For many years I have enjoyed photographing Airplanes, nature and occasionally other subjects.
For some time I was not completely satisfied with the sharpness of my 400 mm lens. I occasionally heard about calibrating the camera to the body. It all sounded rather laborious.
For several years I have bought a program from Reikan Technoligy, Focal. This program I have also used on occasion to try some but never really followed through properly. Last week I brought the program ” up to date” and calibrated two of my lenses.
Basically, it works very simply. You connect your camera to a laptop, the camera on a tripod. At a certain distance you hang a “target” where you let the camera focus.
Different tests can be run. I used the “multi test. After activating the test, the program checks if the settings on the camera are correct and if the ” target” is properly in focus. Once this is OK, a number of pictures are taken with different settings and different correction values.
After completing the test you get a report in which different aspects are named. For example, you can see at what aperture value the lens has the best sharpness. You can also read this in a graph. This also allows you to see at which other apertures the lens performs well.
After adjusting with the correction values and setting with your correct data, I went to test the lenses at the Polderbaan at Schiphol Airport. The difference in my 300 mm is nil. The 400 mm has a much sharper image. This also fits with the correction values. I had to correct the 300 m with -3 while I had to correct the 400 with -8.
All in all I am satisfied with the program and the way it works.
As soon as possible I will also test my zoom lenses.
More information canbe found here: https://www.reikanfocal.com/
