Alternatives to Focus Tune for AF fine tune on Macs

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Gary Shackelford

Gary Shackelford

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Steve,

In your AF book for DSLRs, you have recommended Focus Tune software by Michael Tapes in conjunction with his LensAlign kit. Mr. Tapes has permanently discontinued development of Focus Tune software because of health issues <https://www.mtdhelp.com/hc/en-us/articles/360004720731--FocusTune-for-Mac-OS-Catalina-cancelled->. Focus Tune is no longer compatible with Mac OS Catalina and above because it is not 64-bit. From viewing your videos, I seem to recall that you are a Mac user. Could you share with your readers how your workflow has changed vis-à-vis AF fine tuning of DSLRs since Focus Tune is no longer an option?
 
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I'd like to hear Steve's answer too, but in the meantime I'll suggest still getting the LensAlign kit and using it to zero in on your desired fine tune settings manually, without software analysis. Just look at the test photos of the LensAlign target and decide for yourself which settings to use. You'll have much more confidence in the process this way.

For example I stuck the LensAlign kit on a desk near a window with natural mid-day sunlight falling on it, and then proceeded to take 3 shots each at -20, -10, 0, +10, +20 with the camera at an appropriate distance away for each lens. I also of course shot wide open the whole time.

For me it was important to do this inside because I found that any wind can really mess with reproduceability.

I then analyzed each set of shots and decided which new values to sample. For example, if +10 was the sharpest, I'd then do another round with +5, +8, +10, +12, +15. And so on and so forth.

This sounds tedious but it honestly really helps you understand the characteristics of your lens and how much these values actually effect front-focusing/back-focusing.

The LensAlign target is so great because it offers the slanted ruler that allows you to visually see your depth of field. Other tools, such as Reikan FoCal for example, require a target that does not offer this and really leaves you in the dark. Personally I stopped using Reikan FoCal because it could not produce consistent results and I didn't trust it. I'm very happy with my manual results using the LensAlign target.

Note that if you have a Nikon body you can combine the above manual technique with Nikon's auto fine-tune feature. Instead of trying the whole range of fine tune settings, start with its suggested fine tune setting and test a few values on each side of it. For example, if it suggests +8, try shooting +6, +7, +8, +9, +10 and viewing the results for yourself. Even if you decide the original +8 is the correct fine tune setting, you'll have much more confidence in it having viewed the different results for yourself.
 
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It all depends. First, I'll use the lens align target to see if there's actually a problem. If it's severe, then I'll go on to the steps I'll outline in a moment.

However, if it's a minor miss (or spot on) I'll usually go out and field test the lens to see if there's actually a problem. The thing is, a lens might slightly front or back focus at one distance and be fine at all or most of the other distances. I can't tell you the number of problems I see because people tuned a lens that didn't need it. I beg everyone reading this to field test their lenses first and see if there's actually a consistent front or back focus problem. Too often people blame the lens when it's really their technique. One hint is that if you see BOTH front and back focusing - that's never, ever, an problem related to lens tuning. If the lens is always front focusing or always back focusing, that's when it's time to turn to tuning techniques.

As for tuning, FoCal as mentioned above is great. Works really well and I do recommend it. However, in the AF book I also outline how to use Nikon's Auto AF fine tuning and if you have a camera that supports it, give that a try first using the method described in the book. That's worked really well for me.

You can also do what Brian suggests - just make manual adjustments using the Lens Align target and his method is really solid - you always want to take more than one shot at each setting since there is variance in the PDAF system.

All that said, in my experience, most lenses don't really need tuning. So, use with extreme caution :)
 
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