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A home-made focusing target


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#1
Merco_61

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A nice focusing target to check for front- or backfocus is useful to have.

I made this one from balsa wood, some scrap aluminium tubing and foamcore posterboard.

The depth scale is mounted at roughly 45°

43487024391_fcabd654b7_o.jpgPES_2018-07-18_14-21-10_25mm_ by merco_61, on Flickr

 

 

The support for the scale is made from two pieced of 25X40mm balsa

28600594927_9de4752a75_o.jpgPES_2018-07-18_14-21-27_25mm_ by merco_61, on Flickr

 

 

The mounting post is glued into another piece of the same dimension balsa using cyanoacrylate adheshive. All other joints are made with aliphatic resin.

28600592957_e7da541b3a_o.jpgPES_2018-07-18_14-21-47_25mm_ by merco_61, on Flickr

 

 

Here are two shots that show how things are glued on the poster board.

28600591287_4e94e3c36a_o.jpgPES_2018-07-18_14-22-19_25mm_ by merco_61, on Flickr

 

28600590727_8f1ed0cbec_o.jpgPES_2018-07-18_14-22-46_19mm_ by merco_61, on Flickr

 

 

This shows how the target is mounted to an umbrella head on a light stand.

28600590087_558e40746a_o.jpgPES_2018-07-18_14-24-25_42mm_ by merco_61, on Flickr

 

And finally a shot that shows it more or less ready to use.

28600588217_21e1a4337b_o.jpgPES_2018-07-18_14-24-54_34mm_ by merco_61, on Flickr

 

The target is an ordinary A3 printout of two black squares touching in one corner at the centre of the page. The scale has some text in 11 pt Verdana set to 60% grey.

It is possible to use some other type of focusing target if needed but this one was fast and easy to print out and worked well for the 150-600 that was my immediate need.


  • nbanjogal , TBonz , Jerry_ and 6 others like this

#2
nbanjogal

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Thanks for sharing how you made this--I've been curious since you posted about it in your new toy thread.


  • Merco_61 likes this

#3
Merco_61

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It is useful even if you use Nikon lenses and only have one point for adjustment unlike the new Tamrons and Sigmas with their user-tweakable focusing curves. If you have a portrait lens that isn't spot-on or that you are unsure of, just finetune it at a typical portrait distance. Even if it is slightly off at other distances, nailing the focus at your most used distance is wonderful.


  • Tony likes this