{"id":4708,"date":"2011-03-20T15:14:48","date_gmt":"2011-03-20T19:14:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/?p=4708"},"modified":"2011-03-20T15:14:48","modified_gmt":"2011-03-20T19:14:48","slug":"lens-align-mark-ii-and-homer-follow-ups","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/baa\/2011\/03\/20\/lens-align-mark-ii-and-homer-follow-ups\/","title":{"rendered":"Lens Align Mark II and Homer Follow-ups"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
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This image was created at 9:30 am in Kachemak Bay, AK on Saturday morning with the Canon 70-200mm f\/2.8L IS II with the 1.4X II TC (handheld at 280mm) and the EOS-1D MIV. ISO 400: 1\/2000 sec. at f\/5.6 confirmed by histogram check and set manually. Amazingly, it is a full frame vertical original. I was going for broke and got lucky; in the next frame, the wingtips at the top were clipped. For an interesting discussion of phase angle and to see how the folks on BPN helped me to improve this image, click here<\/a>. <\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

Lens Align Mark II and Homer Follow-ups<\/h3>\n

Folks are always asking how I get my images so sharp. In part, it is because I carefully micro-adjust my lenses every month. The day before I left for Homer I micro-adjusted both my 70-200mm and my 800 mm with the Lens Align Mark II. Once you get the hang of tethered-testing it usually takes only five or minutes at most to be confident of the accuracy of your results. To learn more about Lens Align Mark II and view the tutorial, click here<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Here are my current micro-adjustment settings:<\/p>\n

800mm alone with MIV #1: +1<\/p>\n

800mm with 1.4X III TC #1: +3<\/p>\n

800mm with the 2X III TC: 0 (See below for Lens Align Instructions when AF is not possible)<\/p>\n

70-200mm alone with MIV #2: +7<\/p>\n

70-200mm with 1.4X III TC #2: +5<\/p>\n

70-200mm with the 2X II TC: -4 (For some reason getting a consistent result for this combo took quite some time…) <\/p>\n

As I own two 2X TCs I have labeled them as #1 and #2. I use #1 with the 800, #2 with the 70-200. The camera bodies can tell the difference between a 1.4X and a 2X TC but they cannot identify individual 1.4X TCs as different so it is important to always use the same TC with a given lens after that combo has been micro-adjusted. <\/p>\n

In the comments here<\/a>, Fred Solis asked: <\/p>\n

“The Mark III doesn\u2019t autofocus in Live View. What procedure do you recommend in this case, please?”<\/p>\n

With camera bodies (or with lens\/TC combinations like the 800mm f\/5.6L IS\/2X) that do not autofocus in Live View the procedure is simple. Set everything up as usual, magnify to 5X, and then focus manually. With telephoto lenses sharp focus will snap into place. The simple proceed as before noting and adjusting for any back- or front-focus issues. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Same place and gear as above, this one at 9:02 am at 255mm. Though this one was created only 28 minutes before the vertical image above, note how much sweeter the light is. This has to do not only with the difference in the time of day but also with where I was pointing the lens in relation to the sun. In this image the light was much more behind me….<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

And Joe Herrick wrote: <\/p>\n

“You are quite specific about utilizing the Image Stabilization (IS) during the process. Could you elaborate why this should be done versus no IS? Without opening the whole argument about IS and it\u2019s behavior on a tripod, I have noticed a particular behavior with IS on my 7D. After the image is focused and I get the confirmatory beep, I then release the shutter button. It appears to me the IS disengages with a visible change in my image. I can notice the change through the viewfinder, on the camera view screen in live view mode, and when connected to the EOS Utilities. It appears the focus changes slightly? I tried alignment with the IS on and off. With IS on, during the alignment process the repeated calibration results were somewhat erratic. I had much more consistent results with IS off. Any suggestions would be welcomed.”<\/p>\n

Joe, sorry to have taken so long to get back to you on this. After several e-mail conversations with top Canon technical representative Chuck Westfall, he stated, “In some instances IS might affect focus and thus make the micro-adjustment results less consistent.”<\/p>\n

You will be glad to know Joe that my last round of micro-adjustments was done with IS turned off. Thanks for the heads up. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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This image was created from a drifting, rocking boat at 11:04 am yesterday with the Canon 800mm f\/5.6L IS lens, the 1.4X II TC, and the EOS-1D Mark IV. ISO 400. Evaluative metering at zero: 1\/1250 sec. at f\/8. The almost magical 4-stop IS of the 800 surely helped in this situation as did the recent micro-adjustment. <\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

Shopper’s Guide<\/h3>\n

Below is a list of the gear mentioned above. Thanks a stack to all who have used the Shopper’s Guide links to purchase their gear as a thank you for all the free information that we bring you on the Blog and in the Bulletins. Before you purchase anything be sure to check out the advice in our Shopper’s Guide<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Canon 70-200mm f\/2.8L IS II lens<\/a>. Man, I am loving this lens on my shoulder with the 2X III teleconverter<\/a>. I also use it a lot–depending on the situation–with the 1.4X III TC<\/a>.
\nCanon 800mm f\/5.L IS lens.<\/a> Right now this is my all time favorite super-telephoto lens.
\nCanon EF 1.4X III TC<\/a>. This new TC is designed to work best with the new Series II super-telephoto lenses.
\nCanon EF 2XIII teleconverter<\/a>. The new 2X III TC is a bit sharper than the previous version, the EF 2X II TC.
\nCanon EOS-1D Mark IV professional digital camera body.<\/a> The very best professional digital camera body that I have ever used.<\/p>\n

And from the BAA On-line Store:<\/p>\n

Gitzo 3530 LS Tripod.<\/a> This one will last you a lifetime.
\nMongoose M3.6 Tripod Head.<\/a> Right now this is the best tripod head around for use with lenses that weigh less than 9 pounds. For heavier lenses, check out the Wimberley V2 head<\/a>.
\nDouble Bubble Leve.l<\/a> You will find one in my camera’s hot shoe whenever I am on a tripod and not using flash.
\nDelkin 32gb e-Film Pro Compact Flash Card.<\/a> These high capacity cards are fast and dependable. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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This image was created at 9:30 am in Kachemak Bay, AK on Saturday morning with the Canon 70-200mm f\/2.8L IS II with the 1.4X II TC (handheld at 280mm) and the EOS-1D MIV. ISO 400: 1\/2000 sec. at f\/5.6 confirmed by histogram check and set manually. Amazingly, it is a full frame vertical […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[90],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4708","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-90","odd"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/baa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4708","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/baa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/baa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/baa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/baa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4708"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/baa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4708\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/baa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/baa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/baa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}