
Thank you for the mention as it truly represents and rewards months of hard work and lots of bumps in the middle. This was also an inspiration to maintain and keep going the Lighting Mods blog.
Hope you all have a wonderful New Year's Day!!
You can follow all other brilliant sites and blogs about photography matters at the Photography Colleges blog.
And since this will be the last post of 2008 I also would like to share with you this great piece of equipment that could make your dreams come true regarding the lens focusing problems you may have...

What does this thing do, you may ask?

Note: LensAlign can test and display back/front focus on almost all cameras. However, auto-focus calibration requires that the camera body has an AF micro-adjustment feature.
Cameras with micro-adjustment currently include:
* Canon 1D MarkIV, 1D MarkIII, 1DsMkIII, 5DII, 50D
* Nikon D3s, D3, D3x, D300, D700
* Sony A900
* Pentax K20
And since I do own one of these complete packages I can tell you that it's worth every penny and you will always have your lens calibrated the way you want them.
You can find more full details and reviews on the links below:
* Imaging Resource
* Jeffrey Friedl (Creator of The AutoFocus Test Chart in 2007)
* CanonPhotoGroup.com (Adam Jay)
* Luminous Landscape
* Lens Align Documentation and Videos
Press Release
RawWorkflow unveils LensAlign™ for managing back and front focus issues
The remarkable LensAlign Focus Calibration System from RawWorkFlow.com provides a unique and precision tool for testing cameras for front or back-focus problems when using “fast glass” (lenses with aperture openings of f4 or larger). Owners of today’s sophisticated DSLRs and modern lenses are quite aware of the potential front/back focus problem but, prior to LensAlign, have lacked access to a proper testing methodology. Without confirmation of proper AF operation, a purchaser of new or used equipment has no idea if it is working to its full potential. With LensAlign, a new lens purchase can be verified on one or more camera bodies from the photographer’s arsenal.
Release of LensAlign also coincides with the camera makers’ subtle but real acknowledgement of back/front focus problems. Beginning with Canon Mark III Series 1 cameras, almost all professional and enthusiast DSLRs are now equipped with an AF Microadjustment function that allows the camera body or individual lenses to be calibrated and focus problem neutralized. Yet to date no official calibration procedures have been announced by any of the leading camera makers. The release of LensAlign provides camera makers with a universal reference upon which to base at least one calibration procedure. Although LensAlign is not yet officially endorsed by manufacturer, Canon US and other camera makers have been kept in the loop during its development, and their feedback was implemented within its innovative design.
“In conceiving LensAlign, it occurred to me that there was no good way to communicate the range of focus problems that were being widely reported,” offers RawWorkFlow.com founder Michael Tapes. “Photographers could post test images, but they lack a common reference from which the performance of the camera or lens could be judged. I hope that LensAlign becomes that common reference, allowing specific camera/lens combinations to be profiled for their auto-focus performance. We plan to create a database of LensAlign images from camera/lens combinations so that a perspective buyer or new owner can compare the results that they get from their equipment against a profile of performance images stored in our database. Since there is no specific specification parameter for auto-focus, the best way to determine if equipment is offering its full potential is to compare it with identical camera/lens combinations being used by others.”


“Even photographers who focus manually can benefit from the regular use of LensAlign,” Tapes considers. “While not as complex as the AF system, manual focusing of DSLRs or rangefinder cameras utilizes a separate light path than the capture, which is the primary cause of the focusing problem.”
LensAlign ships with a companion DVD tutorial series and is available on-line from RawWorkflow.com for $179.00 (Pro), The Pro Plus with a Long Ruler for $249.00 and $79.95 (Lite) and they also have the Long Ruler sold separately for $99.00, plus shipping. Because of the portable nature of the LensAlign Lite design, it is well suited for international purchase and is shipped in a Flat Rate postal envelope to minimize shipping costs outside of the US.
5 comments:
Many thanks for sharing this. Probably I'll consider buying it when I'll upgrade my Nikon D200 to a D300 or D400.
Happy New Year to you and your family.
Congrats on the nomination/award. How about a link to the site for those of us not familiar with that list?
Skavoovie here goes the link.
http://www.photography-colleges.org/
And thanks for the comment.
is this really a 139$-two-cardboard-sheets-set? O_o
Marcelo
good post. FYI, the olympus e-620 and e-30 both offer lens af adjustment.
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