On this video photographer Toby Gelston takes a look at how you can improve the focusing accuracy of your camera using a special automatic calibration software.
Although there can be many reasons why your focus isn’t perfect (shutter speed not fast enough, the target moved just before the shot, you moved etc.), one which is less common but can be there regardless of your shooting settings and conditions is camera-lens calibrations.
In the video Gelston tries to give a basic explanation of how the AF system works in a DSLR but what is more important is that more advanced cameras mid-range and pro cameras from both Nikon and Canon – allow you to change – or actually fix the calibration of a specific lens on your camera.
You can do this micro-calibration on your own by hand or – as Gelston explains in this video – you can get a software – called FoCal Pro – that will do this for you (automatically or semi-automatically – depending on the model of your camera).
This can save time and effort and theoretically be more accurate (we didn’t try this ourselves so we can’t really comment on accuracy).
What Gelston fails to mention (and we think he should have) is that FoCal Pro cost money – and actually quite a bit of money for that matter – $135 (there are less expensive versions starting from around $30 for the FoCal Standard but they are limited and don’t offer the same automatic calibration features as the Pro version).
You can check out many more helpful photography tips on our Photography tips section and if you liked Gelston’s video you can find more from him on this page on LensVid.
Iddo Genuth 
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