[Deimos]

I'm relatively new to digital photography and have read the comments in this thread with puzzlement. I thought that after you stick a lens on your camera the auto, or manual, focus procedure will give you the sharpest picture. Are you folks saying that I have to calibrate each lens I use to the camera to get the sharpest picture?

There are some variances between lenses and camera bodies which mean that some lenses need an AF adjustment (a very very minor one) to be dead on accurate (especially noticeable on fast lenses with thin DOF like f1.4)

With the K-5 it can remember the AF adjust settings for a variety of lenses so you only need to set it once per lens. Other bodies can only do one lens at a time or not at all.

For manual focus this has no bearing, except maybe if you use the focus lights or catch-in-focus

[Anvh]

I'm relatively new to digital photography and have read the comments in this thread with puzzlement. I thought that after you stick a lens on your camera the auto, or manual, focus procedure will give you the sharpest picture. Are you folks saying that I have to calibrate each lens I use to the camera to get the sharpest picture?

Yep but we are talking in micrometers here that's about 0.000039 inches just to give you an idea how precise it needs to be.


just read that the wavelength of infared is actually measured in micrometers

[psoo]

Some lenses are pretty spot on with focus without adjustment. Some lenses need minor adjustment, and may not matter. Some lenses may need large adjustments. Some lenses are so fast (F1.8 and faster) that even small adjustments means you may miss-focus when shooting wide open.

The Pentax k-x has only a universal focus adjustment application. The Pentax k-5 (and the k-30) has a feature that allows it to adjust the focus for each lens.

Thanks Jin. I have a Kx so I guess I don't need to lose sleep about fine tuning my lenses to this camera. In fact, I am quite happy with the sharpness of the lenses I fit to my camera.

[Iksobarg]

I'm with P.Soo about the puzzlement part. I've had my kx for 10 months now. I've questioned and even posted some quality/sharpness issues.
How do I make this adjustment, step by step pls?

[kh1234567890]

I'm with P.Soo about the puzzlement part. I've had my kx for 10 months now. I've questioned and even posted some quality/sharpness issues.
How do I make this adjustment, step by step pls?

Remember that this adjustment only affects viewfinder focusing not live view. If you have sharpness problems with live view shooting then your problem is elsewhere.

Otherwise try this : AF microadjustment for the 1Ds mark III, 1D Mk3, 5D Mk2, 7D