Hello all, a question if I may

[Steve Beck]

I just received last week my Lens Align Pro from B&H. I was attempting to align my 200-400 lens. Going by some of the suggestions here I was trying to adjust it 60ft away. Well at 60ft at 400mm at F4 there doesnt seem to be much to view. What i mean is that seems awful far away and not really in tight enough to make accurate adjustments? Maybe it is the angle at which the ruler is placed? I watched the Luminous Landscape review he said he always uses angle 4 if memory serves me (I am at work right now). I think i tried 4 maybe 3 as well, bit it was last week and i spend 720hours in the hot sun shooting a motorcycle race this weekend and I still feel fried.


Any thoughts or ideas?

Thanks
Steve

[MichaelT]

Hi Steve,

Yes at 60 feet you have got about a foot and a half of DOF. Not easy to set at that distance. I use the 25xFL rule and some common sense. If you calculate 25xFL it is about 8 feet per 100mm of focal length. That would be about 30 feet for the 400mm lens (4[00] x 8 feet = 32 feet). Then you have about 5 inches of DOF plus a much larger image.

Use this as a guideline, and then apply some common sense. If you use a specific lens to normally shoot closer than the 25x guide then of course test with LensAlign at the closer distance. If you normally shoot longer, than the 25x guideline then try to test longer if you can.

For long distances like 60 feet you might want to get the optional Long Ruler Kit that we will announce later this month. it is 4 (four!) feet long so that you can test at long distances. Also the focus target is about twice as large. It will be available for any existing Pro LensAlign. More details soon, and should be shipping around the end of the month. I will be getting the final production samples in a day or 2 and I will post some pictures here using the 200-400mm as an example. OK?

Hope this helps and we apologize for the lack of better documentation....also coming very soon (no charge for that, of course <g>)

Thanks for your patience and support.

BTW... Ruler position 3 and 4 are what I use. Just use the one that works the best for you. Since the higher number ruler angles compress the displayed DOF, they are best for any tests when the DOF id large already.