's one heckuva time saver. :D Review: Good but better instructions would have helped a lot. - I calibrated several lenses with my D500 and D810 bodies and the LensAlign system seems to work well. I still need to get out and just take some pictures to be absolutely sure, but a preliminary cross check of my results with the AFtune 'On' against AFtune 'Off' definitely shows improvement in point of focus clarity. So it seems mission accomplished. Build quality of the system is fine as far as I am concerned. Very clever design...but it is not the most rugged in construction. However, I'm not sure what other practical alternates there would be (all metal???...I don't think so). I'm sure I will get many years out of it as long as I take reasonable care of it. So, from that standpoint I am happy. As some others have mentioned, I was not happy with the instructions...or lack of instructions more appropriately. Yes, I found the stuff on line and on the LensAlign website and watched it all. It seemed that depending on where I looked, there were different models with different print patterns and I just wasn't sure what I was going to get. But, okay. Other than that, my specific issues are: Sighting ports - there is a 'A', 'B', and 'C' port noted as "default", "close", and "Macro" respectively. Okay, Macro I got...but what focal lengths should the 'A' and 'B' ports be used for? I could find absolutely no direction anywhere and just kind of stumbled my way through it (I was calibrating 50, 85, 70-200 and 200-500mm lenses). After ordering, I saw there was an option for a longer ruler for longer focal lengths. I checked the LensAlign site and all I could get from it was that calibrating my 200-500 at 500mm was "marginal" and the quite expensive long ruler was recommended. What the heck does marginal mean? Well, I know now because I figured out they mean marginal because of the length of the "standard" ruler is maxed out in depth of field with a 500mm lens. But, again, I got it to work but it would have been better if all of this was made a bit clearer. Speaking of rulers, one side (side B) states "This side for special use only". The other side (side A) states "Optimized for Focus Tune Software". I don't have the software and what the heck does "special use" mean??? I used side 'A'...but again, just not at all clear. The distance to use for testing is also not clear. Yes, the site has the distance tool which shows minimum and maximum distances...but, what happens if you bust the minimum distance? What happens if you shoot in between the two? Are you better off shooting at one over the other? Some specific guidance as to what the impact these variables have would have been helpful. The procedure has a lot of different steps to it. It takes time...and gets easier to use as you get used to the process. But, this is not a quick "plug and play" thing...you will have to work at. In the end, the results are worth the effort. For example, I had to really crank in the compensation for my 70-200 lens for my D810 body (+17) but only needed +3 on my D500. I don't know how I would been able to figure this out without a tool like this. So, again, mission accomplished. Better instructions would have made it an easy 4 or 5 star rating.