Suggested 35 Mm Sigma Art Settings for Dock With Nikon D750

Here'southward a (semi) fun way to outset the yr off correct – it's time to calibrate the focus of your lenses!

Most DSLRs offer options for "micro adjustment" or to "fine tune" the focus of attached lenses. If you happen to use Sigma ART serial lenses, you lot tin also use Sigma's USB Dock for fifty-fifty more refined lens focus calibrations.

Why Y'all Should Calibrate The Focus on Your Lenses

All lenses have some tolerance built into the manufacturing process, so not every lens focuses exactly the same.

With modern high megapixel cameras even a slight front or back focus can be the deviation between a usable image and a decline.

At present, if you're a mural photographer who photographs everything at f/16, you're probably not going to notice it your lens' focus is slightly off.

All the same, if for example you are a portrait photographer who has invested in a set of prime lenses and yous almost always photograph your subjects between f/one.4 and f/two.viii – you definitely want to brand sure that your lens' focus is blindside on – because at f/ane.four the difference between your subject's eye beingness in focus versus their eyelashes is a big problem.

Having said that, the merely lens I have e'er owned that has had a major focus scale issue was a Nikon 50mm f/one.4. Every other lens has been reasonably calibrated.

But as I am now using a set of Sigma ART lenses for the bulk of my work, and especially with the new Sigma ART 85mm, I am using f/1.4 more than ever earlier and with that narrow of a depth of field, I am noticing subtle focus errors more than and more often.

Step 1: download your own DIY lens focus calibration target

You tin can download a PDF lens focus calibration target hither.

This target was originally created by Toronto fitness photographer David Liang.

Assembly is pretty cocky explanatory, you lot basically stick the target to a piece of foam cadre using a mucilage stick or ii sided tape, cut information technology out and match the tabs (I used a glue gun to secure the pieces) and so insert pins or straightened paperclips as the specified locations to hold the ruler in identify.

If you lot want to become fancy, y'all could also glue a spare quick release to the bottom to make for speedy mounting on a tripod, and add a small bubble level to the meridian.

(David as well wrote a more detailed caption on how to assemble the target here.)

I of import point – the scale of the ruler doesn't really matter since the goal is to merely suit our lenses equally required to focus exactly at the target focus aeroplane. But the location where the ruler bisects the target focus aeroplane does matter: depending on where yous stick the pins in the foamcore, zero on the ruler may or may not exactly line up with the target focus plane. If zilch on the ruler and the target focus plane do not exactly line up, but utilise the line on the ruler that does exactly line up – or brand a new mark on the ruler with a fine pen.

If you'd prefer a commercially bachelor option, yous can purchase a Datacolor SpyderLensCal Autofocus Calibration Aid ($64 from B&H).

Step 2: calibrate your lenses – for non-sigma ART lenses

Here is a great video from B&H that explains the procedure for calibrating your lenses using the Datacolor SpyderLensCal Autofocus Calibration Aid, and you can use the exact same process using your DIY lens focus scale target.

A few fundamental points to retrieve:

1. The camera should not be closer than l times the focal length, except for with telephoto lenses longer than 200mm where yous should set the camera 25 times the focal length away from the target.
2. This type of lens focus calibration is actually but practical for prime lenses.

Later on that the basic procedure is just to take examination photos and arrange the focus equally required.

Pace ii: calibrate your lenses – for sigma ART lenses

Showtime, you'll need a Sigma USB Dock and if you haven't already, download and install the Sigma Optimization Pro software (available here).

Here is a video from Sigma that explains how to employ the Sigma USB Dock and Optimization Pro software to calibrate the focus of your Sigma lenses.

And here is some other tutorial video that takes yous through the entire lens focus scale procedure for a Sigma lens, using a lens calibration target.

Here is Stocksy United photographer Luca Pierro's process for calibrating the focus of his Sigma lenses (simply the procedure could easily be adapted to all brands as well):

Setup

• Photographic camera on tripod
• I set up the camera at 1.four/160 ISO 100.
• I pointed a calorie-free directly on the focus target (and then I didn't use the MLU function)ii. Focus

Focus

I pointed the eye focus point to the center of the target, perfectly perpendicular to the sensor.
(I likewise used a tape measure out to measure the different distances because you have four different distances to set. To measure in the right mode, look for the focal plane marking symbol on the camera and showtime measuring from that point.)

Aligning

In club to do the adjustments, you lot demand to follow these steps:

1. Accept a shot setting the camera as described at point ane
2. Remove the SD carte du jour and open the prototype in Photographic camera Raw, Span, LR or wherever you can zoom in (or shoot tethered).
3. Bank check the image at 200% to see if the focus on the ruler of the focus target is on the 0. Because it is at 200% don't utilise the definition as a measurement. Instead utilize the chromatic aberration. So, if the 0 is green, the iii is purple and the 1 or the number ii is blackness, this ways that you have some front focusing.
4. Remove the lens without touching the tripod and attach the lens to the USB dock.
5. Open up the SIGMA software and add a + i or a +2.
6. Re-adhere the lens to the camera, insert back the SD and take a second shot.

It looks complicated only actually information technology is a pretty direct forward process.

Results are astonishing. I have two new lenses now!

And a few notes about setting in photographic camera adjustments:

I set the "on camera" adjustments at zip. The Nikon focus adjustments tool is nice simply yous can set only Ane adjustment per lens. With the Sigma USB dock you can set iv unlike adjustments (at unlike distances). The Sigma USB dock is another world because the lens performs totally different as the distance with the discipline modify.

Calibrate The Focus Of Your Lenses!

Have you lot calibrated the focus of your lenses? Did you observe a big difference in paradigm quality? It information technology worth the try?

Leave a comment below and let us know!

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