Tuesday 1 February 2011

Lens Align MK2

Going abroad especially if its a long way away like Japan is for me takes some preparation, Not just in reseach for times of year,places to visit,stay and eat but also in your kit, You dont want to travel 6000 miles and find that you have either left something behind or that something is not working as it should, Last week i decided to purchased a Lens Align MK2, These are a new and version of the Lens Align system, Basically its a target with a ruler attached, You focus on the target at maximum aperture and take a shot, Look at the ruler and it show if you lens is focused properly or if it front or back focuses, If it is front or back focused you can adjust it with modern day cameras that have the micro adjust feature, I have never advised that people play with this feature before as i have always taken it that its for emergency use only, i.e you drop your camera whilst away and it will get you through until you can send it in, But it seems that attitudes have changed and if you lens is only out a few degrees then this is as good a way of sorting the problem than sending it in and paying for it to be adjusted my Canon or Nikon, Its nice to be able to send all your kit away and get it all properly calibrated on the bench for piece of mind but it costs an arm and a leg especially in postage plus the time without all your gear, Last night i had my first chance since getting it to have a play,It was evening and after a quick plat it looked like my D7000 with 70-200 was well out of kilter, i decided to have another go today in daylight and it proved that the low light last night was the problem and today its focus is bang on, There are a few tutorials around so i will link those rather than trying to explain it my self, Lens align has some good videos that show end to end how to do it and its easy if not a little time consuming, Canon users have a great benefit of being able to check the focusing whilst tethered-see Arthur Morris here for details whilst the rest of us could purchase the tethered programmed from Breeze systems here, $80 may seem a lot of money for some snap together cardboard but the first time you use it you will have gotten your money back and have the satisfaction of knowing that your focus system is bang on, I now have a full days testing ahead of me with 2 bodies and 3 long lenses plus 2 extenders, I will let you know the results next time

Dave 

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