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Why Micro adjust lenses?

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    Why Micro adjust lenses?

    I have noticed some recent posts mentioning micro adjusting lenses to get a sharp image. I have never found the need to micro adjust any of my CANON lenses as the images are quite sharp even when used with a Kenko 1.4 TC. I do not know whether this adjustment is necessary esp for long telephone lenses or whether this is something that needs to be done,on and off, with third party, long lenses? I would have thought that when you buy a Canon lens, the manufacturer ensures that the images are as sharp as possible.
    Canon 6D; Canon 760D;Canon G15;Canon 40mm f2.8(Pancake);Canon 50mm f1.8(ii); Canon 17mm-40mm f4L;Canon EF-S 10-18mm f4.5-5.6 IS STM;Canon EF-S 55-250mm f4-5.6 STM lens;Canon 24mm-105mmf4L IS;Canon 70-300mm f4-f5.6 L IS USM;Kenko 1.4x HD TC;Canon 430EX ii flash;Giottos tripod;Manfretto monopod;Cokin P filters + bits and pieces!

    www.flickr.com/photos/nathaniel3390

    North Wales where music and the sea give a great concert!

    #2
    Re: Why Micro adjust lenses?

    I think the defining statement there nat is " have never found the need" your obviously happy with your results and think that its perfect ,others might well shoot with a identical rig and not be 100% happy with there results .
    cameras and lenses are built to very very fine tolerance levels if either through the engineering or wear through age those tolerances vary then its a ideal situation to be able to do it yourself .hence CANONS addition of a micro adjust system in some of there higher end cameras ,a few years ago you had to send both your camera and your lens back to either canon, or sigma for them to be paired up in the workshop ,these days its simple to do it yourself.
    its not a option to be taken lightly either your" if it aint broke don't fix it" attitude is a good one to have .only do it if your capable but as with most settings its easily fixed by re-setting to zero .
    its exactly the same argument in fact as do I clean my sensor myself for a few pounds outlay or send it back to canon ,or take it to a shop and hope they do it right .its entirely your choice as to which you as the owner decide to do

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      #3
      Re: Why Micro adjust lenses?

      you buy a Canon lens, the manufacturer ensures that the images are as sharp as possible
      That's not really correct, lenses are made to within a certain specification, which might be say within 5% of perfect, it would cost a fortune to make every one perfect.. Some Canon lenses are notorious for often needing microadjustment, e.g the 135 mm F2 L and the 50mm and 85 mm F1.2 L. The largest apertures are on the most expensive lenses and so, perhaps surprisingly, those are the ones that most often need adjustment.

      As noted before, it's only an issue if you are shooting either with large aperture lenses wide open (F1.2,F1.4, F1.8, F2, F2.8) or with very long telephotos, such as the 600 mm that Jeff often uses. In most cases, where you use F4, 5.6, 8, 11, it won't be an issues as the depth of field is so great that any minor focussing errors are not visible. It's only where the depth of field is a few centimetres that it can be noticed.

      For most people in most cases it isn't an issue, whatever lens they use. However, I do think sometimes people blame it for their problems when there is really another issue.

      It's also important to remember that the problem is just as likely to be with the body as the lens. The 50D, which I bought used. needs the same amount of adjustment for all lenses. It could possibly be that a previous owner dropped it or knocked it and caused some misalignment. It's easy to give a camera a bash, look at it and think it looks OK, but the precisely aligned internal parts can be slightly moved by some tiny fraction of a millimetre which is enough to cause potential problems.
      EOS 6D, 6D Mk II, 80D, 70D, 100D, 200D, M50, M100. Canon 10-18, 18 - 55, 55 - 250 IS STM lenses, Canon 16 - 35 mm F4L, 35 mm EF-S macro, 50 mm F1.8 STM, 60 mm EF-S macro, MPE-65 macro, 85 mm F1.8, 200 mm F2.8 L II, M 15 - 45 mm, M 22mm F2, M 32mm F1.4. Sigma 24 - 35 F2 Art, 135 mm F1.8 Art, 17 - 50 F2.8 DC, 105 mm OS macro, 100 - 400 C, 150 - 600 C.

      Comment


        #4
        Re: Why Micro adjust lenses?

        Thanks for your comments guys. I thought I might mention that I regularly shoot at 672mm "length"- 70-300mm set at 300mm Plus 1.4 TC plus of course the crop factor of 1.6, when I photograph wildlife esp birds, and the images are quite sharp.
        Canon 6D; Canon 760D;Canon G15;Canon 40mm f2.8(Pancake);Canon 50mm f1.8(ii); Canon 17mm-40mm f4L;Canon EF-S 10-18mm f4.5-5.6 IS STM;Canon EF-S 55-250mm f4-5.6 STM lens;Canon 24mm-105mmf4L IS;Canon 70-300mm f4-f5.6 L IS USM;Kenko 1.4x HD TC;Canon 430EX ii flash;Giottos tripod;Manfretto monopod;Cokin P filters + bits and pieces!

        www.flickr.com/photos/nathaniel3390

        North Wales where music and the sea give a great concert!

        Comment


          #5
          Re: Why Micro adjust lenses?

          In most cases, worrying about af microadjustment is "much ado about nothing". Fiddling about with it for no good reason can easily make things worse. I only tested some of my body/lens combinations last winter because there was nothing else to do in some miserable weather, which is when I discovered the problem with the 50D. As this camera is almost only used indoors, with live view and manual focus, it's pretty irrelevant in practice.

