Datacolor User to User Support Group.

--- In datacolor_group@yahoogroups.com, Vampire D <vampired@...> wrote:

> I would like to check it out and see how it works compared to LensAlign.

I wrote up a review a while ago

http://www.northlight-images.co.uk/reviews/photography/spyderlenscal.html

It works just fine - it doesn't need to be any more complex

My thoughts after testing it are that the sense of heightened accuracy and precision required after looking at all the LensAlign sales pitches is almost entirely spurious.

The oft quoted requirement for absolute parallelism is much overrated and you can set up the SpyderlensCal perfectly well by eye.

I'm sure that many people who've tried to set AF microadjustment have been slightly disappointed by the lack of apparent precision they've encountered.

Add to this the rather vocal part of photography that thinks that better (read $$$) equipment will be the answer to their perceived failings, and you have an ideal market to sell expensive and IMHO unnecessarily precise alignment equipment.

Having set up optical systems in the past, I know where extreme precision makes a difference, and lens AF microadjustment  really does not fall into the category that some might want to believe.

As someone from a technical background I just don't like seeing spurious engineering precision being used to market needlessly overcomplex and overpriced solutions to questionable problems.

Of course the real problem is that (IMHO) rather too many people have let themselves believe that there is a technical ($$$) fix to improving their photography when the real answer is learning more about their own drives/interests/motivations/vision - oops, sorry, that takes real effort :-) :-)

Anyway minor rant over - the SpyderLensCal works just fine ;-)

bye for now
Keith Cooper