M38A1
Admin
Back in December of 2012, several of us on the board here (DFW_Warrior, Tourmeister, Duke and myself) went to a Joe McNally off-camera flash seminar. When it was over, we retreated to Dukes house to 'practice' what we learned. There, I pulled out my Nikon 50mm f/1.4 AF-S G lens and shot some images I thought were ok but 'soft'. Then Duke pulls out his 50mm f/1.8 AF-S and produces a sharper image with his. We both shot wide open. Hmmmmm So for the past two years, I can say I've honesty used this (rather expensive) lens not one single time.
Fast forward to a few days ago and Duke mentions Nikon Fine-Tune, so I start poking around the 'net and come to learn there's a function within some Nikon bodies which allows you to 'fine tune' the focus point on AF lenses. This fine-tune process changes the focus point from either a front focus issue or a back focus issue to the center and is available due to the zillion factors which go into lens and body manufacturing and the tolerances involved. It doesn't affect the significant majority lenses, but it does affect some, one of which is mine with an apparent solution.
So..... Today I downloaded a chart, taped it to a pc of cardboard, put it at an angle about 24" away from the tripod mounted camera and opened the 50 up wide open, focused on the center line and shot.
Straight out of the camera with only a conversion to .jpg, here's what I saw. Very subtle, but NOT focusing dead center where I was focusing. Rather, the focus point is in front just a hair:
So I went into Fine-Tune and shot a series of 5 unit adjustments as +5, +10, +15, then -5, -10, -15 and -20.
Here is the -15 version, a much more balanced run:
So with that, I went outside and shot a chapstick sitting on top of a jar with the focus point on BUR just below the purple cap where it meets the canister. Here's what I got shooting wide open at f/1.4. You can see it's focus point is again in front of where I had the focus point (look at the front label of the canister). A 1:1 ratio shot:
I then dialed in -18 (splitting the difference between -15 and -20 since most people who had an issue dialed in -18) and this is what I got. Same setup, just applying some Fine-Tune default to this specific lens, and again at f/1.4 with a 1:1 ratio shot.
I think I can safely say, that this was one of those lenses which needed a 'correction' in the auto-focus point, which from now on will automatically be applied every time I mount this specific lens to this body. I sent them to Duke who viewed them on his monster-monitor and he said they checked ok there, so I think I'm good to go for starting to use this lens in my arsenal.
Today was a good day for learning.
Now, I just need someone with beautiful piercing blue or green eyes to test it out on....
.
Fast forward to a few days ago and Duke mentions Nikon Fine-Tune, so I start poking around the 'net and come to learn there's a function within some Nikon bodies which allows you to 'fine tune' the focus point on AF lenses. This fine-tune process changes the focus point from either a front focus issue or a back focus issue to the center and is available due to the zillion factors which go into lens and body manufacturing and the tolerances involved. It doesn't affect the significant majority lenses, but it does affect some, one of which is mine with an apparent solution.
So..... Today I downloaded a chart, taped it to a pc of cardboard, put it at an angle about 24" away from the tripod mounted camera and opened the 50 up wide open, focused on the center line and shot.
Straight out of the camera with only a conversion to .jpg, here's what I saw. Very subtle, but NOT focusing dead center where I was focusing. Rather, the focus point is in front just a hair:
So I went into Fine-Tune and shot a series of 5 unit adjustments as +5, +10, +15, then -5, -10, -15 and -20.
Here is the -15 version, a much more balanced run:
So with that, I went outside and shot a chapstick sitting on top of a jar with the focus point on BUR just below the purple cap where it meets the canister. Here's what I got shooting wide open at f/1.4. You can see it's focus point is again in front of where I had the focus point (look at the front label of the canister). A 1:1 ratio shot:
I then dialed in -18 (splitting the difference between -15 and -20 since most people who had an issue dialed in -18) and this is what I got. Same setup, just applying some Fine-Tune default to this specific lens, and again at f/1.4 with a 1:1 ratio shot.
I think I can safely say, that this was one of those lenses which needed a 'correction' in the auto-focus point, which from now on will automatically be applied every time I mount this specific lens to this body. I sent them to Duke who viewed them on his monster-monitor and he said they checked ok there, so I think I'm good to go for starting to use this lens in my arsenal.
Today was a good day for learning.
Now, I just need someone with beautiful piercing blue or green eyes to test it out on....
.