Who uses AF fine tune? calibrating lenses

I recently bought an 85mm 1.8D after selling my 85 1.4 AIS. I noticed there was a focusing misalignment. played with it a bit by shooting a pickle jar and just gave a bit of correction in the camera. but this is a very halfass way of doing it.

was looking at the lens align tool (I have no idea what others comparable tools there are, so if you know, post them please)

so is there so much of a misalignment on lenses? how common is it? what have you used? if you didnt align any, please say so. Im curious of those who did and didnt so post what you think.

rocketman122 said:

I recently bought an 85mm 1.8D after selling my 85 1.4 AIS. I noticed there was a focusing misalignment. played with it a bit by shooting a pickle jar and just gave a bit of correction in the camera. but this is a very halfass way of doing it.

was looking at the lens align tool (I have no idea what others comparable tools there are, so if you know, post them please)

so is there so much of a misalignment on lenses? how common is it? what have you used? if you didnt align any, please say so. Im curious of those who did and didnt so post what you think.

Click to expand...

It is common to need to fine tune lenses. I had to send my D800 and 70-200 with TC back to Nikon as it was beyond tuning.

I bought the Reiken Focal software to take the subjectivity out of the process. It seems to work quite well. Others use the lens align product.

A couple of things to note. Firstly, if you have a zoom and get it spot on at the widest or longest zoom, it will not be tuned at the other end. You ideally need multiple settings for a zoom and Nikon doesn't provide it. I believe Canon does. I tend to choose mid to long on a zoom as the depth of filed reduces with focal length. If it's something like a 70-300 zoom you probably bought it for the long end mainly anyway.

Secondly, the lens will be tuned to the camera/subject distance you tested it so try testing at a common distance. This really got me when I started looking at tuning. I would get it perfect a 6' and then it was off at 2'. Some people actually tune various distances noting the fine tune numbers and then input them as they use it. I don't do that.

The points above are pronounced at wide apertures as the depth of field is thin, particularly on full frame cameras. You can't do anything about it, it's just useful to know or you'll think you're going mad.