WTB / WTT - Datacolor SpyderLensCal -

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dh photography

Senior Member
Hey all. Looking for the Spyderlenscal setup to do some lens calibrations. Anybody have one they've used and could part with? Or even loan out for a couple weeks? Just trying not to spend the $65 on a new one if I don't have to.

Thanks.
 
Horoscope Fish

Horoscope Fish

Senior Member
dh photography said:
Hey all. Looking for the Spyderlenscal setup to do some lens calibrations. Anybody have one they've used and could part with? Or even loan out for a couple weeks? Just trying not to spend the $65 on a new one if I don't have to.
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Hey David;

I have a Spyder I could part with for a while. Thing is, monitor calibration is not a one-time thing; to do it proper re-calibration needs to happen on an ongoing basis.

Still, if you want to give it a whirl, I'd be more than happy to ship mine off to you for as long as you need it.
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dh photography

Senior Member
Hey, Paul. Thanks man!

I'm sure you meant to type lens calibration instead of monitor ... right? How often are you recalibration your lenses? If it's something I should probably be doing on a monthly or even quarterly schedule? If that's the case, I'll just go ahead and spring for one. How well do you like the Spyderlenscal? Given you pretty accurate results? I'm guessing so, given the quality of all the shots I see from you. I've been lazy and cheap up til now by not doing it at all.
 
Horoscope Fish

Horoscope Fish

Senior Member
dh photography said:
Hey, Paul. Thanks man!

I'm sure you meant to type lens calibration instead of monitor ... right? How often are you recalibration your lenses? If it's something I should probably be doing on a monthly or even quarterly schedule? If that's the case, I'll just go ahead and spring for one. How well do you like the Spyderlenscal? Given you pretty accurate results? I'm guessing so, given the quality of all the shots I see from you. I've been lazy and cheap up til now by not doing it at all.
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Whoops... My bad. I thought you meant the Spyder display calibration... For Lens Calibration I use FoCal. Sorry for the screwup!
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ScottinPollock

Banned
$65!!! I am in the wrong business.

You realize you can make one of these using your printer, some foam board, and some hot glue, right? Or, just use a good, high contrast ruler on a flat surface, focusing at one line on it with the camera at a 30-45 degree angle to that surface.
 
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dh photography

Senior Member
ScottinPollock said:
$65!!! I am in the wrong business.

You realize you can make one of these using your printer, some foam board, and some hot glue, right? Or, just use a good, high contrast ruler on a flat surface, focusing at one line on it with the camera at a 30-45 degree angle to that surface.
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You know what? You're absolutely right!! So .......

DAH_5904.jpg

:cool:
 
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dh photography

Senior Member
Don Kuykendall said:
Reikan FoCal Automatic Lens Calibration Software - Fully Automatic Lens Calibration and Camera ToolsReikan FoCal Automatic Lens Calibration Software is the way to go for lens tuning. It got mine so close and really made a big difference in how good my shots looked. I have used it on three different cameras now. A D7000, D7100 and a D7200(A friends)
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Thanks, Don. I've looked at the FoCal a couple of times, but have always backed away from the BUY button.

I tried out my new toy a little, but wasn't all that thrilled. When set up with my 400mm, it was hard to see the ruler marks without cropping in so far that it started to look pixelated. I was set up about 15 feet away. Maybe too far?

Since I'm looking at upgrading to a D7200 soon and maybe the new 200-500 lens, I'll probably need to bite the bullet and go for the FoCal.
 
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dh photography

Senior Member
Don Kuykendall said:
I am a firm believer that you should tune a lens at the distances you actually use it. It does make a difference


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[MENTION=6277]Don Kuykendall[/MENTION]

how far from target are you when you tuned your 300mm? I'd normally be shooting birds and such anywhere from 20-100 ft, but would that be where I'd want my calibration target? bear with me as I've never tackled this before. Thx!!
 
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mikew_RIP

Senior Member
Not saying ime right but i tuned my 150-600 at the closest i was likley to use it and at its wides aperture at 600mm, as that gives the shallowest DOF,any other combination will have more DOF to help it,it worked for me.
 
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Don Kuykendall_RIP

RIP :(
dh photography said:
[MENTION=6277]Don Kuykendall[/MENTION]

how far from target are you when you tuned your 300mm? I'd normally be shooting birds and such anywhere from 20-100 ft, but would that be where I'd want my calibration target? bear with me as I've never tackled this before. Thx!!
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No , that would be to far away for the computer to get a good lock on the target. I use 50 times the longest zoom. So 50X300 mm and that is the distance I use.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
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dh photography

Senior Member
Don Kuykendall said:
No , that would be to far away for the computer to get a good lock on the target. I use 50 times the longest zoom. So 50X300 mm and that is the distance I use.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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Guess it's been a long week, because I'm still confused. Isn't 15000mm still 49.125 ft? Or is the distance something you just set the program to? I'm just trying to figure out how far to physically set up my tripod/camera from the target. I'm slow today. This shouldn't be this hard. LoL.
 
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Don Kuykendall_RIP

RIP :(
dh photography said:
Ok cool! Thought I was just reading you wrong at first. Just asked the misses for FoCal on my birthday in a couple weeks!! 

Thanks for all the help, Don & Mike!!
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With my old eyes I had lots of trouble seeing the difference in focus by looking at the camera so always had to move to the computer and even then I could not tell the difference in -2 and +2 so although it would look good where I ended up it was never exactly right. The FoCal lets me get it a lot closer a lot faster. I always set mine up first and then shoot with it for a while while looking critically at the performance of the fine tune to see if it is where I think it should be. After a couple of month I will sit down and run it again just to see how close it is.

One tip on printing the target. I went to Office Depot and bought a pack of high quality Matte printing photo paper and use it to print. I don't have to worry about glare this way. I also went to Office Depot and got a sheet of Self-Adhesive Foam Board to mount the print on. This makes sure you have a perfectly flat target and really helps. I just store the target away so I don't have to worry about reprinting it every time I need to use it.
 
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