          I think one reason the issue is more widely discussed these days is because of higher resolution cameras. Quite a few people have discovered that the lenses they have been happily using with the 5D3, for example, can't cope with the very high resolution of the 5DSR, minor problems are greatly magnified. And some people seem to spend their whole lives "pixel peeping".
          EOS 6D, 6D Mk II, 80D, 70D, 100D, 200D, M50, M100. Canon 10-18, 18 - 55, 55 - 250 IS STM lenses, Canon 16 - 35 mm F4L, 35 mm EF-S macro, 50 mm F1.8 STM, 60 mm EF-S macro, MPE-65 macro, 85 mm F1.8, 200 mm F2.8 L II, M 15 - 45 mm, M 22mm F2, M 32mm F1.4. Sigma 24 - 35 F2 Art, 135 mm F1.8 Art, 17 - 50 F2.8 DC, 105 mm OS macro, 100 - 400 C, 150 - 600 C.

          Comment


            #6
            Re: Why Micro adjust lenses?

            I may be totally wrong in my assumptions but I have noticed this case of micro adjust issues being raised here, on and off, with third party lenses on Canon bodies. Something wrong somewhere or is Canon trying to be smart by adding some chips here and there to prevent the use of third party lenses on their bodies????
            Canon 6D; Canon 760D;Canon G15;Canon 40mm f2.8(Pancake);Canon 50mm f1.8(ii); Canon 17mm-40mm f4L;Canon EF-S 10-18mm f4.5-5.6 IS STM;Canon EF-S 55-250mm f4-5.6 STM lens;Canon 24mm-105mmf4L IS;Canon 70-300mm f4-f5.6 L IS USM;Kenko 1.4x HD TC;Canon 430EX ii flash;Giottos tripod;Manfretto monopod;Cokin P filters + bits and pieces!

            www.flickr.com/photos/nathaniel3390

            North Wales where music and the sea give a great concert!

            Comment


              #7
              Re: Why Micro adjust lenses?

              Nat, I read things on a lot of forums which test lenses and I don't think there's any difference in terms of needing microadjustment between different makes, it's just that some lenses seem more prone than others, whoever the manufacturer.

              HOWEVER, it does seem that autofocus speed does differ, apparently this is because "Canon knows things about the autofocus mechanism that other manufacturers don't". So, for example, in the comparison reviews between the Sigma 100 - 400C (which I bought) and the Canon 100- 400 L IS II (which costs twice as much) there was no real difference in image quality, but the Canon focussed much faster, and that seems to be a common trend, Canon faster than third party. Third party lenses often "hunt" more, backwards and forwards until they fix focus. But even the very best lenses slightly miss focus occasionally, 95% success is rated as excellent.

              Another factor is focus point, when tested many lenses apparently focus much more quickly and accurately with the centre point than with others, even if all of the focus points are said to be the same type.
              EOS 6D, 6D Mk II, 80D, 70D, 100D, 200D, M50, M100. Canon 10-18, 18 - 55, 55 - 250 IS STM lenses, Canon 16 - 35 mm F4L, 35 mm EF-S macro, 50 mm F1.8 STM, 60 mm EF-S macro, MPE-65 macro, 85 mm F1.8, 200 mm F2.8 L II, M 15 - 45 mm, M 22mm F2, M 32mm F1.4. Sigma 24 - 35 F2 Art, 135 mm F1.8 Art, 17 - 50 F2.8 DC, 105 mm OS macro, 100 - 400 C, 150 - 600 C.

              Comment


                #8
                Re: Why Micro adjust lenses?

                Maybe I have been lucky but I have never needed to micro adjust any of my lenses, whether they be Canon or Third Party
                Stan - LRPS, CPAGB, BPE2*

                http://neptuno-photography.foliopic.com/
                flickr

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                  #9
                  Re: Why Micro adjust lenses?

                  nat another MAJOR misconception on your part ,your adding the crop factor of your sensor into the formula ,and it makes complete rubbish of it .your shooting with a 300mm lens and a 1.4 tc which equals a native 420mm ,thats it .to see the TRUE crop factor simply look at your EXIF data it will tell you .
                  when I put a 1.4tc on my at 600mm it becomes a 840mm lens thats it .and as Richard so rightly points out I didn't notice a "m.a problem" till I started shooting at longer ranges where depth of field comes into play to ,hence my using the roof tiles over the road as my mid range M.A adjustment ,when you do m.a you do it with the lens wide open so any D.O.F will be superior when stopped down .

                  another point that I will raise here is that as you aware I'm a fiddler I like to make adjustments sometimes simply because I can ,yesterday and this morning I was on the verge of sending my 1D4 back to canon because I was convinced there was a problem with the autofocus as I have been missing far to many shots ,even to the point of trying the lens with the 7d this morning to see if that improved things it didn't .so read a bit more inter web advice and one chap said do a factory reset ,which I did guess what its cured it god only knows what I altered but I surely did .so a final warning .

                  BE AWARE OF THE LOOSE NUT AT THE REAR OF THE CAMERA .IT CAN BE DANGEROUS

                  one from this afternoon after re-set ,says it all really
                  to many options by jeff and jan cohen, on Flickr
                  Last edited by the black fox; 30-10-2017, 15:41.

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