Hey everyone Adam here at Digital Goja, today is part two of how to use the
Sigma USB duck to get the most out of your Sigma global vision series lines
stay tuned!
Now if you purchase a Sigma lens from Digital Goja you may have
noticed that it came with a sigma USB dock along with your lens bundle, now the
Sigma USB Dock works in combination with the Sigma optimization Pro software
allowing you to connect your Sigma global vision series lens
to your personal computer to update its firmware fine-tune the AF and adjust
some of the customizations of the lens so if you haven't seen our first video
on how to update the lens firmware using the Sigma USB dock I highly recommend
checking that one out first before moving on to any more advanced
customizations I'll make sure to have the links for that video in the
description box below. You might be wondering why you need to calibrate your
brand new Sigma lens to your camera? Now Sigma has extremely high tolerances in
the manufacturing process in fact each lens is tested and calibrated using high
precision machinery and computers but they are not tested to the camera that
the lens will be mounted to specifically your camera so this is why the Sigma USB
dock is such an important and useful tool this will make sure that the
autofocus is working at its best to your specific camera body. In this video we're
going to show you how to calibrate the autofocus of your Sigma global vision
lens to your camera body specifically the 18 to 35 millimeter f1.8
art to the Canon EOS 80D keep in mind that all these steps are very
similar for the Nikon mount Sigma lenses as well and let me emphasize that it's
really important to do this process using wide aperture lenses like f 1.4 or
1.8 where the depth of field is very shallow and the point of focus is
extremely critical. All right so let's head over to the studio so I can show
you how easy it is to calibrate the autofocus of your lens so in order to
start the process you're going to first need your Sigma USB
dock your Sigma Global Vision Series lines and if you haven't done so already
you're gonna need to download the Sigma optimization Pro software it's available
for both PC and Mac I also have a USB card reader this will allow me to
transfer the images over to my computer so I can make a better evaluation of the
image. Second of course you're going to need your camera but you're also going
to need a sturdy tripod this is gonna make sure it's gonna take any camera
shake out of the equation when taking the photographs third you're going to
need your focusing chart this is available for purchase online and we'll
drop the links in the description box below this is what's going to help you
evaluate whether or not your lens is front or back focusing and you need to
make sure that it's placed on a level surface and the last thing you're going
to need patience this process does take some time to do but the results are well
worth it. Choose a working space with strong even
lighting and place the lens calibration tool on a steady level surface attach a
camera to the tripod and set it so that the height of the camera is the same as
the focusing turret also make sure that the camera is level Sigma offers 16
categories of customization for zoom lenses four options for focal length and
four options for shooting distance what I like to do is keep my computer close
to my setup so that I can see each category as I'm setting the camera and
lens. For the 18 to 35 F 1.8 art I'll be taking my test photos at 0.28 meters at
point three five meters at point five meters and at affinity
now use your ruler or measuring tape and set your focusing distance as accurate
as you can from the sensor point of the camera shoot each focal distance
separately at the focusing distances recommended by the software notice that
your lens has a focusing window and it will indicate these distances for you if
you're using a zoom lens like we are using here the Sigma 18 to 35 millimeter
F1.8 you will have to take the photo at different focal lengths and
adjust each one accordingly so I recommend following the software
and shooting at 18 millimeters 24 millimetres
30 millimeters and at 35 millimeters before you start taking photos there are
a few things to keep in mind you want to make sure you're shooting and focusing
through the viewfinder and not through live view since Live View uses a
different focusing system look through your optical viewfinder and use only the
center focusing point use the lowest ISO you can for the lighting conditions
you're shooting in this way you will get the clearest image possible to evaluate
also choose the widest opening that your lens has to offer
if you're using a lens that has an aperture of f-18 make sure to set it to
F 1.8 now this will vary depending on the lens you are using once you take the
photo I recommend that you view it on a computer screen instead of on the
camera's LCD monitor to determine where the lens is focusing just zoom in on the
ruler to check if the lens is front or back focusing it should be exactly on
zero if you notice that the focus is not correctly on the zero or as close as
possible that means you'll have to do some adjustments using the Sigma
optimization Pro software you'll have to disconnect the lens from the camera and
connect it to the USB dock this calibration process corrects for lens
issues like front or back focus meaning that the camera and the lens is focusing
either in front or in back of the focus plane and for our purposes today the
focus plan will be the zero on our test chart as I mentioned earlier the Sigma
optimization Pro software allows you to make changes at four different focusing
distances at four different focal lengths allowing you to make adjustments
to minus 20 to plus 20 on each adjustment
so once you've looked at your test photo if you're noticing that it's focusing in
front of the zero you're gonna make your adjustment to the positive end of the
scale and if it's focusing behind the zero you're gonna make your adjustment
to the negative side of the scale what I would recommend is starting out at plus
or minus ten and working your way to the focus point okay so go ahead and make
your adjustments you're going to want to make sure to
the rewriting button so it saves the information from the optimization pro
software to your lens now you're ready to remove the lens from the dock and
reattach it to your camera where you can go ahead and reshoot the focusing chart
and if you need to repeat these steps you can go ahead and do that until the
focus is at the zero once you get it to where you like it make sure to take
several images so you can get a consistent result with the settings that
you've made. As you can see it does take some time and effort to perform the
autofocus calibration using the Sigma USB dock but in my opinion it is well
worth all the time needed this gives you the confidence that you can rely on the
autofocus system to get the shot that you want so I hope this video helped you
out and guided you through the process of calibrating your Sigma global vision
lens with the Sigma USB dock remember if you've changed anything that you're not
sure of you can always reset the lens back to factory defaults using the Sigma
optimization Pro software. So if you have any questions or feedback make sure to
leave them in the comment section below if this video helped you out hit us up
with a like button and subscribe to our channel for the latest on new gear
unboxings first looks and much much more if you're in the Miami area stop by say
hello at the Digital Goja Showroom Adam here keep on shooting I'll catch you in
the next video folks