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Old March 14th, 2009, 01:41 AM   #1
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Accidently Adjusted Flange Focal Length

I accidentally ran the Flange Focal Length adjustment procedure on my ex3. I was hand holding the camera too, so I set the camera back to defaults, assuming this would fix the problem. I also re-loaded the lens properties.

How can I tell if I have stuffed something up? I am new to this flange thing. I normally use fixed lens cameras.
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Old March 14th, 2009, 01:52 AM   #2
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Just put the camea on a tripod and run the Auto FB Adjust again. You can download a test target from Free Charts. (The bottom left image)

Short of dropping your camera you can't realy mess things up
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Old March 14th, 2009, 02:10 AM   #3
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Cheers man - all these new features I'm learning do help to add to technological hypochondria, that I've messed something up.

Thanks for the link
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Old March 14th, 2009, 07:45 AM   #4
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Just curious, not being a ex3 owner, is this an automatic back focus adjustment?
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Old March 14th, 2009, 08:43 AM   #5
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Yes, with the standard lens and I believe the Fujinon wide angle, but not with other lenses. The whole operation takes about 30 seconds.
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Old April 22nd, 2009, 02:53 AM   #6
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could my back focus be wrong if the fixed focus ring position doesn't have as much range as the electronic?
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Old April 22nd, 2009, 03:15 AM   #7
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No. Switching in Macro only has an effect when the focus ring is forward, so if you have Macro selected you will find that it will focus closer in MF/AF than in Full MF.

Andy - on the EX3 the Auto FB procedure is in the user menus whilst on the EX1 it is a service menu item. There's a video at EX1 back focus demo on Vimeo showing how it is done.
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Old April 25th, 2009, 04:37 AM   #8
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The EX3 Manual is useless.

The manual never said whether I should start zoomed in or out. Anyway, I have heard some people aren't getting optimal focus with the Auto Flange Back test. I hope mine doesn't have this issue.
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Old April 25th, 2009, 07:45 AM   #9
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Glynn Morgan View Post
The manual never said whether I should start zoomed in or out. Anyway, I have heard some people aren't getting optimal focus with the Auto Flange Back test. I hope mine doesn't have this issue.
It will not make any difference - the zoom servo needs to be engaged and the procedure will zoom as required. Auto Flange Back seems to work well, but you need a good flat target at about 4 metres which pretty much fills the field of view at wide (it will struggle if it latches on to a target at a different distance, such as a closer obstruction or a reflection in a window). I use the back wall of the house, and set shutter speed to give a wide aperture and minimise DOF.

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Old April 25th, 2009, 10:10 AM   #10
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It says 3m in the manual, so I just measured that. Cool, thanks guys!
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Old May 22nd, 2009, 07:54 AM   #11
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I Re-adjusted it tonight.

I have a suspicion my FB Adjustment didn't work well. So I decided to run the test again tonight. My younger brother's room had 3 meters to spare, so I used that - could anyone tell me if these Wide and Tight focuses look correct?
Attached Thumbnails
Accidently Adjusted Flange Focal Length-fbw.bmp   Accidently Adjusted Flange Focal Length-fbt.bmp  

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Old May 22nd, 2009, 08:10 AM   #12
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Yes I would say those are in focus. Hard to tell from stills though.

The best way to tell is to set up a SDI or component monitor and look at that.

After auto adjustment is done. Zoom all the way in and if you change focus and fuzzyness in the middle gets smaller it is not right. Same thing if you zoom out.

Look to see if the fuzzy part in the middle changes, when it is the smallest it is in focus. Check this in middle zoom and all the way out.
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Old May 22nd, 2009, 08:19 AM   #13
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Yes, it looks OK to me. But your room looks one hell of a mess.
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Old May 22nd, 2009, 09:05 AM   #14
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hahaha you should have read my post about whose room that was. Cheers guys, bit of night time paranoia after reviewing my shots for the day.
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Old May 23rd, 2009, 12:22 AM   #15
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Did it with a screenshot halfway zoomed

I think these results are much better, it looked good on the viewfinder too.

What do you think?
Attached Thumbnails
Accidently Adjusted Flange Focal Length-bf-zoomed-.bmp   Accidently Adjusted Flange Focal Length-bf-zoomed-mid.bmp  

Accidently Adjusted Flange Focal Length-bf-zoomed-out.bmp  
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