50d micro AF adjustment test on Sparrows

I've been calibrating all my lenses with the micro af adjustment feature on the 50d. So far, the plastic fantastic (50mm MKII) needed +15, my 70-200mm +5, the 17-40mm -1 and my 400mm +12. The zooms may need further adjustment (except 17-40)as they are more difficult to calibrate, i.e adjusting the long end may put the short end out, so it's a balancing act.

I took these pics of the sparrows and robin through double glasing. I did not activate the high ISO noise reduction in camera as these were shot at 800-1250 ISO. I aslo did not use noise reduction in Canon's DPP software but instead used noise reduction from another program. I think I'll use in camera noise reduction from now on.

The Robin is a 100% crop, the other shots are cropped some as well.
The streaks on the images is rain.

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Some great shots there DJ

I haven't bothered with the af adjust on my d300... I would probably lose a few days on such 'tweaking'

oh they are stunning DJ and i love the second shot as it looks like the sun in the background (i know it not )
very sharp !

Admire the shots you have taken they are remarkable through a window. Have not a clue what you are talking about, sure it is important but goes right over my head.

Love the robin

My bird shots are also taken through double glazing , I tend to shoot slightly under exposed to compensate for the glare that you can sometimes get

Great pictures even for 'tests'. Why do you calibrate your lenses?

Thanks JR. I want to get the best out of my lenses and 50d body, and thankfully Canon has equipped the 50d with this feature. I was also curious to see if my lenses needed calibrated, and after lots of auto focus tests, I think they did. Here is a couple of images to let you see how the calibration changes work.

1st and 2nd image was taken with my 400mm mounted on my tripod and 5 sec delay used

1) set at 0, no calibration. focus point is red square.



2) calibration set at + 12



The first image above may have had a little camera shake, so I repeated these tests for a while, indoors and out untill I was satisfied the +12 adjustment on my 400mm was needed.
Here is another sample

1)calibration set at 0



2) calibration +12




I did more testing on b/w text documents as well.

Ahhhh..... now I see (said the blindman to the deaf faith healer) focus calibration. very swish!

Thanks for taking the trouble to demonstrate.

Waw....what a difference, especially on first photo...