PVR8 Loc: Raleigh, NC

Earlier this week I had my Tokina 11-16mm and Tamron 16-300mm lenses calibrated to my Nikon D7000 body. Today I was out with my photography club doing some shooting in the woods. I was using the Tamron 16-300mm lens and I also tried my Vivitar 100mm macro lens. My camera started acting strange and one of my buddies suggested that I take the batteries out to reset the camera. My question is, will I lose the lens calibration settings that are stored in the camera for each lens if I reset the camera this way?

MT Shooter Loc: Montana

No, they will be retained in your system.

PVR8 Loc: Raleigh, NC

Thanks Shooter!

CO

I have a D7000. It retains all of the settings. You can go into the Setup menu and then to AF fine tune. You can see the values that were entered when they did the calibration. You could write down the values that were entered in case something does happen. It's a range that goes from -20 to +20.

PVR8 Loc: Raleigh, NC

Thanks CO. I didn't think about going in and writing down the values. That's a great idea that I'm going to do today. Thanks again!

PVR8 Loc: Raleigh, NC

CO. I went into the AF fine tune and I saw both lenses noted but I could not see the values entered. It said list values and when I selected that it gave a box to assign a number to each lens. I did see a default value of -7 but that's all. I may have to take a drive over to my camera shop to see if I can get the calibration values.

CO

It should be showing the value for the lens that's currently on the camera in the saved value section. It shows the value in a box and there's a vertical scale there that has markings from -20 to +20. Here's a screen shot of that page from the owner's manual.

(Download)

PVR8 Loc: Raleigh, NC

CO, I see it and the saved value is 0. Under the saved value is default value which is -7. I see the saved value for the Tokina 11-16 is -20 and default value is still -7. I don't know why the Tamron 16-300's saved value is at 0. I'm going to call the camera shop that calibrated that lens to make sure that it should be at zero or I'll take it in for a recalibration. Thanks for sharing the info. I really appreciate it.

PVR8 Loc: Raleigh, NC

I think I know why the saved value for the Tamron lens is zero. I've discovered 3 photos of the calibration chart that was used for the Tamron lens. The tech left the photos in the camera and they show sharpness at 0 on the chart. Now I just have to find out why the default saved setting is -7.

CO

I've never quite understood the default value part of it. I've always done my own calibration using the DataColor SpyderLensCal and stored values in the Saved Value section. I like the SpyderLensCal because it has a scale that's tilted back at a 45 degree angle. You can see if the camera and lens combination is back focusing or front focusing. Here's a shot of a calibration I was doing with my Nikon 40mm macro.

(Download)

PVR8 Loc: Raleigh, NC

This pic looks exactly like the photos that the tech left in my camera after the calibration. It seemed that the 0 was in sharp focus and I suppose that's why the value was set to 0 for that lens. According to Nikon D7000 digital field guide, the default setting will be applied to any lens that's attached which doesn't already have a saved value. The field guide recommends that the default setting be set to 0. I'm not sure why my default setting has been set to -7. I'm going to the camera shop today for some clarification. I'll let you know what they say.

CO

It doesn't sound like a good idea to have a value in the default setting section. Say you get a lens in the future that's perfectly matched to your camera's calibration and basically doesn't need any AF fine tuning. The stored default value will throw it out of focus. It will be interesting what the people at the camera shop say about it.

PVR8 Loc: Raleigh, NC

The tech at the camera shop went into the camera's af fine tune menu and he said that the default was pretty much spot on but after trying out three different lenses he said that -8 would be just a tad bit better than the -7 that was already in the default setting. He also calibrated 2 additional lenses that I bought in and he said that the 0 value for the Tamron 16-300 was spot on. He told me that almost all of the new dslr camera bodies need to have lens calibrations done to just about any lens that will be used on that body. The default value doesn't affect the lenses that have been stored, but it will affect any lens that hasn't been stored. It seems that the newer dslr's are not set up with spot on auto focusing and that's why the default setting was included in the af fine tuning menu. I guess if you stick on a lens that doesn't do well with the default setting, you can turn the af fine tuning function off while using that particular lens. Anyway, he set my default to -8 and advised me to leave it there. BTW, if anyone reading this thread lives in the Raleigh/ Triangle area in NC, PEACE CAMERA in Raleigh is a great camera shop and the folks that work there are very knowledgeable, helpful, and friendly. It's a pleasure to do business there.