Nikon AF Fine Tune
Discussion
Just tried this tonight, in prep for going away. It's amasing!
Started off with the 50mm F1.8. Never got 100% sharp results before, which I had put down to the shallow depth of field and simply not getting the focus point correct (usually the AF point on the end of the nose...), but after tuning the results are so much sharper. I have to say after doing the "before" shot, then tuning and taking an "after" shot I did swear quite a bit...
I bascially set up a matt ruler at 45' about a 4 foot from the lens ( I figured I usually shoot fairly close, and the focus is most critical close up). Locked down exposure and flash (both on manual). Turned off in camera sharpening. Tripod and remote release. lenses set wide open.
Few things I found:
- You have to defocus the lens between shots, otherwise the AF doesn't engage, and nothing changes when you take an image!
- It can be really hard to see where you are, okay with the F1.8, when I tried the F2.8 17-50mm, was quite tricky to see the difference. Gunna try the 10-20 soon, telling any difference will be tricky, but then it's less critical.
- I've set the D300 up to zoom to medium on the centre press of the AF are selector - saves lots of time zooming! also have rear scroll wheel set to scroll between images (don't know why it isn't like this by default!), that way you can scroll between images at max zoom, makes for easy comparison.
Had to set the 50mm F1.8 to +20, the 17-50mm to +11, need to do the other lenses, but me back was killing me from leaning over the camera for an hour!
Really worth a try, and you can always reset it if you don't get the results you want.
In general I'm loving the D300 - esp. the AF. The face detection is pretty damn good, gets the eyes in focus and everything. Only taken a couple of hundred shots so far, but very impressed. Theres a few complaints about this, but I think that's cos it has to be in the right mode for it to work, and people don't realise this... Less convinced with the meter, the D80's matrix meter was brilliant, I hardly ever had to compensate for it, even in extreme lighting conditions. The D300's meter seems less reliable, and likes to expose for skies and backgrounds. That said it's early days, and there's lots of "bonding" to be done before I can be too sure of anything.
Started off with the 50mm F1.8. Never got 100% sharp results before, which I had put down to the shallow depth of field and simply not getting the focus point correct (usually the AF point on the end of the nose...), but after tuning the results are so much sharper. I have to say after doing the "before" shot, then tuning and taking an "after" shot I did swear quite a bit...
I bascially set up a matt ruler at 45' about a 4 foot from the lens ( I figured I usually shoot fairly close, and the focus is most critical close up). Locked down exposure and flash (both on manual). Turned off in camera sharpening. Tripod and remote release. lenses set wide open.
Few things I found:
- You have to defocus the lens between shots, otherwise the AF doesn't engage, and nothing changes when you take an image!
- It can be really hard to see where you are, okay with the F1.8, when I tried the F2.8 17-50mm, was quite tricky to see the difference. Gunna try the 10-20 soon, telling any difference will be tricky, but then it's less critical.
- I've set the D300 up to zoom to medium on the centre press of the AF are selector - saves lots of time zooming! also have rear scroll wheel set to scroll between images (don't know why it isn't like this by default!), that way you can scroll between images at max zoom, makes for easy comparison.
Had to set the 50mm F1.8 to +20, the 17-50mm to +11, need to do the other lenses, but me back was killing me from leaning over the camera for an hour!
Really worth a try, and you can always reset it if you don't get the results you want.
In general I'm loving the D300 - esp. the AF. The face detection is pretty damn good, gets the eyes in focus and everything. Only taken a couple of hundred shots so far, but very impressed. Theres a few complaints about this, but I think that's cos it has to be in the right mode for it to work, and people don't realise this... Less convinced with the meter, the D80's matrix meter was brilliant, I hardly ever had to compensate for it, even in extreme lighting conditions. The D300's meter seems less reliable, and likes to expose for skies and backgrounds. That said it's early days, and there's lots of "bonding" to be done before I can be too sure of anything.
VxDuncan said:
also have rear scroll wheel set to scroll between images (don't know why it isn't like this by default!), that way you can scroll between images at max zoom, makes for easy comparison.
You can do that regardless of how the rear command dial is set 
NB: Do your 'fine tuned' lenses work equally well at longer distances?
Edited by Simpo Two on Sunday 12th October 23:34
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